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This article doesn't actually seem to provide any evidence to support its claim - the actual factoid at the heart of the article is that Total Factor Productivi

by rattray 11y ago

This article doesn't actually seem to provide any evidence to support its claim - the actual factoid at the heart of the article is that Total Factor Productivity (TFP) has fallen since the 90's, which is irrelevant. The only pieces of evidence supporting the "No Jobs Growth" claim are Facebook's employee count from _2013_ (which has since grown by almost 50% to 12000 [0]), and the claim that "in 2010, only 0.5% of the US labour force is employed in industries that did not exist in 2000", which has nothing to do with "Silicon Valley" since the industry existed in 2000, too. Remarkably low-quality reporting. [0] - http://newsroom.fb.com/company-info/ http://newsroom.fb.com/company-info/

electic 11y ago
You make a valid point. I would also to add that most tech companies that are consumer facing also tend to create a "halo effect" and drive additional job growth in parallel markets. For example, take Ad Tech. The number of jobs that have been created in the advertising sector as a result of tech is large: http://chiefmartec.com/2013/05/the-very-cool-marketing-technology-lumascape/ http://chiefmartec.com/2013/05/the-very-cool-marketing-techn...
rwmj 11y ago
What do 12000 people do at Facebook? Edit: (Apart from sitting around and downvoting me). Does it really take 12000 people to run a site where people write about what they're doing, and upload some photos and videos? Instagram had 13 employees when they were acquired by Facebook.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- diziet 11y ago
  To get a sense of what kind of work is done at facebook, please visit their careers page: https://www.facebook.com/careers/teams/ https://www.facebook.com/careers/teams/
- pconner 11y ago
  A huge amount of infrastructure is needed for Facebook's scale. People have to create, manage, and maintain that infrastructure. And that's ignoring the multitude of complex user-facing products Facebook has (the number of which has grown significantly over the last few years).
- artifaxx 11y ago
  I don't think people should have downvoted you for this, it is a reasonable question to ask! Consider that their core application's user facing functionality is not the most complex in the world, but they deploy it for over 1.5 billion people. There are numerous complications and logistics involved with doing that. Think of it this way, how many organizations can reach billions of people with just 12,000? We already take for granted that technology can do incredible things like this that haven't been possible in the past. One other thing is that facebook has contributed to some awesome open source projects and their technology blog has some interesting insights on this https://code.facebook.com/posts/ https://code.facebook.com/posts/
specialist 11y ago
I thought this was common knowledge. (But I admit I don't understand the OP's rationale.) How Job Destroyers and Coffee Drinkers Rule The World L2 Inc., May 14, 2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0D62IX-Vd9g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0D62IX-Vd9g "Another big loser: the American worker. While tech companies try to maintain their status as job creators, the facts show another story. For example, it takes six people at Facebook, eight people at Google, and 60 to 70 people at an ad agency like Publicis to generate $10 million in revenue."

by rattray 11y ago

electic 11y ago

You make a valid point. I would also to add that most tech companies that are consumer facing also tend to create a "halo effect" and drive additional job growth in parallel markets. For example, take Ad Tech. The number of jobs that have been created in the advertising sector as a result of tech is large: http://chiefmartec.com/2013/05/the-very-cool-marketing-technology-lumascape/ http://chiefmartec.com/2013/05/the-very-cool-marketing-techn...

rwmj 11y ago

What do 12000 people do at Facebook? Edit: (Apart from sitting around and downvoting me). Does it really take 12000 people to run a site where people write about what they're doing, and upload some photos and videos? Instagram had 13 employees when they were acquired by Facebook.

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
diziet 11y ago
To get a sense of what kind of work is done at facebook, please visit their careers page: https://www.facebook.com/careers/teams/ https://www.facebook.com/careers/teams/
pconner 11y ago
A huge amount of infrastructure is needed for Facebook's scale. People have to create, manage, and maintain that infrastructure. And that's ignoring the multitude of complex user-facing products Facebook has (the number of which has grown significantly over the last few years).
artifaxx 11y ago
I don't think people should have downvoted you for this, it is a reasonable question to ask! Consider that their core application's user facing functionality is not the most complex in the world, but they deploy it for over 1.5 billion people. There are numerous complications and logistics involved with doing that. Think of it this way, how many organizations can reach billions of people with just 12,000? We already take for granted that technology can do incredible things like this that haven't been possible in the past. One other thing is that facebook has contributed to some awesome open source projects and their technology blog has some interesting insights on this https://code.facebook.com/posts/ https://code.facebook.com/posts/

specialist 11y ago

I thought this was common knowledge. (But I admit I don't understand the OP's rationale.) How Job Destroyers and Coffee Drinkers Rule The World L2 Inc., May 14, 2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0D62IX-Vd9g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0D62IX-Vd9g "Another big loser: the American worker. While tech companies try to maintain their status as job creators, the facts show another story. For example, it takes six people at Facebook, eight people at Google, and 60 to 70 people at an ad agency like Publicis to generate $10 million in revenue."