Coming Jobs War [Hardcover]

There are many things about this fascinating new book from Gallup Chairman Jim Clifton that will stop you in your tracks, but the most profound for me is that the current state of our country, and perceived prospects for the future, has redefined the American dream. No longer are peace, family, independence and freedom of religion at the top of the list for most Americans. It's having a good job.

Some of the information Clifton reveals is staggering, like the fact that 40-50 years ago Detroit was the richest city in the world, but because of poor local leadership over the last several decades hundreds of thousands of good jobs have been lost and the city has become a socioeconomic disaster. Or that 20 years ago passage of the Gore Act gave US companies the lead in commercializing the internet - and attracting top technical and entrepreneurial talent from around the world -- something that has accounted for virtually all the growth in the US economy since the mid 90s.

Clifton's writing is compact, thought provoking, motivational, scary and realistic. But it's also hopeful. It's a compelling book based on years of Gallup polling and research and a must read for everyone who cares about the future of our communities, cities and country.

I bought this book after a friend who is a voracious reader mentioned it was what she was currently reading and seeing the many five star reviews. I had reasonable expectations despite the fact I am leery of any conversation that frames itself using the word "War". Unfortunately for me this book did not live up to its five star rating or my expectations.

The "Coming Jobs War" essentially is a plan to avert societal collapse. While I agree with many of the prescriptions that Jim Clifton brings forth throughout the book, the book is just that- prescriptive in both tone and content. The book is written in the style of a bad self-help book or perhaps like the legion of "how to win in business" type books. As in such books "The Coming Jobs War" makes a sweeping generalization which is then supported by vague statements using pseudo-scientific mumbo-jumbo.

While elements of the plan to avert societal collapse make sense, and many I agree with, they are presented in a linear, deterministic manner which completely miss the complex, systemic approaches that will be needed to address the issues the book seeks to contribute its voice to solving. Even worse, this book fails to provide much data to back up its claims or meaningfully acknowledge other thinkers and theories that supportable or refute the claims being made. While there is an extensive list of references at the end, they exist independent of the rest of the book (at least in the Kindle edition I read).

"The Coming Jobs War" suffers in other ways that alienated me as a reader from the important (and likely valid) points raised:
- Entrepreneurs are given mythic, superhero status. The impact, societal benefit, or long term sustainability of the entrepreneur's idea is irrelevant. Rather entrepreneurs earn their superhero status by their willingness to persist and business acumen. This is disingenuous at best, and seemed even more egregious since I'd just finished "Redirect: The Surprising New Science of Psychological Change" which has lots of case studies of the harm persistent, good intentioned, and passionate individuals can cause.
- The various chapters of the book are rife with inconsistencies and contradictions. Depending on where you are in the book either creation of good jobs, security, or whatever topic the current chapter covers are the number one priority to be addressed.
- The book at times seems a marketing screed for Gallup; the reader gets the impression all good policy ideas originated with Gallup.
- It is not clear what audience this book was written for. If I had to guess it would be a marketing executive's caricature of a business leader or policy maker, but certainly not a scientist of any stripe or others familiar with policy issues. However, given the number of five star ratings it must resonate with many readers.

In summary, if you like books with simple direct messages, don't care about the provenance of ideas as much as the ideas themselves, and want simple answers to complex problems you will likely enjoy this book. On the other hand those who take a more complex and nuanced view of society might want to check out the book from the local library, cull the key ideas from the last summary chapter, and save time, money, and a painful read. Honestly, it really worth one star, but I give it a second since some of the ideas can stimulate much needed dialog.

"The Coming Jobs War" by Jim Clifton, Chairman and CEO of Gallup, provides a provocative look at our next world war, the war for jobs. "If the US allows China or any country to out-enterprise us, out-job create us, out-grow its GDP, everything changes." This war is "for all the marbles" as it will determine the leader of the free world. And "if countries fail at creating jobs, their societies will fall apart. Countries and more specifically cities will experience suffering, instability, chaos, and eventually revolution."

If we fail, it will be due to bad policy, wrong-headed social assumptions, mentors who do not connect with potential entrepreneurs, cities that collapse, kids who could have graduated into productive contributors to society but did not, people who could have been healthy became an economic drag on society, workers that could have been engaged but were never inspired, and jobs that could have been created but were not. Clifton resources Gallup's base of knowledge and combines it with his experience and observations to outline a national focus on the critical seven strategies we must adopt for a winning effort:

1. Today, the "global will" is centered on the creation of "good" jobs over all else. "What would create worldwide peace today, global wellbeing, and the next extraordinary achievements in human development, the immediate appearance of 1.8 billion "good" jobs." Nothing would change the current state of mankind more.
2. The supercollider of immediate job growth is America's top 100 cities, top 100 universities, and top 10,000 local tribal leaders. Job creation must be initiated in the cities.
3. Innovation is not rare but those who can translate good ideas into new customers, and jobs - entrepreneurs - are. "The scarcest, rarest, hardest energy and talent in the world to find is entrepreneurship. Call it rare salesmanship, call it genius business-model design, call it rainmaking, but whatever the case, America does not have enough to fight the coming global jobs war." We must switch our investment focus from innovation to entrepreneurship - from investment into the cart o the horse pulling the cart.
4. Healthcare is a drag on call economic activity and is sucking the economic lifeblood out of this country. There must be a focus not only on performance and growth but also on overall health and wellbeing.
5. Most workers today are not fully engaged at work, and are costing us valuable productivity as well as sources of inspiration. "Highly inspired workplaces hatch literally millions of new startups, while low-energy, uninspired workplaces hatch virtually none." Companies must focus on improving worker engagement.
6. 30% of our students drop out of school resulting in a significant loss of human capital. Our fate rides on literacy of the population and the resulting entrepreneurial energy that it provides.
7. With the global economy growing from $60 trillion in GDP to $200 trillion in thirty years, we must understand and prepare for a war that is going to be fought globally - for global customers.
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Clifton argues that Gallup's own studies covering the world's 7 billion inhabitants, across every country and demographic and sociographic group, shows that we are reaching a new evolutionary stage of civilization. With basic needs met, "What the whole world wants is good jobs."

This is our next battleground. Leaders must consider this everyday in everything they do. Leaders must make this their number one priority.

This is a must-read for national and local, educational, economic, political, non- and for-profit leaders.

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