Like are all the jobs government jobs?
In: Economics
Jobs are created when someone needs someone else to do something badly enough to pay for it. Governments control a lot of variables that affect employment.
For instance, maybe I want to construct an office campus but current environmental laws just don’t make it attractive. Maybe the permits are too expensive, the land is zoned for a different purpose or I’d just have to pay too much environmental compensation.
The government could decide to soften some environmental laws to encourage construction projects. Suddenly it becomes interesting to build this and I need a bunch of construction workers for the next 8 years. I along with a whole bunch of construction projects need a lot more workers.
Perhaps governments want to do more for disabled people in the labor market. So they create tax benefits or subsidies for companies willing to employ the disabled. If designed and implemented well, this initiative should create more jobs for the disabled.
Jobs often greatly depend on whether it is profitable or not to hire more people to do more work. Governments have a great deal of influence on whether or not something is profitable. Governments also have to balance commerce and jobs against things like the environment and other civic interests.
Right now, my country is placing quotas on carbon and nitrogen outputs for construction projects for instance. And many construction companies would like to build more but simply don’t have the environmental budget to do so. Those are potential jobs that aren’t materializing but in this case, the government is prioritizing our environmental goals over these construction projects.
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