In the second part of my series of the job market effects from the presidential elections, I am going to focus on the growth industries in the unlikely event that John McCain is elected president. So which industries will be hot if John McCain is elected president?
Senator McCain has proposed a health care reform plan with the goal of reducing the cost of health care and providing additional flexibility for families by utilizing a free market approach. As a result, there will be a significant movement towards individuals purchasing their own health insurance. A corresponding development would be that insurance companies will tailor programs to encourage patients to minimize their health care costs by using nurses and other healthcare workers, instead of physicians which are more costly. As a result, job opportunities for nurses, hospital and home healthcare workers and insurance healthcare workers will likely increase. There could also be job growth opportunities at insurance companies and related support companies as they begin to serve more and more individual policyholders.
We hear a lot of discussion about McCain's energy policy which his supporters chant as their rallies -- "Drill Baby Drill". Senator McCain’s energy policy contains more elements than just additional oil drilling; it also includes increased development and use of other energy sources, such as: nuclear power, clean coal and renewable energy sources. As a result, companies that focus on existing energy and alternative energy sources will experience a great growth possibility.
Although John McCain is a big supporter of the military and our current military missions, the economic costs related to health care and the economy will cause defense spending to be closely monitored and in some cases, curbed. Some of the high ticket defense projects may need to be postponed, or even cancelled, while we focus our efforts on ramping up the economy. As a result, job growth at the defense contractors like Boeing will be limited.
With Senator McCains' tax policy, research and development approach and expansion of the H-1B visas for high tech workers, one should expect an uptick in the growth of small and medium sized businesses. These jobs include engineering and tech jobs as well as many others.
As we are living in troubling economic times that we have not seen for close to 80 years, many of these observations may be affected by economic and political developments here and abroad.
