How Chicago Will Further Hurt its Job Market

Many jobs which can be moved, will

Ask the average person their opinion of Chicago today and it will likely be murder capital of the world (technically it is far from it but the murder rate is up a whopping 72% this year). Just a decade ago it was known for pizza – which by the way is quite delicious. The good people of Chicago already have an unemployment rate 20% higher than the national average at 6.5% vs. 5.4% but things are slated to get worse.

The city is about to pass an employee paid sick leave law – which sounds amazing and likely will be for the workers who still have jobs. Without getting into all the specifics, the more you work, the more sick leave time you will accrue.

Of course this sounds compassionate and pro-worker but here is a simple question no one in the Chicago government will answer (or get asked?). “In the face of ever-increasing costs such as this new law, what prevents employers from hiring workers outside the city or country for that matter?”

We have IP communications which allows us to communicate with workers anywhere on the globe essentially for free and PayPal allows us to pay people anywherr. Employers will just continue to use these tools to bypass hiring in the city.

For jobs which can’t be outsourced easily such as making hamburgers or security guard, the ROI for robots which can make burgers and act as a security guard just got better.

None of these issues are new – IP communications allowed literally tens of millions of call center jobs to move to India and the Philippines. Sites like Upwork and Alibaba crate jobs by the millions away from the US and other developed countries.

This is why you read articles about how the blue model is doomed – progressive politics which continue to add costs to workers will result in jobs migrating easily to areas that are more competitive.

I wish entry-level workers in Chicago a lot of luck. The government will soon pass a law which sounds like it is there to help you but for those of you who lose jobs as a result, you at least know in advance what is about to happen and can act accordingly.

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