Go Lean Commentary
There are a lot of lessons for the Caribbean to learn from the US regarding jobs. They do better at job creation than we do in our region. They have met their goal!
The goal of creating jobs in the US after the Great Recession led to the genesis of the book Go Lean … Caribbean. See the quotation here at Page 151:
How many jobs does the US economy have to generate to return to the unemployment rate of December 2007 (5.0) when the Great Financial Crisis started, by the end of President Obama’s second term in November 2016. This analysis for the number of jobs is assessed at 261,200 every month between October 2011 and 2016 to get to 16.2 million jobs.
This is the figure for the US. How about the Caribbean? How many jobs do we need to create to competitively present the Caribbean as a viable alternative to the US for our young people? To extrapolate based on the population, yields:
Population
Jobs/month
Jobs/year
Jobs in 5 years
US 310,000,000
261,200
3,134,400
16,194,400
Caribbean 42,000,000
35,388
424,661
2,194,080
They did it; the unemployment rate in the US today is 4.9% – US Department of Labor; Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Now the Caribbean needs to follow this model to create our needed jobs in our 30 member-states.
So where are the jobs in the US?
As the largest Single Market economy in the world, the US maintains a large number of jobs among the member-states. Who exactly – companies, institutions, etc. – contribute these jobs?
In almost every case in the US, a state’s government is its largest employer. However, government employment is spread across various organizations. In each state, there is one company or public institution that employs the most people. “24/7 Wall Street” reviewed data from a range of sources in order to identify the largest employers in each state. …
As the world’s largest retailer, Walmart has an outsized impact on state labor markets.
Walmart is the only company to claim the top employer spot in more than one state. In fact, the nation’s largest retailer employs the most people in 19 states.
Educational and medical institutions also frequently top a state’s list of employers. The most common largest employer across the 50 states, after Walmart, is the state’s university system. Educational services dominate statewide employment in 16 states. Organizations operating in the healthcare sector are often major employers as well. Several of these are also part of a university system.
Source: http://247wallst.com/special-report/2016/03/11/the-largest-employer-in-every-state/
The formula for creating jobs is a diverse array of companies, so as to maintain a stable and healthy labor market. Some companies, however, impact a state’s economy and labor market far more than others, as in Walmart in the foregoing. See the actual list here:
State Company Number of Employees Alabama Walmart 37,537 Alaska Providence Health & Services 4,000 Arizona Walmart 33,838 Arkansas Walmart 51,680 California University of California 205,177 Colorado University of Colorado 30,000 Connecticut Yale New Haven Health System 20,396 Delaware Christiana Care Health System 11,100 Florida Walmart 104,228 Georgia Walmart 57,276 Hawaii University of Hawaii 10,167 Idaho St. Luke’s Health System 13,557 Illinois Walmart 51,900 Indiana IndianaUniversity Health 29,395 Iowa University of Iowa 22,827 Kansas University of Kansas 13,862 Kentucky Walmart 29,005 Louisiana Walmart 36,763 Maine Hannaford Supermarkets 10,000 Maryland University System of Maryland 38,595 Massachusetts Partners Healthcare 65,000 Michigan University of Michigan 45,397 Minnesota Mayo Clinic 64,033 Mississippi Walmart 24,741 Missouri Walmart 42,312 Montana Walmart 4,508 Nebraska University of Nebraska 13,000 Nevada MGM Grand Las Vegas 55,000 New Hampshire Dartmouth-HitchcockMedicalCenter 9,300 New Jersey Wakefern Food Corporation 36,000 New Mexico University of New Mexico 24,061 New York StateUniversity of New York 89,871 North Carolina University of North Carolina System 74,079 North Dakota Sanford Health 12,292 Ohio Walmart 46,611 Oklahoma Walmart 33,268 Oregon Intel 18,600 Pennsylvania University of PittsburghMedicalCenter 60,000 Rhode Island Lifespan system of hospitals 13,710 South Carolina Walmart 30,828 South Dakota Avera Health 13,000 Tennessee Walmart 40,398 Texas Walmart 166,131 Utah Intermountain Healthcare 20,000+ Vermont The University of VermontMedicalCenter 7,400 Virginia Walmart 42,915 Washington Boeing 77,947 West Virginia Walmart 12,454 Wisconsin University of Wisconsin 40,000+ Wyoming Walmart 4,647 Source: Retrieved 09-23-2016 from: http://247wallst.com/special-report/2016/03/11/the-largest-employer-in-every-state/2/
Examining this foregoing chart, allows us to glean certain intelligence:
- Jobs come from disruptive systems of commerce – Big-Box retailer Walmart has undermined the business models of the previous delivery solutions for food, clothing and shelter (home goods). They are now the largest employer in 19 states.
- The education eco-system is important for more than just enrolled student bodies; whole communities are affected. Just consider the California example here, which is indicative of all the other states where a University System is the largest employer: The University of California system, which has campuses in Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Riverside, Merced, Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, San Diego, and San Francisco, is the largest employer in the state. The university network also includes the UCLA Health System, which consists of five medical centers, and three national laboratories.
See the detailed depictions of these two business models in the related VIDEO here:
VIDEO – The Largest Employers In Top 10 Most Populous States – https://youtu.be/fcVHwjnmqCc
Published on Jan 11, 2016 – http://247wallst.com/
The foregoing analysis on this chart is very revealing for the Caribbean. We need to move to where the world is moving, not where the world is coming from. This analysis synchronizes with the book Go Lean…Caribbean which asserts that there are 4 ‘Agents of Change’ (Technology, Globalization, Aging Diaspora, Climate Change) that is forging great change in society.
- Walmart is a product of a successful optimization of globalization – manufacturing many products aboard but featuring just-in-time delivery to the retail shelves.
- The Universities and their medical school/service deliveries prove the merits of a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math/Medicine) focus and the reality of a aging-always-in-need-of medical-services marketplace.
The Go Lean book calls for the elevation of Caribbean economics, asserting that the Caribbean region has been losing the battle of globalization and technology. The consequence of our defeat is the sacrifice of our most precious treasures, our people, especially our youth. The assessment of all 30 Caribbean member-states is that every community has lost human capital to emigration. Some communities, suffering an abandonment rate of more than 50% of the general population, while others watched as more than 70% of college-educated citizens flee their homelands for foreign shores, including these US jobs – many Caribbean Diaspora work for Walmart.
The Go Lean book doesn’t just report the problem; it also proposes solutions. The book stresses that the world now boast a New Economy, and that we must re-focus, re-boot, and optimize the engines of commerce – fix the broken eco-systems – so as to make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play. We need the jobs of this New Economy; the book presents a plan to create the 2.2 million stated above. How?
The Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) with the charter to facilitate jobs in the region. The book posits that ICT (Internet & Communications Technology) can be a great catalyst for job-creation. This would refer to the education of ICT and the delivery of ICT. This job-creation focus is among these 3 prime directives of CU/Go Lean:
- Optimization of economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion and create 2.2 million new jobs.
- Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic.
- Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines.
Early in the Go Lean book, the responsibility to create jobs was identified as an important function for the CU with these pronouncements in the Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 14):
xxvi. Whereas the Caribbean region must have new jobs to empower the engines of the economy and create the income sources for prosperity, and encourage the next generation to forge their dreams right at home, the Federation must therefore foster the development of new industries, like that of ship-building, automobile manufacturing, prefabricated housing, frozen foods, pipelines, call centers, and the prison industrial complex. In addition, the Federation must invigorate the enterprises related to existing industries tourism, fisheries and lotteries – impacting the region with more jobs.
xxvii. Whereas the region has endured a spectator status during the Industrial Revolution, we cannot stand on the sidelines of this new economy, the Information Revolution. Rather, the Federation must embrace all the tenets of Internet Communications Technology (ICT) to serve as an equalizing element in competition with the rest of the world. The Federation must bridge the digital divide and promote the community ethos that research/development is valuable and must be promoted and incentivized for adoption.
xxviii. Whereas intellectual property can easily traverse national borders, the rights and privileges of intellectual property must be respected at home and abroad. The Federation must install protections to ensure that no abuse of these rights go with impunity, and to ensure that foreign authorities enforce the rights of the intellectual property registered in our region.
The book Go Lean…Caribbean details the creation of 2.2 million new jobs for the Caribbean region, many embracing the ICT/STEM skill-sets. The book also describes what the Caribbean region have to do in order to have a change for these jobs. It details the new community ethos that need to be adopted, plus the executions of key strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies. The following list is depicted in the book:
| Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification | Page 21 |
| Community Ethos – Economic Principle – Economic Systems Influence Choices & Incentives | Page 21 |
| Community Ethos – Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future | Page 21 |
| Community Ethos – Job Multiplier | Page 22 |
| Community Ethos – Lean Operations | Page 24 |
| Community Ethos – Return on Investments | Page 24 |
| Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future | Page 26 |
| Community Ethos – Ways to Help Entrepreneurship | Page 28 |
| Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Intellectual Property | Page 29 |
| Community Ethos – Ways to Impact Research & Development | Page 30 |
| Community Ethos – Ways to Bridge the Digital Divide | Page 31 |
| Strategy – Mission – Education Without Further Brain Drain | Page 46 |
| Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy | Page 64 |
| Tactical – Tactics to Forge an $800 Billion Economy – High Multiplier Industries | Page 70 |
| Tactical – Separation of Powers – Commerce Department – Patents & Copyrights | Page 78 |
| Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change | Page 101 |
| Implementation – Ways to Deliver | Page 109 |
| Implementation – Ways to Impact ICT and Social Media | Page 111 |
| Planning – Ways to Improve Trade | Page 128 |
| Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs | Page 152 |
| Advocacy – Ways to Improve Education | Page 159 |
| Advocacy – Ways to Improve Housing | Page 161 |
| Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage Food Consumption | Page 162 |
| Advocacy – Ways to Better Provide Clothing | Page 163 |
| Advocacy – Ways to Impact Labor Markets and Unions | Page 164 |
| Advocacy – Ways to Foster Technology | Page 197 |
| Advocacy – Ways to Foster e-Commerce | Page 198 |
| Advocacy – Ways to Battle Poverty – Third World Realities | Page 222 |
| Advocacy – Ways to Help the Middle Class | Page 223 |
| Advocacy – Ways to Impact Youth – Usual Candidates for Fast-Food Jobs | Page 227 |
| Appendix – Growing 2.2 Million Jobs in 5 Years | Page 257 |
| Appendix – Job Multipliers | Page 259 |
| Appendix – Nuyorican Movement | Page 303 |
Previous blog/commentaries detailed exactly where the jobs are for this New Economy. Consider these submissions here:
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8929 | Where the Jobs Are – A reflection on Labor on Labor Day |
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8328 | Where the Jobs Are – One Scenario: YouTube Millionaires |
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8262 | Where the Jobs Are – One Scenario: Uber Model from Africa |
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6089 | Where the Jobs Are – The futility of Minimum Wage |
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2857 | Where the Jobs Are – Entrepreneurism in Junk |
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2025 | Where the Jobs Are – Attitudes & Images of the Diaspora |
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2003 | Where the Jobs Are – One Scenario: Shipbreaking |
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1698 | Where the Jobs Are – STEM Jobs Are Filling Slowly |
The Caribbean can be the best address on the planet, if only we had jobs …
… yet, we can create more.
We have successful models of other societies – like the US in the foregoing. But there are other examples too, think South Korea, Iceland, India, and China. All of these countries business models have also been detailed by the Go Lean movement.
Now is the time … everyone is hereby urged to lean-in to this Go Lean roadmap, so that we can start to create the new jobs our region badly needs. This is not easy; in fact the Go Lean book describes it as heavy-lifting. But it also describes that it is conceivable, believable and achievable.
Yes, we can … also … make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play. 🙂