What Should the President Do About Jobs?

The New York Times explores the finding in a survey by Gallup and Carnegie Corporation of New York that 9 out of 10 respondents favor a national program to create jobs that support Americans in need

By Carnegie Corporation of New York February 18, 2021
Future of Learning & Work
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“After a health crisis that has destroyed millions of jobs, a summer of urban protest that drew attention to the deprivation of Black communities, and another presidential election that exposed deep economic and social divides, some policymakers are reconsidering a policy tool not deployed since the Great Depression: to have the federal government provide jobs directly to anyone who wants one,” writes Eduardo Porter in the New York Times.

Porter continues:

In November, the Carnegie Corporation commissioned a Gallup survey on attitudes about government intervention to provide work opportunities to people who lost their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic. It found that 93 percent of respondents thought this was a good idea, including 87 percent of Republicans.

Even when the pollsters put a hypothetical price tag on the effort— $200 billion or more — almost nine out of 10 respondents said the benefits outweighed the cost. And hefty majorities — of Democrats and Republicans — also preferred government jobs to more generous unemployment benefits.

The question is, would the Biden administration embrace a policy not deployed since the New Deal?

Read Porter’s full New York Times article “Should the Feds Guarantee You a Job?”

TOP: Luis Mora stands in front of the closed offices of the New York State Department of Labor on May 7, 2020 in the Brooklyn borough in New York City. 3.2 million Americans filed for unemployment insurance that week bringing the total number of workers who had applied for aid to 33 million in two months. (Credit: Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)

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