The Obama administration announced its upcoming summit on jobs yesterday. The economic crisis has eliminated seven million jobs in the U.S. and 400,000 in Canada. ”This is the only recession since the Great Depression to wipe out all job growth from the previous business cycle,” writes Mort Zuckerman, editor-in-chief of U.S. News and World Report, in an op-ed ominously titled: “The Free Market Is Not Up to the Job of Creating Work.”
An enormous potential source of jobs is right in front of our noses – the service sector. Service jobs employ 56 million people, 45 percent of workforce in the United States and seven million workers, 46 percent of Canada’s workforce. Millions more will be added as we move from crisis to recovery.
However, low-paying service class jobs seem to be a poor substitute for the long-run, stable, high-wage jobs that are being lost in manufacturing. But service jobs offer lots of potential for innovation, entrepreneurship, and the upgrading of employment opportunities. The Strength in Services Summit will explore what is and can be done to transform service jobs into more innovative, higher-paying, and better work. Click here for more. And contribute to the ongoing dialogue on this critical issue.
November 13th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
Improving “service” jobs seems to be a Utopian pipedream, because if I understand it correctly, you are talking about low-skill service jobs: janitors, grass cutters, etc. Adding innovation and creativity into that sector, while certainly laudable, would come at a tremendous cost. It is simple economics, if you increase the cost of labor, you will get less of it. So aside from turning the service sector into a large governmental employment department, practically speaking, how would this work?
November 13th, 2009 at 7:02 pm
Yes, this does seem to be a Catch-22 situation. We can increase the value of service jobs by making the “servants” more efficient, more productive, better qualified. Each of these “servants” could be paid twice as much, and also do the work of two of our present “servants”. Ouch! That would make unemployment even worse ….
November 13th, 2009 at 7:05 pm
A subsequent thought: research indicates that the Roman Empire did not pursue mechanization because then they would have millions of slaves with nothing to do. Is this where we are now?
November 14th, 2009 at 8:54 am
I disagree with the other comments and agree with Richard. There are many opportunities for entrepreneurship in service fields and the opportunity to deliver new services like personal-shoppers for example or event-planners in myriad creative ways. There’s an opportunity for greater art in the field of hairdressing for example, or master-playlisting. In short, there’s more opportunity to deliver not just the service that is not only utilitarian but downright artistic. The market will pay for these services, particularly as the economy continues to recover.
November 16th, 2009 at 8:39 am
The idea that “The Free Market” is not up to creating jobs is ludicrous. It always has, what’s different now?
Well, what’s different now is socialism in America. But that’s hardly a problem with “The Free Market”, is it?
Sadly, instead of addressing entitlement spending, which is quickly bankrupting the country, the powers that be are busy expanding entitlements and bankrupting the country at an ever faster pace.
But a round of “shock therapy” and severe fiscal austerity would kick start “The Free Market”, generating jobs sometime thereafter, not unlike the boom in jobs after the brief but brutal ‘83 recession.
November 17th, 2009 at 9:53 am
Buzzcut: as I read it, this project is trying to envision a free-market solution rather than encourage government intervention.
And those who think increasing service worker productivity is impossible or will increase unemployment need to go back and read some economic history! The numbers are clear – increasing productivity leads to long-term growth.
November 17th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
In order to take advantage of creative service jobs, wouldn’t people have to have extra income? Is this the problem now? People are cutting back on lawn service, hair dressers, vacations, patronizing the arts.
November 18th, 2009 at 10:43 am
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