More Regulations Breed More Federal Regulatory Jobs
Regulatory agencies are reputed to having very many bureaucracies in performing their regulatory duties. Regulatory jobs are mainly in the public sector which is very slow in automating its services. This, therefore, implies that the agencies must have several individuals to cover the provision of the relevant services. Regulatory agencies are also known to carry out field inspections to ensure that relevant regulations are strictly implemented which requires more manpower. In addition, the agencies being public entities, their priority is not to make any profits but rather to create jobs and provide public services. The government, therefore, uses such agencies to create jobs in the public sector. Private firms, on the other hand, are business entities with the sole intention of maximizing their profits. To do this, they always strive to cut their costs as much as possible. They only use the necessary number labor force. Private firms also embrace the use of technology and automate their operations as a means of cutting down their operations costs. Regulatory agencies are, therefore, more labor intensive than private firms due to the nature of their work and also to fulfill their duty as government entities to create more jobs to the public.
The regulatory share of employment will increase further if the rate of growth of regulatory employment stays five times higher than the overall employment growth rate. Given that currently there are almost 2.2 positions of federal regulatory jobs for every 1,000 U.S. workers, the ratio is likely to rise further if the growth rates remain the same. The industry will, therefore, become one of the leading employers in the United States. This will lead to the regulatory industry being overstaffed resulting into an idle workforce.
