Direct, indirect, and induced employment

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Investments into an industry or project can produce temporary and long-term employment. The resulting jobs are typically categorized as being one of three types. A direct job is employment created to fulfill the demand for a product or service.[1] An indirect job is a job that exists to produce the goods and services needed by the workers with direct jobs.[1][2] Indirect employment includes the things need direct on the job as well as jobs produced because of the worker's needs (e.g., uniforms). Employment created by the additional personal spending (e.g., eating at a restaurant) by both direct and indirect workers is classified as an induced job.

Projects may produce temporary and long-term jobs.

Operations and maintenance
jobs tend to be long term.

Examples

Project Direct jobs Indirect jobs Induced jobs
Use
wind turbines[1]
Employees manufacturing wind turbines
  • Employees at a steel mill that supplies the wind turbine factory
  • Employees producing energy used by the steel mill
  • Employees at a factory that makes the
    screws
    used in wind turbines
  • Restaurant staff[3]
  • Child care workers[3]
  • Grocery store jobs
  • Clothing store jobs
  • Recreation and entertainment jobs
Build a
water treatment facility[2]
  • Construction workers building the facility
  • Employees operating equipment at the facility
  • Employees at a factory that makes chemicals used at the facility
  • Workers who wash the facility's uniforms at an
    industrial laundry
Tourism[4]
Service job
selling tickets to a park
Retrofitting buildings to be energy efficient[5] Construction job to install new heating system
  • Employees who manufacture building supplies
  • Employees who assemble heating systems

Efficiency of job production

Investments in some projects or industries are more efficient at producing direct and indirect jobs. For example, investing US$1,000,000 in the petroleum industry produces fewer direct and indirect jobs than investing the same amount of money in renewable energy or energy efficiency.[6]

A

formal direct jobs plus 250,000 indirect jobs in 2017.[7]

References