The need to invest in our nation's crumbling infrastructure goes back decades. But today, with millions of people unemployed, there is unprecedented momentum to act. Women, immigrants, and people of color are disproportionately represented in these numbers as are young adults. President Joe Biden and Congress are counting on infrastructure…

A misplaced obsession with the size of federal budget deficits remains the single biggest obstacle to enacting new measures to create jobs on a scale commensurate with the crisis in the American labor market. Even assuming that budget scoring rules can't be changed, at the very least policy makers should be aware of the true impact a given piece…

The National Commission for Manpower Policy assesses the effectiveness of public service employment (PSE) programs. Reports on numbers of jobs created, types of PSE workers, and the amount and effects of job displacement caused by the policy of "fiscal substitution" in local jurisdictions. Recommendations include strengthening PSE…

The current displaced worker initiative towers over the 30-year effort to bring the economically disadvantaged into the mainstream of the labor market. The Congressional Budget Office defines displacement as all workers 18 years of age and older who lose full-time employment due to slack work, job abolition, or plant closure. Major displaced…

Compares federal job creation efforts of the 1970s to the Work Project Administration (WPA) program in the 1930s. Traces the development of the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) and stresses the need to unite public and private resources to achieve both balanced economic growth and full employment. (SK)

The federal government needs to provide employment and training assistance to help dislocated workers to become reemployed. Worker mobility assistance should not be focused upon as a major thrust of reemployment programs, since American workers are remarkably resistant to pressures to move to more promising labor markets. Efficient and effective…

A policy that addresses youth unemployment with monetary expansion for similar fiscal policies is criticized as compounding the problem, and alternative solutions are offered. Accordingly, a brief look at youth labor market characteristics, pertinent labor market theory, and the present industrial distribution of employed youth is offered. A…

The United Nations (UN) General Assembly has mandated the Youth Employment Network, an initiative to address youth unemployment. Policy recommendations have been finalized, including an ambitious political process now being put into place. It invites heads of state and government to develop national action plans with targets for job creation and…

These 24 essays look at what is wrong with federal employment training efforts and offer ideas for building a more effective system. A preface describes "The Governance of Federal Employment and Training Efforts" (Halperin). An "Introduction" (Zuckerman) discusses the sources of these essays that explore the implications of…

In the 1980s and the early 1990s Congress failed to approve enterprise zone legislation which sought to help revitalize areas of high unemployment, poverty, and crime and low educational achievement by reducing taxes, relieving regulation, and eliminating other barriers to development. Establishment of comprehensive and sustained enterprise zone…