Crafting the Rhetoric of Job Creation

“Job creation” has evolved into the rhetorical end game for this election season.

The candidates attempt to link other policy areas to how they will stimulate the economy and create jobs. But when we look at the way the candidates describe their job-creating policy, and how Missouri jobs are described by the Missouri Economic Research & Information Center, there is a clear disconnect between the policy proposals and reality. 

Spence describes his job policy on his website:

“Dave believes we can create a strong pro-jobs environment here in Missouri by reducing burdensome regulations and eliminating unnecessary red tape. He also realizes that our state-level efforts will be moot if we do not fend off the overreaching federal government.”

What Spence describes as “burdensome regulations” are more commonly referred to by MERIC as “policies” or “standards.”

Spence also refers to the jobs he seeks to create as “21^st century jobs,” but according to MERIC, manufacturing is one of the fastest growing industries.

These jobs are hardly 21^st century computer programming work; instead, manufacturing is an industry often threatened by outsourcing and technological advances of more efficient machines replacing human jobs. 

According to his site, Spence focuses on 94% of the state’s 133,215 businesses with 50 or fewer employees.

Small businesses have a nostalgic element and carry connotations of mom-and-pop stores on every corner, but when a small business hires a new employees, it doesn’t make headlines.

On the other hand, when a major car company like General Motors announces a 1.4 billion dollar plan in Missouri worth more than 3,000 new jobs, it makes the news in articles like this. Journalists reframe the term “manufacturing” because they're associated with job creation rather than downsizing and outsourcing.

That meaning changes when the jobs start coming in rather than leaving. 

This video demonstrates how Nixon relies on these big name investments for his job rhetoric. It fits with his emphasis on his accomplishments as Governor and with the larger, overarching power of the incumbent — which he uses freely.