Article • Dean Baker’s Beat the Press
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The Washington Post told readers that jobs have become a big factor in the Obama administration’s decision on building the Keystone pipeline, which would allow tar sands oil from Canada to be shipped across the United States. According to the article the pipeline has become a big cause among the Republican presidential candidates because it would generate 20,000 short term jobs in an economy with 9 percent unemployment.
The labor force is slightly over 150 million people. This means that the 20,000 jobs created by the construction of the pipeline would reduce unemployment by slightly more than 0.01 percentage points. This context would have been helpful for readers.