[lbo-talk] Small business job creation nonsense

[Wojtek S]

A report by the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis studied job growth
between 1992 and 2010. It notes that gross job gains were 2.8 million
per quarter. That's very impressive. But if you take into count the
number of small businesses that failed, that number is dramatically
lower: just 173,000. That's not so impressive, and suggests the
breathtaking churn experienced by small business owners.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/07/20127111334378176.html

[WS:] There is another problem with the small business job creation
trope, related to the 10 percent of business that have more than 20
employees and less than 500.  If a firm with, say, 450 workers hires
100 additional workers, it is said that 'small business created 100
jobs' because that firm falls below the 500 people cutoff.  But if the
same firm sacks these 100 people next year, it is said that "large
business lost 100 jobs', because that firm is now above the 500 people
cutoff.

In any case, small business jobs suck, American infatuation with them
notwithstanding.  They pay low wages, and offer no benefits  or
promotion opportunities.
-- 
Wojtek

"An anarchist is a neoliberal without money."