REASONS FOR JOB WOES INCLUDE GOVERNMENT

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 5, 1993                   TAG: 9303050209
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JOHN CUNNIFF ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Medium
REASONS FOR JOB WOES INCLUDE GOVERNMENT
If the measure of economic improvement is jobs, President Clinton has his work cut out.
At least four factors are restricting job opportunity. Three of them: a cyclical downturn that may or may not be easing, a surge in the use of labor-saving technology and a rise in global competition.
The fourth factor may be government itself. Critics of government involvement in the marketplace via taxes, regulations and mandates claim government is its own worst enemy.
Theoretically, presidential action could affect the course of the economy's disposition to expand and contract at irregular intervals. Presidential action could, of course, affect government's intrusion into the marketplace, too.
The other two are more difficult to contend with and efforts by Clinton to deal with them aren't likely to produce results that could have an immediate and decisive impact on labor markets.
\ Economic cycles. Ordinarily, the cyclical problem tends to correct itself. As the country emerges from recession and as confidence grows, employers compete for help and may continue hiring until the expansion wanes.
\ Technology. In terms of jobs, the technology challenge can't be corrected in the short term. Through computer guidance and data communications, companies raise production while cutting the number of workers. Productivity rises; payrolls don't.
Over the longer term, improved technology is a vital spur to economic growth; and as the economy expands, it eventually may reach a point where, because of sheer size, more workers again are required.
\ Global competition. Long foreseen, it is now a fact of life. Combined with those technological advances - they used to call it automation - and political changes, some products can be made almost anywhere by anyone.
\ Government. Its role in unemployment or underemployment is now getting as much attention as its role in creating jobs. While the administration's goal obviously is to put more people back to work, it While Clinton hopes government can create 500,000 jobs, he also promised to eliminate 100,000 federal positions. could hurt prospects, too.
As Edward Yardeni, a securities-house economist, points out, while Clinton expressed hope that government could create 500,000 jobs, he also promised to eliminate 100,000 federal positions.
Moreover, the administration has taken aim at the health-care industry and has set to work on a new health-care policy that conceivably could curtail growth.
Any such action could have job repercussions, because health care has been a big job creator. Yardeni traces 512,000 new jobs to health care during the first 22 months of this expansion.
Critics contend that other government actions have a good deal to do with the unhappy job situation. Under President Bush, regulations and mandates continued to grow, in effect imposing a tax burden on companies.
Imposed costs tend to lower the ability of companies, especially smaller ones that cannot deal with the paperwork, to finance productive jobs. The growing burden of health-insurance costs further reduces the desire to hire.
Clinton has proposed additional mandates such as family leave that could add to burdens that already have driven some companies to hire temporary or contract help from agencies rather than add permanent workers to their payrolls.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB