>> Perhaps this is a definitional thing. To me, job killing means that the number of jobs is reduced. A part-time job may be less valuable than a full-time job but a job is still a job. It's the difference between being unemployed and employed. Actually, more part-time jobs can mean more jobs because, if the workload is constant, it would take maybe four workers to do the work of three full-timers.
It is really both cases.
- Trying get beneath the threshold for "part time" has generated a lot of new jobs as you have suggested. In many cases, people are having to work multiple jobs to have the same income they had before, and I think this is reflected in the employment data.
- But it also kills jobs, in that the cost of hiring has gone up. If the cost of hiring goes up, the marginal cost of producing an item goes up, which means fewer items will be produced unless selling price can go up by some multiple. As yet, I don't think employers are increasing prices as a single entity can't increase prices in the market place, it being a competitive environment.
Over time, I think prices will go up to cover these costs; however, that just means the value of a dollar is less, so we really will not have gained anything. And the poor will suffer disproportionately as the goods they buy at Walmart become more expensive.
That free lunch is elusive. |
