Kansas GOP Insider (wannabe): Not Losing Sleep

Monday, June 20, 2016

Not Losing Sleep

I know we're supposed to be desperately disappointed and discouraged by news that Kansas fell to 49th in the nation in construction jobs.

Do I want more jobs? Of course! But this report in the Topeka Capitol-Journal suggests that the Sunflower State has fewer jobs because the Kansas Department of Transportation received funding cuts. Oh pardon me, while I don't cry one single weepy liberal tear. 

This story was designed specifically as an attempt to share bad news, because Kansas' employment picture is looking pretty stellar at the moment. I don't know how anyone can drive around Johnson County and believe for one second that the state isn't funding highways well enough. My entire commute is one giant obstacle course through orange barrels and cones. And it's that way ALL OVER the suburbs. Exits closed or under construction on Interstate 35 in Johnson County due to road work: 151st Street, Sante Fe/135th Street, Interstate 435, 95th Street, Johnson Drive. There are probably more. I just don't get that far north all that often. 

I'd also like to note that the last time I paid careful attention to a major construction project in Kansas--it was large enough to include the construction of interchanges as well as large industrial buildings--I couldn't help but notice that most of the work trucks had tags from other states, and not necessarily Missouri. I don't actually know why that is, and obviously, that's anecdotal. So make of it what you will.

Kansas' unemployment is at an all-time low, 3.7 percent. And for what it's worth, Kansas officials are in no position to juggle those numbers to make themselves look good. That unemployment rate comes courtesy the feds. 

And you guys, if you saw the questions U.S. Census workers are asking about employment, you would be outraged. I have the questionnaire, but I am unsure whether those specific questions are sensitive so I won't quote it verbatim. But the questions go something like this: If you answered yes, you didn't work at least one day last week, which of the following reasons most closely matches the reason:

1. You didn't work because the state didn't fund enough highway work, so you had to take time off.

2. You missed a day of work last week, because the government shut down and you were forced to take a day off.

3. You didn't work one day last week because the government cut funding to your employer, so you had to take a vacation day.

I am not kidding. Almost all of the answers whine about less funding. Washington bureaucrats are playing a horrible joke, and regular citizens are the punchline.

Anyway, so Kansas unemployment is in the basement--I don't agree with the way the feds tally these numbers, BUT Kansas' unemployment numbers are accurate as compared to other states-- and those numbers are despite the fact that the feds are trying their best to pin the few people without jobs on the government not spending enough money.

Good news makes the haters uneasy so they attempt to bludgeon conservatives with supposedly bad news.  That's the ENTIRE point of this non-story about fewer construction jobs. The media shouldn't be selling it, and quite frankly, no one who pays a bit of attention should be buying. 




1 comment:

  1. Construction jobs are, by definition, temporary jobs. Projects are completed and those jobs go away. They come, they go; they wax, they wane. They are helpful in the short term, but over the long term no so much.

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