10% Reduction in U.S. Communications Investment Would Cost 300,000 Jobs, $100 Billion in Wages, Over 5 Years

The economic impact of Federal Communications Commission policies that depress capital investment in the U.S. telecom indusry by 10 percent would lead to job losses exceeding 300,000 over a five year period, a new economic analysis by the Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal and Economic Policy Studies estimates.

A 10-percent reduction in investment costs 130,000 information-sector jobs per year in the following five years, plus indirect jobs of about 198,000 over the same five-year period.

For each million dollars of investment, the Phoenix Center finds that 10 jobs are affected in the information sector and perhaps 24 jobs across the entire economy, about a 40-percent larger effect than found in most earlier studies.

Lost earnings over a five-year period for a 10-percent decline in investment could be $36 billion in the information sector and $100 billion for all affected jobs.

The study was conducted by T. Randolph Beard, Ph.D. Phoenix Center Senior Fellow and Auburn University Economics Professor, Phoenix Center Chief Economist Dr. George S. Ford and Phoenix Center Adjunct Fellow Professor Hyeongwoo Kim, of Auburn University.

read the study here