In message , at 10:16:45 on
Tue, 11 Aug 2009, Recliner remarked:
Can somebody explain how building the depot creates hundreds of
jobs. Will the new Thameslink trains be that much more unreliable
than the existing trains that they need more maintenance.
Surely the existing trains are maintained so why does the new
Thameslink require hundreds of extra maintenance staff.

The new trains will have more carriages than the old. But they may
also be factoring in a reluctance of staff at the old depot (where is
that?) to the new ones, resulting in *local* recruitment.

It's a bit like when supermarkets want to open new branches -- they
invariably promise to create lots of jobs. But, of course, these 'new'
jobs will simply replace a larger number of 'old' jobs lost in other
local shops whose business will decline.

That denies the possibility that there can be "growth" in employment in
the retail sector, eg by offering a better service. Just looking around
the places I've lived, comparing the number of shops "pre-supermarket"
and the number of jobs now provided in ASDA and so on, the latter has to
be much larger, even discounting the longer opening hours. And the old
food shops have largely been replaced by some kind of specialist or
non-food shop which requires staffing too.

My impression from a quick Google is that retail employment has been
increasing steadily at half to one percent per annum over the last
decade.
--
Roland Perry