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Is Amazon Finally Starting To Destroy Jobs?

TedTed
in Off-Topic
FYI: The rise of Amazon (and e-commerce more generally) has led to fears that retail employment is going by the wayside. That could be a problem: more than 10% of US nonfarm payrolls are found in retail jobs. But as the chart below shows, the share of Americans working in retail relative to total employment has been trending lower on a secular basis for almost 30 years after peaking at 12.2% in 1989. In other words, even if e-commerce is hurting retail jobs, it would be in the context of a labor market that was already shifting away from that kind of employment for two decades before online sales started to eat into demand for retailers.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.bespokepremium.com/think-big-blog/is-amazon-finally-starting-to-destroy-jobs/

Comments

  • LewisBraham
    "Finally?" That's hilarious.

  • Sven
    After Border Books went out of business (not necessary due to e-commerce), Amazon is building retail shops in shopping malls. Barnes and Nobles is doing something right and they are still in business.
  • Tony
    Why Borders failed while Barnes and Noble survived (7/19/2011 article):

    http://www.npr.org/2011/07/19/138514209/why-borders-failed-while-barnes-and-noble-survived
  • LewisBraham
    From the NPR article:
    He says Barnes & Noble also invested in beefing up its online sales. Eventually, it also developed its own e-reader, the Nook.

    Borders did not. Instead, it expanded its physical plant, refurbished its stores and outsourced its online sales operation to Amazon.

    "In our view, that was more like handing the keys over to a direct competitor," Wahlstrom says.
    There is a bit of poetic justice in this as Borders and B&N had been driving local bookstores out of business for decades. But it isn't just bookstores anymore.
  • msf
    "He says Barnes & Noble also invested in beefing up its online sales. Eventually, it also developed its own e-reader, the Nook."

    And this was supposed to be a positive?

    "Barnes and Noble has just announced [Nov. 2016] that Nook Sales have declined 29% in the last three months. The bookseller simply cannot make selling e-readers, tablets and e-books financially viable."
    http://goodereader.com/blog/business-news/barnes-and-noble-nook-sales-decline-by-29

    Before Borders was killed, Crown Bookstores went bankrupt in 1998:
    Once a nationally prosperous discount bookstore chain, the company struggled during years of legal battles ...

    At the same time, Crown, which had been an innovator with its discounting strategy, was battered by competition from Barnes & Noble Inc. and Borders Books & Music, which opened hundreds of book superstores in the past few years, severely cutting into Crown's share of the market.

    Crown made a halfhearted attempt to open its own megastores, but the plan was poorly executed.
    Washington Post, Aug 21, 1998
  • MOZART325
    It's not just retail jobs. Amazon Web Services (AWS) may destroy many other jobs AWS sharply reduces the need for the relatively high paid people who work in data centers.
  • hank
    No!

  • Sven
    Drones have their limitation with respect to weight. Small packages less than several lbs maybe okay, certainly not furnitures.
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