The Value of a Job

What's the value of a job? Well, I suppose that it really depends on who you ask - if you ask the seven people who received new jobs as a result of the Coos County Tax Credit, they'd tell you that the job allowed them to get a fresh start, provide for themselves and their families and to take care of basic necessities like food, water, shelter and school supplies for their children.

However, that's not the impression you would get if you saw the headline of yesterday's Associated Press article which read "NH Business Tax Credit Created Just 7 Jobs." The basic jist of the piece was that the Tax Credit program was less than successful because it had only created seven jobs in an area of the state that has been particularly hard hit by the challenging economy.

The credit is given to businesses for each new, full-time, year round employee hired in the county. The fact that more businesses haven't taken advantage of the incentive lends itself more to the fact that job creation throughout the nation, not just in this state, has stalled over the past few years and not that the credit itself isn't valuable. This small bit of truth is seemingly lost on those who feel that simply because you build it that they will come.

But can you imagine the outcry if nothing had been done, if the Legislature had simply accepted the economic realities of the past two years and turned a blind eye towards the problem? Damned if you do and damned if you don't....and fodder for another negative headline.

The statewide unemployment rate in Coos County was over 9 percent in December as compared to 7 percent in the rest of the state. Bearing that in mind, securing a job in the northern region of the state is considerably more difficult than securing one in the southern tier. So, using that basic math formula, seven jobs (one person has since been laid off due to a production slowdown) is nothing to laugh at.

"Only" seven jobs? Tell that to the person who is now able to pay their electric bill. Tell that to the person who is now making their mortgage payment. Tell that to the person who bought school clothes for their children after delaying the purchase. And then when you're done, write a better headline that truly captures the value of a job.