Where the jobs are, and aren't
The graphics wizards at The Washington Post have developed a cool tool that breaks down job losses — and gains — since December 2006 by sector. If you play around with the graphic a bit, a few interesting things emerge. For instance: Government jobs have done okay but not nearly as well as jobs in the government-supported health and education sectors. Those have been, by far, the safest jobs over the past three years.
The least safe sector? Construction, which lost an incredible 2.2 million jobs over the period. That’s just one more reason this is a good time to do infrastructure spending: There’s lots of idle labor, low borrowing costs and low material costs. Infrastructure spending would be both a good deal — these are investments we’ll have to make sooner or later, and they’re particularly cheap to make now — and targeted to help the sector that’s suffered most during the recession.
The Post Most: BusinessMost-viewed stories, videos and galleries int he past two hours
Blog Contributors
Ezra Klein
Ezra Klein is the editor of Wonkblog and a columnist at the Washington Post, as well as a contributor to MSNBC and Bloomberg. His work focuses on domestic and economic policymaking, as well as the political system that’s constantly screwing it up. He really likes graphs, and is on Twitter, Google+ and Facebook. E-mail him here.
Suzy Khimm
Suzy Khimm covers the budget, economic policy, and financial regulatory reform. Before coming to Washington, she was based in Brazil and Southeast Asia, where she wrote for the Economist, Slate, and the Wall Street Journal Asia. Follow her on Twitter here, and email her here.
Sarah Kliff
Sarah Kliff covers health policy, focusing on Medicare, Medicaid and the health reform law. She tries to fit in some reproductive health and education policy coverage, too, alongside an occasional hockey reference. Her work has appeared in Newsweek, Politico, and the BBC. She is on Twitter and Facebook.
Brad Plumer
Brad Plumer is a reporter focusing on energy and environmental issues. He was previously an associate editor at The New Republic. Follow him on Twitter. Email him here.
