There is a certain neatness for Republicans that Springsteen chose “refinery” as the place of work that can’t hire his protagonist. Republicans really have no issue with people working in fossil-fuel extraction, and while we’ve seen an oil boom under President Obama, it has very much been in spite of his policy preferences. (Note that this is an area where the federal government is explicitly limiting opportunities to work.) We should expect that climate change and emissions will be a substantial part of the 2016 Democratic primary campaign.

Broadly speaking in 2015, it is very easy to see this line as the protagonist lamenting the regulations that prevent businesses from hiring him. As always, Republicans will need to make the case that regulations prevent hiring. Again, individual businesses that can’t afford to employ people—and individual workers that can’t get jobs—need to be the focus of that message.