Bullshit jobs

Bureau of labor statistics of the US has some interesting data. We took a closer look to better understand what exactly the US workforce is doing.

https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat11.htm

In the past, the production was a major issue. And work was synonymous with production. However, as of 2016, only 9% are involved in mining, construction, and maintenance. 11.7% are involved in transportation. Thus, only 1 in 5 are involved in what is absolutely crucial for the functioning of the techno-industrial complex.

“Service occupations” are useful, but not indispensable. That is 17.7% of the workforce. There are 8.5 million food industry workers: cooks, waiters, etc. There are 5.8 million cleaners. In other words, there are more restaurant workers, and cleaners in the US than people of all types in countries like Greece or Sweden, or US state of Illinois. That is quite a leap from the time when most meals were prepared at home.

Nevertheless, “management”: 39%, and “sales and office”: 22% dwarf other 3 categories. With the exception of doctors (whose work is still largely bureaucratic), over 60% of the US workforce is engaged in bureaucratic or abstract work, which is radically different from what 19th century thinkers saw as work. Movies like Office Space, Fight Club, and American Beauty show us that the disdain for this kind of “work” is common. Here’s a shot of the main character of the American Beauty movie depicting his job as a prison.

Anthropologist David Graeber researched the subject further, and shared some interesting observations.

Unfortunately, Graeber doesn’t stress how many people are engaged in occupations that are more or less meaningless. If 80% of the workforce took a week off, there’d be no serious physical world consequences. It is purely hypothetical at this point though, since many people have lost what was considered basic skills such as cooking.

It is a strange paradoxical world where people demand jobs and hate them at the same time.