Attention

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not represent our advertisers

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Three Big Ideas For Solving Unemployment

Figuring out smart ways to help create jobs for millions of Americans.

The month of July, so far, has seemed like hell for close to 2.5 million Americans. That’s the number of people who lost their unemployment benefits when Congress did not pass the jobs bill before its July 4 recess.

The Senate voted Tuesday 60-40 to break the filibuster on the roughly $33 billion legislation, which will extend unemployment benefits for the long-term unemployed through November and which could start paying benefits as early as next week. (Republicans had originally opposed the plan, saying it would only add to what they see as an out-of-control deficit). President Obama slammed the Senate’s failure to pass the bill during a speech on Monday in the Rose Garden, where he was accompanied by a former auto-parts manager who has been unemployed for roughly two years.

But apart from extending unemployment insurance, the country still needs to figure out a smart way to create jobs for millions of people whose industries and livelihoods have altogether disappeared. The U.S. labor market has undergone such a dramatic shift that many jobs in construction, manufacturing, and the auto industry will not return, and some employers say workers do not necessarily have the technical or mathematical skills to compete in today’s workplaces.

So, how should we put 15 million unemployed Americans back to work? Here’s a quick look at the big ideas for solving the jobs crisis:

GO HERE to read more.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

As a country we failed to adapt to the effects of free trade. Instead of training to manufacture the products we were intended to build under the free trade global market (air planes, heavy equipment, high tech gear) we continued to educate people for serving french fries and packing chicken.

On top of that, our "leaders" can't make good decisions because they simply pander to the far right or left, and neither side is the be all end all authoratative source of ideas.

Anonymous said...

Businesses aren't going to hire with so much uncertainty with all the government regulations under Obama and the national debt. If I'm a small business owner, it is cheaper to give my 10 employees a 5% raise instead of hiring an additional employee. My current employees are happy to have a job, let alone get a raise, and I don't need to pay all the extra benefits and taxes for a new employee. Nobody really knows what is happening with the new health care bill and how it will really effect small businesses. The uncertainty of the value of the dollar has caused businesses to build cash reserves instead of hiring more employees. Finally, who knows what new regulation is going to come down from the state or federal govt these days, so it is wait and see for hiring people.

Anonymous said...

people work hard to keep unemployment checks comming in. so in a way they are not unemployed.

Bryan Fykes said...

Retraining? Business partnerships? A different kind of Unemployment (Income Gap insurance)? How about Tax relief to businesses that create jobs? REAL tax relief- forgive 10% of a businesses tax bill for every 10% increase in total employment on their job rolls. if they double their total workforce, give them a 100% tax break!

Anonymous said...

There are PLENTY of jobs out there, just people are LAZY. Why work when Obama will send you a check for 99 weeks of vacation?

Anonymous said...

I believe that if it is NOT made in the United States of America by American workers then it should be taxed heavily. Microsoft computers made in India, Verizon outsourcing all of their jobs for operators to India. Tax their earnings/profits in a big way until they provide those jobs to Americans first. Remove them from the long list of corporations incorporated in Delaware. Tax them until the jobs come back here. Tax all of that China trash severely until it becomes more profitable for Americans to produce it vs Chinese. The open door policy for trade was the worst thing for our country that ever happened and needs to be corrected and reversed. Amercians can produce some of the very best products in the world but they'll never be able to compete with cheap China & India wages and still no import tax on the products coming in here to be sold to Americans. We're way ahead of the solar game with Dupont now producing a new fiber for solar panels. Hoard it, don't let a single piece of it leave our shores until America has established complete control over all facets of producion and Americans get to use the product first to decrease our continual need for oil. Our government should either have the corporations operating and selling their services/products in the U.S. bend to use of the American work force or send their ass overseas and sell it there. Then we could start fresh. Americans for American made products! Not imported to America by pretend American companies. We produce next to nothing and it has to change. FredG

Anonymous said...

well the BS small business entrepreneur angle is nonsense
gift shops and restaurants are fine if your Korean or Latino and the whole family works for a common cause but small businesses will never pay the living wages that created the now bemoaned middle class even mid-management jobs at Perdue and Tyson are hardly middle class and the DuPont days are long gone
people poo poo the unions but they created the middle class and living wages and the banks the line of credit that secured middle class complacency that got us too where we are now
the times they are a changing
we are going to have to swallow some world power pride and great nation nonsense spending billions fighting ghosts in third world dumps and get back to what's always been our spirit.... frontier minded innovation the things that were imagined could not be done that have defined us up until now.............and we should make it here screw Steve Jobs and Bill Gates great ideas but why aren't we making these things here at home for our own
were suckers buying their junk that's just tomorrows land fill fodder................everyone's passionate about what's right but its all business as usual wal-mart america is not prepared to put their money where their mouths are
BOYCOTT..............you don't like what your money goes for..............STOP paying your taxes.............you'll get a vacation in jail
everyone is so puffed upped and butt hurt about what they ain't getting and who is................don't like it don't pay into it most are hardly Waco cases or Ruby Ridge..............forget voting just keep what's yours until they answer....................where is the american spirit its all gotten so fat and lame and christianly goodie goodie.....................just say NO.................transfer all your assets of shore............and quite bitching about sound bites like morals and illegals etc.............the people making it all possible think nothing of it or you

Anonymous said...

9:57, I what was you til bout 3/4 through.

Vote like your life depended on it cuz it does. Stupid apathy put stupid people in office.

Other than that, a lot o what u said is how i feel 2!

Anonymous said...

all you have to do is pretend to be looking for a job to keep getting unemployment benefits. we get many, many requests for applications (in particual when we aren't hiring) from people who will even tell you they "need" it for unemployment. we refuse to give them out for this reason. also, think about how many ABLE bodied people are drawing disability!!!!!!! One trip to the Social Security Admin in your lifetime is enough to make you want to move to another country. I had to take off work half a day to change my name when I got married. I saw so many people driving much nicer cars then I'll ever drive in there complaining about their "disability" benefits. It was truly sickening.

Anonymous said...

3:07 (I know it's probly too late for you to see this),

Don't you idiots realize that those people with "nice cars" were often working full time jobs that allowed for them to pay for those cars prior to having something happen that put them into the ss system. Why do conservatives believe that they are the only ones who ever go through real hardship?