Marketplace,, The New York Times, and Time Magazine are among the few news outlet to report that the Bush administration's economic team is floating the idea of reclassifying fast food employment as a manufacturing job. Currently, the mostly minimum wage positions are considered service jobs for economic and job reporting purposes. The Economic Report of the President raises the hair-splitting point:
Sometimes, seemingly subtle differences can determine whether an industry is classified as manufacturing. For example, mixing water and concentrate to produce soft drinks is classified as manufacturing. However, if that activity is performed at a snack bar, it is considered a service.
So, is the reclassification of hamburger assembly valid, or is this just another numbers shell game? Fast food work is somewhat like an assembly line, right? But then, the reclassification is awfully reminiscent of questionable accounting practices that got some very big companies in trouble a few years back.
The NY Times article quotes David Huether, chief economist for the National Association of Manufacturers, as saying that "he had heard that some economists wanted to count hamburger flipping as manufacturing, which he noted would produce statistics showing more jobs in what has been a declining sector of the economy."
Maybe this is where Bush's economic team got the rosy job growth numbers that embarassed the president last week? By simply reclassifying fast food jobs, the jobs reports in the manufacturing sector would show a marked improvement.
Posted by Mark Murrmann at February 23, 2004 09:12 AM