EPI: Administration’s focus on job creation a good one

[ProSense]

Administration’s focus on job creation a good one

Rebecca Thiess

Earlier this year the Obama administration created the Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, tasked with advising the president on job creation policies and designing a long-term strategy for growth. Today, at their second public meeting, the council presented the president with a “progress report” that includes a number of steps to help spur hiring in areas such as construction, manufacturing, and health care, particularly in the short term. The council is right to recognize that we need to focus on additional job creation, including job creation through investments in infrastructure.

The Economic Policy Institute has long focused on how job creation policies—including investing in green technology, construction, and manufacturing—can provide not only millions of badly needed jobs, but also good jobs. In February, along with the BlueGreen Alliance, EPI released Rebuilding Green, a report noting that green investments in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act created or saved nearly 1 million jobs. Prior work from EPI on green investments has found that a commitment of $100 billion annually in new public investments over the next decade would create more than a million good jobs. Additionally, EPI has highlighted how job creation in areas such as construction and manufacturing is not only good for economic growth, but also for repairing our nation’s schools and infrastructure. EPI’s American Jobs Plan suggests, among other ideas, investing in transportation and schools in order to fill vital infrastructure needs and to provide good jobs for hundreds of thousands of workers.

Following are some EPI reports that have examined in detail the issues that the Council on Jobs and Competitiveness has been tasked to address:

Rebuilding Green: The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the Green Economy

Transportation Investments and the Labor Market

Green Investments and the Labor Market

The Job Impact of Transportation Authorization

American Jobs Plan: A Five-Point Plan to Stem the U.S. Jobs Crisis

[tridim]

1. I'm guessing Reich will be here momentarily to take his daily piss on the Administration's efforts

[woo me with science]

2. "Green Jobs Success Eludes Obama" (Will require demand-side economics to work)

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0611/56759.html


By DARREN SAMUELSOHN | 6/12/11 11:09 PM EDT

President Barack Obama heads to an energy plant in North Carolina on Monday to talk once again about the job-creating power of a green economy.....The catch? Nearly three years into Obama's presidency, the White House can't point to much solid evidence that significant numbers of Americans are scoring the green jobs the president has been touting.
.....
Obama pledged in his 2008 campaign to create 5 million green collar workers within a decade. And he’s spent considerable time since entering the White House trying to make that happen.
.....
There have also been plenty of complications. The housing market collapse that helped create the financial crisis also cut into the number of people looking to hire environmentally minded architects, builders and contractors...."It's hard to build a green building if you're not building at all," said Matt McDonald, a former Bush White House official who tracks economic data for Hamilton Place Strategies.
....
Democrats say one of the key problems with the green jobs campaign is that the money and incentives have petered out in the two-plus years since Obama signed the stimulus package. And they’re not all that optimistic about new funding opportunities given the nation’s record debt levels.
...
"I wouldn't be surprised if they use the green jobs story in the same way they're using the auto story, as a place where they can tell somewhat of a good story, even if they don't have the fact base to make it really compelling," said McDonald. "Here's the thing," he added. "There's not that many places where they can tell a good story about the economy, so the bar is very low for green jobs to be a centerpiece of his agenda."



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In other words, these initiatives in 2008 did not do very much to create jobs, because people did not have the money in their pockets to create a market for these technologies. They are unlikely to work again, UNLESS President Obama takes some serious steps away from supply side economics and toward the demand side of the equation.





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[ProSense]

3. Well,

the OP is a new initiative. Is the Politico article intended to denounce it?