Big Ideas for Job Creation Series

Big Ideas for Jobs Overview Brief PDF
by Karen Chapple and Robert P. Giloth

Big Ideas for Job Creation in a Jobless Recovery Conference Presentations

While the Great Recession is technically over, its aftermath consists of high unemployment and tepid job growth for the foreseeable future. Almost all sectors of the country and segments of the U.S. population have suffered job losses, but low income, low-skilled individuals have experienced particular challenges in terms of job loss, job competition, and barriers to job search. These challenges are likely to last for many years and threaten to further erode valuable labor market experience for the next generation of American workers.

With the recent Congressional elections and a heightened focus on deficit reduction, the federal expenditure role in coping with our sluggish economy is likely to be diminished. As a consequence, it is likely that cities, metro regions and states will increase and deepen their roles as laboratories for innovating economic development and job creation programs. They will also have to deal with the distributional and inclusionary issues of who gets access to these jobs and economic benefits.

This project will compile ideas about programs and policies that help to create jobs. As a starting point, we have established the following criteria for the ideas. The proposed programs should be designed for implementation by cities and/or states (with or without federal support) and should lead to net new job creation in a short-term framework (one to three years). They should be practical (implementation not requiring major political or institutional changes); sustainable (not requiring significant new investment and feasible at a relatively low cost per job); scalable (at least at the state level); and already tested. The jobs created should be accessible for low-skilled workers and offer some career opportunity.

Ideas of job creation may include, but are not limited to:

  • Capitalizing on opportunities in health care reform
  • Scaling up green retrofit programs
  • Expanding subsidized employment programs
  • Leveraging anchor institutions for local entrepreneurship
  • Leveraging infrastructure investment and banks
  • Revisiting job creation tax credits
  • Reshaping state/local fiscal policy
  • Redefining work schedules
  • Assisting businesses wanting to expand

This research project is funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and organized jointly by the UC-Berkeley Institute for Research on Labor & Employment and Institute for Urban & Regional Development.

Big Ideas for Job Creation in a Jobless Recovery Conference

June 16, 2011

State/Federal Employment and Tax Policy

Direct Job Creation Policies in the Aftermath of the Great Recession PPT
David Neumark, UC-Irvine

Rethinking Work Opportunity: From Tax Credits to Subsidized Job Placements PPT
Elizabeth Lower-Basch, Center for Law and Social Policy

Job Preservation through Short Time Compensation PPT
Vera Brusentsev & Wayne Vroman, University of Delaware and Urban Institute

Back to the Future: Reclaiming the New Deal’s Direct Job-Creation/Employment Assurance Strategy PPT
Philip Harvey, Rutgers School of Law-Camden

Green Economy

Job Creation in the Waste Diversion Industry PPT
Nancey Green Leigh, Georgia Tech

A Revenue Option for Scaling Up Green Retrofit Programs PPT
Bill Lester, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

Making MUSH Energy Efficient PPT
James Irwin, Satya Rhodes-Conway, Sarah L. White, and Joel Rogers, Center on Wisconsin Strategy, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Enterprise Creation

Leveraging Anchor Institutions for Local Job Creation and Wealth Building PPT
Ted Howard, The Democracy Collaborative

Leveraging the Federal Tax Code to Promote Self-Employment and State and Local Job Creation PPT
Bill Schweke, Corporation for Enterprise Development

Community Based Jobs: Creating Fertile Economic Gardens and Enabling Local Resident Entrepreneurs in Tough Times PPT
Jeannine La Prad & Michael DiRamio, Corporation for a Skilled Workforce

Job Quality

Riding the Small Wave in Manufacturing to a Diverse Economy and More Good Jobs PPT
Susan Christopherson, Cornell University

Increasing the Skills of Early Childhood Workers to Create Jobs PPT
Stephen Herzenberg & Elaine Weiss, Keystone Research Center and Economic Policy Institute

The Big Idea: Flexible Informal Employment as Sustainable Job Creation PPT
Anna Joo Kim, Pomona College