{"id":390280,"date":"2010-03-04T15:55:04","date_gmt":"2010-03-04T20:55:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.wsj.com\/economics\/2010\/03\/04\/mckinsey-dont-look-to-clean-tech-for-jobs\/"},"modified":"2010-03-04T15:55:04","modified_gmt":"2010-03-04T20:55:04","slug":"mckinsey-don%e2%80%99t-look-to-clean-tech-for-jobs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/390280","title":{"rendered":"McKinsey: Don\u2019t Look to Clean Tech for Jobs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pouring government stimulus funds into clean technology may be a great way to boost the economy\u0092s potential. But it isn’t the best way to create jobs, according to the consultants at McKinsey<\/strong> & Co.<\/p>\n

The McKinsey Global Institute<\/strong>, the firm\u0092s research arm, has produced a new tome<\/a> of advice for governments as they become more deeply involved in markets and the economy. One message: Policy makers can have a bigger immediate impact on jobs by focusing their efforts on service businesses — such as retail and telecoms — than by trying to boost manufacturing or innovative technologies.<\/p>\n

To offer a sense of how much difference an emerging sector such as clean tech can have on jobs, the authors look to the example of the highly successful semiconductor industry. In the U.S., they note, the semiconductor sector accounts for 0.3% of total nonfarm employment. That compares to 11.3% for retail trade. Even India\u0092s dynamic software industry accounts for only 0.1% of that country\u0092s employment.<\/p>\n

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\u0093While many policy makers see innovative technologies as the answer to the challenge of job creation, our analysis indicates that governments are likely to be disappointed in such hopes,\u0094 the authors write.<\/p>\n

Governments can get more bang for their buck, the authors say, by finding ways to promote growth in service sectors, which have generated more than 100% of net job growth in wealthy countries over the past couple decades (goods-producing sectors lost jobs). In telecommunications, they recommend policies to increase the availability of broadband. In retail, they note that employment tends to be greater in countries that have low minimum wages and allow part-time employment.<\/p>\n

But won\u0092t such policies lead to a proliferation of \u0093McJobs\u0094 that offer low wages and little security? James Manyika<\/strong>, one of the report\u0092s authors and San Francisco-based director at the institute, says that isn’t true of all service sector jobs. Beyond that, he says, the advice on the labor market wasn\u0092t aimed at countries such as the U.S. that already have flexible labor laws.<\/p>\n

Policy makers looking for a simple prescription to boost growth and competitiveness across an entire economy will be disappointed. Each sector requires its own approach, says Mr. Manyika. A country\u0092s success, he says, depends much less on what it does than on how well it does it: \u0093All too often policy makers think \u0091Do we have the right mix of industries?\u0092 and don\u0092t think \u0091Are those industries globally competitive?\u0092\u0094<\/p>\n

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Pouring government stimulus funds into clean technology may be a great way to boost the economy\u0092s potential. But it isn’t the best way to create jobs, according to the consultants at McKinsey & Co. The McKinsey Global Institute, the firm\u0092s research arm, has produced a new tome of advice for governments as they become more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":850,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-390280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/850"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390280\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}