Journalists love to cover plant closings and layoffs. But it's not newsworthy when when firms increase employment. Take this, for example, from the St. Albans Messenger, in a piece about Energizer Batteries getting an economic development grant from the state:
In 2004, the St. Albans Energizer plant was the only one in the world to product the AAA lithium battery. At the time, the local Energizer plant employed 170 people. Today, the plant employs 265 full-time and 105 part-time workers.
The plant nearly doubled its employment in three years--and it's still growing. When
people moan about job losses, they need to realize that they happen all the
time and are very visible because of the hardship they bring to the laid off workers. We naturally sympathize with them. Job gains happen more often, (that's why it's called economic growth) and are nearly invisible. Hence, little news coverage.
Back to Energizer. Being the only AAA lithium battery producer in the world for a while, I'm sure many of the batteries the plant produced were exported. Maybe they still are. I hope the Energizer workers don't buy into the "globalization is bad for Vermont" mentality.
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