science

Make-work job

Make-work job is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Make-work job rather than just read about it. In short: A make-work job is a job that is created and maintained at a cost not offset by the job's fulfilment. These roles usually have little or no immediate financial benefit, and can be said to exist for other economic or social-political reasons, for example, simply to provide work-experience or maintain a ceremonial function.

Key takeaways

Make-work job belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Make-work job to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Make-work job from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

A make-work job is a job that is created and maintained at a cost not offset by the job's fulfilment. These roles usually have little or no immediate financial benefit, and can be said to exist for other economic or social-political reasons, for example, simply to provide work-experience or maintain a ceremonial function. Make-work jobs are similar to workfare, but are publicly offered on the job market and have otherwise normal employment requirements. Workfare jobs, in contrast, may be handed out to a randomly selected applicant or have special requirements such as continuing to search for a non-workfare job.

Analysis Some consider make-work jobs to be harmful when they provide very little practical experience or training for future careers. As a part of the New Deal, the Civil Works Administration (CWA) was in 1933 created as a stopgap measure to boost the economic relief provided by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration and Public Works Administration. At its peak, the CWA employed 4,230,000 people; however, President Roosevelt was wary of the specter of corruption and accusations of boondoggling, and shut the CWA down after less than a year. Economists like Milton Friedman considered the programs like the CCC and WPA as justified as a temporary response to an emergency. Friedman gave Roosevelt considerable credit for relieving immediate distress and restoring confidence.

Examples

Make-work jobs have been introduced during periods of high unemployment to provide as substitutes for regular jobs. In many European countries, social welfare systems provide cash transfers to those who are unable to secure employment. These programs often require the recipient to undertake job training, internships, or job rotations. Make-work jobs can have the benefit of giving workers the chance of meeting new people and learning how to work with others. Such jobs can also instill necessary workplace skills and values such as the importance of punctuality and responsibility. Many of the skills learned while doing make-work jobs help workers when applying for and doing regular jobs. Several make-work jobs that were created in Denmark in 2014 were gardening, cleaning up of beaches and sidewalks, reading to the elderly or disabled, washing toys at day care, working with local bike programs, and counting cars. Attendants employed at full-serve gasoline stations in New Jersey wherein drivers are not permitted to pump their own gas are often cited as examples of make-work jobs.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Make-work job

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Make-work job claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Make-work job before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Make-work job ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Make-work job

In research: Make-work job appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Make-work job in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Make-work job is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Employment classifications, Social programs, Welfare economics, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Make-work job outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Make-work job in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Make-work job means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Make-work job out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Make-work job in simple terms?

Why does Make-work job matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Make-work job?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Make-work job.