Despite noisy political claims to the contrary, the weight of the evidence suggests that regulation has a small impact on the total number of jobs. Still, regulation is bound to have some effect on who has jobs, what kinds of jobs they have, and where those jobs can be found. How much should we care about that? In a new article, Sidney A. Shapiro and Robert R. M. Verchick argue that environmentalists should devote far more attention to job loss. Their concern about job loss is well taken. Before responding to the issue, however, we need a better understanding of the extent of job loss due to regulation and a clearer map of the resulting types of harms. To begin, we need to consider three kinds of job loss: (1) an industry has fewer employees over time, (2) individual workers are laid off, and (3) a community loses its employment base. Category one is the broadest—reduced hiring to fill vacancies and scattered layoffs spread across many communities. Layoffs can have…
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