Eighty-five staffers from the Deseret News will celebrate Labor Day sipping well-chilled irony: They just lost their jobs.
The news business is changing. The Internet has flummoxed us all and advertising revenue stinks. I'm sure D-News staffers who were not fired appreciate merging with KSL, whose free on-line ads kicked the stuffing out of their (and my) newspaper's classified ad revenues.
President Barack Obama gets flack for not fixing unemployment, but a tax credit or stimulus won't fix a business model hammered by technological and societal changes.
Ultimately, creating local jobs is up to us.
Job growth comes from an economy's interconnectedness. In trying to preserve its own business, the Deseret News created 85 families that will spend less money at other Utah businesses. The pain spreads out.
I thought I'd offer a few things we can do to create jobs. Some of these things cost a bit more, but thrift and community support are age-old American values that go hand-in-hand. Every job you create locally is a job for someone who can shop at your business.
* Pay your taxes.
Nobody likes taxes, but government provides the framework -- roads, public health, regulation, protection -- on which our community is built, and government jobs support community jobs.
The U.S. Census Bureau says local Utah governments employ more than 85,000 Utahns. There are another 5,000 or so Utahns at ATK Space Systems in Box Elder County who produce rockets primarily for one customer, the U.S. government.
Every single Utahn working at Hill Air Force Base and the IRS center is tax-supported, and they all shop.
Speaking of taxes:
SBlt Support education. The Utah Department of Workforce Services has 6,618 jobs available within 300 miles of Ogden. That's a lot, but unless you want that $7.25 an hour housekeeper job in Roosevelt, or the $11 an hour heavy labor job in Ogden, you need to be educated. That means Utahns with jobs need to support Utah schools.
What jobs are available for the educated? Medical jobs, administrative jobs, management jobs, computer jobs, engineering jobs and skilled craftsman jobs.
* Hire someone.
My wife and I are having renovation work done on the house. We could refinish the floors ourselves, or paint the walls, but my wife doesn't have time and I'm a klutz. It's expensive, but we're thrifty and whatever this costs has to be cheaper than a divorce.
Not everyone can do this, but any floor refinisher, painter, carpenter or plumber will tell tales of dozens of do-it-yourself projects gone expensively wrong. They make money fixing the mess, but if you hire them in the first place they, and you, are happier.
This also lets you give work to local people, which brings up our final point:
* Buy local first.
Utah-owned businesses are the heart and soul of a thriving community economy.
You get fresher locally grown produce and more personalized service from businesses that are not cookie-cutter duplicates of every other business in the country. More important, locally owned businesses care more about the community.
Locally owned businesses, not government, pooled their money to make Hill Air Force Base, Defense Depot Ogden, the Freeport Center and Weber State University possible. Local businesses are run by, and give jobs to, your friends and neighbors. Their profits stay local and support more jobs.
That includes, I hope, advertising in the local paper.
If enough of that happens, I won't have to join those folks from the Deseret News sipping irony this weekend.
Wasatch Rambler is the opinion of Charles Trentelman. You can call him at 801-625-4232 or e-mail ctrentelman@standard.net. He also blogs at www.standard.net.
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