Jonathon Trugman

Jonathon Trugman

Business

Move away from Washington if you want to get a job

It seems the farther you get from Washington — whether it’s distance or out from under its thumb — the better the job market.

With October’s number coming in at a robust 271,000, with improvement in the professional services sector, it’s the quality, not quantity, of the jobs added.

Take a look at Silicon Valley, three time zones away and no dedicated regulator. It is increasing jobs along the lines of Moore’s Law — doubling every 18 months.

One of the many benefits of growing companies and economies is that they generally are growing the workforce too. Facebook is no exception.

The social network company last week posted 41 percent revenue growth vs. the same period last year. In this economy, Facebook has grown to 12,000 employees, adding 1,000 staff just in the past quarter — and these are well-paying positions, with stock options and benefits.

Google is growing, too. The company, now called Alphabet, increased its revenue 13 percent year over year and also grew its head count by 16 percent, adding almost 10,000 jobs, for a total of 60,000. And, again, these are the very best jobs.

Amazon’s latest revenue growth is 23 percent year over year. And it, too, has been on a hiring spree, adding 39,000 jobs in the past quarter alone, for a total workforce of 222,400.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, take the heavily regulated drug company Merck. Revenue didn’t grow at all; in fact, it contracted 3.8 percent in the third quarter from the same period in 2014.

Merck’s sales fell from $10.5 billion to $10.1 billion, and while its profit rose due to cost cutting, head count fell. Merck intends to complete its 40,000 layoffs on schedule in 2016.

Or take the large NYC employer JPMorgan. Earnings rose 22.3 percent from the year-ago period, though revenue was down 6.4 percent. Yet those regulatory burdens that seem to squash growth hit JPM’s head count, as the bank reduced staffing by almost 6,700 from a year ago, to 235,680.

So when we look over last month’s jobs report with 5 percent unemployment, let’s remember how much of an impact Washington has on the quantity and the quality of jobs.