This post concluded that Wal-Mart’s growth did not displace work in other sectors of the economy based upon Andrew Cassel’s article. During that time the state suffered a loss 100,000 manufacturing jobs due to other reasons. That led me to ask a new question.
“…if Wal-Mart hasn’t filled those jobs – what has?”
Bill says it’s technology. My gut tells me he’s right.
Not directly atleast 🙂 Here goes the Inquirer article.
“Did Wal-Mart displace other jobs?”
Nope, not in number of retailing jobs, and it had no effect on other employment sectors either. That’s important.
Although Wal-Mart grew like topsy in Pennsylvania in the 1990s, that has essentially nothing to do with the disappearance of manufacturing jobs.
The numbers prove it: In 1990 – before Wal-Mart had a presence in Pennsylvania – retailing accounted for 17.5 percent of the state’s nonagricultural jobs.
At the end of 2001, with more than 110 Wal-Mart stores scattered across the state, retail’s proportion of the state’s workforce was 17.6 percent – essentially unchanged.
“If so, were they low paying or high paying?”
This is unanswered. The quality of the new retailing positions vs. the old seems to be up for debate. Dave King was nice enough to post a link on a class action lawsuit filed on behalf of Wal-Mart employees against the company on it’s employment practices.
“If not, did Wal-Mart simply fill a gap?”
No as well. Wal-Mart jobs have not filled the void left as manufacturing jobs have left the area.
And what the statistics suggest is that we have two separate stories here.
One is about the evolution of Pennsylvania’s economy away from its old dependence on heavy manufacturing toward something that looks more like the rest of America.
The second is about the evolution of retailing, with large, well-financed discount chains taking market share from old-line department stores.
What’s the connection between the two? There isn’t one, unless you include the march of technology, which underlies every economic story of our time.
While it is true, in other words, that Pennsylvania has lost a lot of manufacturing jobs – around 100,000 during the 1990s – it’s a huge leap to conclude that those jobs have been replaced by jobs at Wal-Mart and other retailers.
New question – if Wal-Mart hasn’t filled those jobs – what has?
According to this site the Philadelphia Inquirer is biased to the Right. One of the site’s maintainers is a professor at Wharton. Does it have a point? (please read my disclaimers in the sidebar.)
Twelve years of explosive growth in Pennsylvania have made Wal-Mart Stores Inc., with 114 discount outlets, the largest private employer in the state.
…”I don’t go on a crusade about saving the mom-and-pop stores,” said Floyd Warner, president of the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry in Harrisburg. “They weren’t always open. Their prices were higher. They have to learn how to survive.”
…Wal-Mart’s growth in the 1990s came as Scott Paper, USX Corp., Bell Atlantic, Westinghouse, Bethlehem Steel Corp., Conrail, and other traditional Pennsylvania companies laid off thousands of workers and severely curtailed their operations. They were replaced by smaller manufacturers, food processors, service companies and technology firms.
Read the rest in this eye opening Philadelphia Inquirer article. Ah the wonders of the “new economy”.
The hard questions not answered… Did Wal-Mart displace other jobs? If so, were they low paying or high paying? If not, did Wal-Mart simply fill a gap?
“History” here usually refers to Ben Franklin and the Liberty Bell, but in recent weeks, two artifacts of the 1970s have resurfaced. Ira Einhorn, the iconoclast who was on the run for 16 years, is finally on trial for the murder of his ’70s girlfriend. Across town, the strident antigovernment group MOVE has thrown up new barricades in a fresh dispute with the criminal justice system. The combination has sent Philadelphians into a wistful, sometimes painful, spate of memory in a place often struggling to break free of its past.
Read the rest in the CSMonitor.
Stu Bykofsky echos my thoughts – Ed is in trouble because the polls are too good. Sounds crazy – but that’s Philly for ya – Please vote!
The Daily News hails the new Phila.gov website.
$20 million dollars. That’s what been spent, in your money, to develop Eight and Market St. What has it bought? A big hole in the ground. Hank Thomas, director the of the Park at 8th and Market Organization, has a way to end the madness.
From Fortune, Gen-X’s worst fears are finally becoming true.
From the Miami New Times, How Poor Is Poor? According to the 2000 USCensus, Miami is now the poorest big city in America. Philadelphia comes in at number nine. I wonder what the change has been?
From BusinessWeek is a report on Global Poverty.
From the NYTimes, a much more personal perspective, In Trenches of a War on Unyielding Poverty.
From me comes the ever strengthening realization I build software that leads to people loosing jobs. I know it doesn’t need to be that way.
No offense to PA Democrats, especially those in Philly, but…
You’re bums! Whether in Philly, or in the rest of the state, Democratic voting rates are below Republican. And when news like this gets out, too many will think it’s an open and shut case, and not vote. Not thinking they count.
Vote!
Courtesy of the Philadelphia Inquirer, a fun and informative tool.
Every city, every region, has its defining moments. You read about them in the history books, when hindsight’s long lens trains on choices made or squandered. Sometimes you can feel such moments at hand, as the wind shifts and catches an opportunity before it blows away.
…Philadelphia is experiencing one of those moments, with the news last week that the Barnes Foundation was seeking to move its exquisite art collection from Lower Merion to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. This move could seal the region’s place as a mecca for the arts and a cultural destination to rival New York and Paris.
Or it could be one of those moments we’ll remember with a wince, like a touchdown pass slipping through the fingers, a downtown stadium never built, a city park renovated on the cheap.
Read the rest of Jane Eisner’s piece in the Inquirer: Barnes move would test city’s character.
