Let's get real about jobs

Chief Executive, The, Oct, 2004

ALRIGHT, WE'VE HAD ENOUGH. If you pay attention to the political debate, you'd think that presidential candidates and governors create jobs while CEOs destroy them. The myth that "politicians create jobs" is getting repeated so often that it has become a reality in the minds of many Americans. The media deserves part of the blame: Every time an unemployment rate or jobless claim figure comes out, it's given a political spin.

So clip this out and send it to your congressman or woman and maybe a few newspaper editors, too: We CEOs and our businesses create jobs. (See CEO Confidence Index, page 16.) We create jobs when our companies are growing. Out-sourcing isn't the major factor in our decision-making. So phooey to Lou Dobbs.

Even government jobs ride on the back of the private sector because they rely on tax dollars. It just may be time for politicians and media honchos to start remembering what they learned in their first-year economics class.