Yesterday, President Trump accused online retailer Amazon of “doing great harm to tax paying retailers” and “many jobs being lost.” Unfortunately, this is another fact-free claim by the president. New research by PPI economist Michael Mandel shows that ecommerce is actually expanding retail jobs.
Mandel wrote last month, “According to the latest BLS employment report, employment at brick-and-mortar retail is down by only 7,000 jobs over the past year, a mere rounding error for an industry that employs over 15 million workers. At the same time, employment in the ecommerce sector has risen by 61,000 over the past year, more than making up for any erosion in brick-and-mortar retail.” Indeed, ecommerce is a job-producing addition to the retail sector, not a job-killer.
