Home > Leading Experts Put Forward More than a Dozen Job-Creating Ideas
Leading Experts Put Forward More than a Dozen Job-Creating Ideas
City and state governments could add more than a million new jobs to the economy and restore prosperity to communities across the country by using a set of 13 innovative ideas advanced by experts and economists. Unveiled in November by the Berkeley Institute for Research on Labor & Employment, with the support of The Annie E. Casey Foundation and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the ideas were presented in a policy brief offering “Big Ideas for Jobs” at the gathering sponsored by the University of California’s Washington Center.
The ideas in the brief — contributed by university professors, think tank researchers, and practitioners from nonprofits — range from tax breaks for the self-employed to infrastructure projects financed with private investment. They include turning waste into jobs, attracting new industries to deserted plants, and trimming hours for all workers rather than laying off some.
“Cities and states are uniquely positioned to pursue many of these options and, in most cases, can create jobs more quickly than the federal government,” said Robert P. Giloth, Annie E. Casey Foundation vice president and head of its Center for Community and Economic Opportunity. “On top of that, these ideas can help bring low-skilled workers into the economic mainstream.”