Job Creation: Misnomer?

We hear so much about who can create jobs better, if at all. But remember what a job actually is: it is fundamentally a response to demand.

Company X has 10 employees who help provide a service or a product. The service or product is better or more affordable, so their sales are increasing steadily. A time will come when a given level of personalized customer service (whatever that may be) begins to suffer because a growing group of people want Company X's service or product. The employees are stretched too thin, and Company X's image might begin to erode because the new customers aren't enjoying their buying experience as much. This is one time where Company X will consider bringing on more staff.

Sales could also increase enough that some additional administrative help is needed, maybe in the form of a full-time accountant, an HR person, whatever. Perhaps a successful salesperson is promoted to a management role, opening a slot for a new salesperson to replace them.

In all cases, hiring decisions are made in response to an immediate need or a perceived need. Seasonal employees may be brought on and trained a week or more before the actual rush begins. At the end of the rush, they are let go because the demand has returned to its normal off-season level.

Here are a few more examples, all of which have something critical in common:

A company who is forecasting a spike in sales after a large R&D project is completed... A firm who is preparing to open into new territories with a large marketing campaign... A company who is awarded a new service contract will prepare for it by bringing on the required personnel such that they can fulfill their obligations... A medical manufacturer has just received approval for their new device or drug will go on a hiring spree... A trade show logistics company will hire when their contracts for the next twelve months show that their 200 employees cannot reasonably complete 210 employees' worth of work.

But you know who won't hire a new employee? A company who doesn't have additional work, or perceived additional work, for them to do. What would be the point? Demand is the number one job creator, and it is demand which can only be artificially inflated by governments in times of economic distressing order to improve infrastructure, develop new sources or delivery mechanisms for energy, improve general quality of life for the citizenry, enhance educational opportunities, etc.

Keynes works because it is based in reality. Trickle down can piss off for the ineffective, cowardly looting that it really is.