I was just reading about how cancelling the Keystone XL project will wipe out 11,000 jobs; others dispute that figure, and there’s quite a controversy over how many jobs actually will be lost.
But here’s the thing. Most of those jobs are by their nature temporary; sure, a construction worker has a job now, but only until the project is finished. Then he or she has to move on to another job. This is true not only of the Keystone XL, but also of building the Minnesota Vikings’ new stadium.
Wouldn’t a better job metric be “job-years?” If the Keystone project were allowed to continue, and be finished in 2 ½ years (I have no idea; I’m making this up), then using the 11,000 figure means cancelling it would cost about 27,500 job years. That sounds like a lot, but if all other projects were costed in this way, we’d have an honest measure of the costs and benefits of going forward or cancelling.