Where Did All The Jobs Go? Michael Nutter Took Them!

Michael Nutter in May 2015, when he was still mayor and didn’t have quite so many jobs. | Photo: Matt Rourke/Associated Press

The official U.S. unemployment rate last month was 4.8 percent. Some say the actual unemployment rate is higher, for various reasons. I have another theory: The unemployment rate is skewed because Michael Nutter is taking all the jobs in America.

Nutter was in a feud with his predecessor as mayor of Philadelphia, John Street, late last year. Nutter sent an email to the Inquirer blasting Street (after Street sent the first email volley). In it, his hilariously long email signature revealed he had no fewer than five jobs:

• CNN Political Commentator
• Chair, Airbnb Mayors Advisory Board
• UChicago Urban Labs Fellow
• Drexel University Executive Fellow
• “David N. Dinkins Professor of Practice, School of International Public Affairs Colombia University.”

I assume he’s fixed that typo of Columbia University since then.

Sure, none of these are full-time job, though he does have to write opinion pieces shilling for Airbnb. But Nutter has just kept collecting more!

• In late December, he joined the Code for America board of directors. “I am looking forward to working with Code for America to help millions of people get the help they need, while showing that government can work so much better,” Nutter said in a release.
• Earlier this month, Nutter joined the board of Novele, a company that develops energy storage. “This company is on the cutting edge of innovation in energy efficiency and making renewable energy a reality in cities,” Nutter said in a release.
• This week, Nutter got a job at Penn as the Senior School of Social Policy & Practice Executive Fellow at the Penn Institute for Urban Research. “I am honored by the opportunity to work with Dean Jackson, and Penn IUR Co-Directors Dr. Eugenie Birch and Dr. Susan Wachter on the important work of reducing poverty and utilizing the full capacity of the University of Pennsylvania to solve various public policy challenges that Philadelphia and many other cities face in America,” Nutter said in a release.

I went to Michael Nutter’s website to see if he’d added any other titles. He has! Man Utter dot com notes that Nutter is also an advisor for Ekistic Ventures, a Conduent Corporation board member, and a fellow at three different institutions (What Works Cities/Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, and the Brookings Institution).

And he’s also (deep breath) a United States Department of Homeland Security Advisory Council member, a Department of Transportation Equity Advisory Board member, a Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia Economic and Community Advisory Council member, a City of Chicago Police Department Community Policing Advisory Panel member, and an Advisory Board member of the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance.

Philly.com’s Emily Babay, who has been keeping a running tally on Nutter’s many jobs, notes Nutter is also a board member at City Trusts of Philadelphia. That adds up to 19 jobs for Michael Nutter — that we know of. (Babay also notes that notes that at least one of these positions, the one at DHS, is unpaid.)

What can we learn from this? The secret to success in the job market is to be mayor of one of the largest cities in the country for eight years. Once you leave office, the job offers will start rolling in.