{"id":359442,"date":"2010-02-24T18:24:19","date_gmt":"2010-02-24T23:24:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/washingtonindependent.com\/?p=77609"},"modified":"2010-02-24T18:24:19","modified_gmt":"2010-02-24T23:24:19","slug":"economists-push-for-federal-job-sharing-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/359442","title":{"rendered":"Economists Push for Federal Job-Sharing Program"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_77610\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"width: 490px\"><a href=\"http:\/\/washingtonindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/frank.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-77610\" title=\"Barney Frank\" src=\"http:\/\/washingtonindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/frank-480x319.jpg\" alt=\"House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) (EPA\/ZUMApress.com)\" width=\"480\" height=\"319\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) (EPA\/ZUMApress.com)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>As job creation continues to be the caboose of economic  recovery, employment experts of all stripes are hiking the pressure on  Congress to tackle the crisis by encouraging employers to cut hours  rather than firing workers. And more and more lawmakers are taking heed.<\/p>\n<p>Seventeen states have already adopted so-called \u201cjob-sharing\u201d  programs, which encourage employers to reduce workers\u2019 hours in lieu of  firing them outright. The state government, in these cases, then steps  in to make up a portion of the lost wages. Between 300,000 and 350,000  workers are participating nationwide, saving roughly 100,000 jobs that  would have otherwise been scrapped, according to Dean Baker, co-director  of the liberal Center for Economic and Policy Research and a long-time  supporter of the concept.<\/p>\n<p><div id=\"attachment_2754\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"width: 140px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-2754\" title=\"debt\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/08\/debt-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"Image by: Matt Mahurin\" width=\"130\" height=\"130\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image by: Matt Mahurin<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"floatButtons\">\n<div style=\"float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/digg.com\/tools\/diggthis.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div style=\"float: left; margin-bottom: 10px;\"><script type=\"text\/javascript\"\n\tsrc=\"http:\/\/d.yimg.com\/ds\/badge2.js\"\n\tbadgetype=\"square\">\n\t<?php the_permalink(); ?><\/script><\/div>\n<div style=\"float: left; margin-right: 10px;\">\n\t<script type=\"text\/javascript\">\ntweetmeme_source = \"TWI_news\";\ntweetmeme_service = \"bit.ly\";\n<\/script> <script src=\"http:\/\/tweetmeme.com\/i\/scripts\/button.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"float: left;\"><a name=\"fb_share\" type=\"box_count\" href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php\">Share<\/a><script src=\"http:\/\/static.ak.fbcdn.net\/connect.php\/js\/FB.Share\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p> Yet that\u2019s just a drop in the  bucket relative to the 12-million-job crater the country is in, leading  many economists &#8212; not all of them liberal &#8212; to push Congress for a  much larger federal investment in job-sharing programs.<\/p>\n<p>Kevin  A. Hassett, director of economic policy studies at the conservative  American Enterprise Institute, told lawmakers this week that such  programs are among the most targeted and cost-effective ways to tackle  the nation&#8217;s jobs crisis, which has left nearly one in five workers  without a job or underemployed.<\/p>\n<p>The concept is  simple: Rather than laying off a few workers during lean times,  businesses instead could spread the pain by reducing work hours for  many. In Hassett&#8217;s example, if five workers had their hours cut by 20  percent it would prevent one worker from being fired at no cost to the  company. And if Congress were to alter its policies surrounding  emergency unemployment insurance, those workers could then access a  portion of those benefits &#8212; in this case, 20 percent.<\/p>\n<p>Workers  benefit by keeping their jobs. Employers win because they don\u2019t have to  train new part-time workers. And states would gain because their share  of the partial benefits would be less than they would otherwise have to  pay.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRight now the government only really shares in  supporting that worker if you lay the whole worker off,\u201d Hassett said  Tuesday before the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.house.gov\/apps\/list\/hearing\/financialsvcs_dem\/hr_021610.shtml\">House  Financial Services Committee<\/a>, advocating a policy that isn&#8217;t  supported by the Republicans who invited him to testify. &#8220;By adopting  job sharing, we could give firms an incentive to slow job destruction.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The  call is timely. Even as the nation&#8217;s unemployment rate fell to 9.7  percent last month, the number of <a href=\"http:\/\/washingtonindependent.com\/76460\/congress-warned-not-to-forget-long-term-unemployed\">long-term  unemployed<\/a> &#8212; those without work longer than 27 weeks &#8212; jumped to a  historic high. Economists are projecting not only that unemployment  will rise later this year, but also that it will remain above 8 percent  even two years from now &#8212; higher than the peak jobless rate in either  of the last two recessions.<\/p>\n<p>Hassett pointed  out that the job numbers coming out of the Labor Department each month  are net figures reflecting the difference between the millions of jobs  created and the millions of jobs lost &#8212; a constant churning that he  says represents a vital opportunity for lawmakers interested in reducing  unemployment.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There is already a massive amount of  job creation out there,&#8221; he testified. \u201cIf we can slow job destruction  even a little bit, then we will have set the stage for big increases in  net job creation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Reducing involuntary job losses by 10  percent, Hassett estimates, would be the equivalent of adding 200,000  jobs a month to the economy. Job-sharing policies in Germany have kept  unemployment rates steady, Hassett said, even while that country&#8217;s GDP  has tanked almost as drastically as that of the United States. And an  additional perk: job sharing would be particularly beneficial to black  workers, Hassett said, for the simple reason that blacks are often the  first folks to be laid off in tough economic times.<\/p>\n<p>Congress  is paying attention. Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.)  called Hassett&#8217;s proposal &#8220;very useful.&#8221; Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.)  offered to give him an extra five minutes to testify. And Rep. Mel Watt  (D-N.C.) called job sharing \u201ca wonderful idea.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI  turned to my staff and said, \u2018Go draw me a bill that will do this kind  of sharing, if nobody else has introduced that bill,\u201d Watt said.<\/p>\n<p>Turns  out, the legislation is already out there. Bills sponsored by Rep. Rosa  DeLauro (D-Conn.) and Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) would provide more money  to the 17 states already operating job-sharing programs, while offering  additional funds to other states that choose to adopt similar  initiatives. The White House, Baker said in a phone interview Wednesday,  is supportive, though officials there seem intent to let Congress  design its own jobs legislation.<\/p>\n<p>Not everyone,  though, is on board. Republicans, claiming that the first stimulus  hasn&#8217;t done anything to help the economy, are near-united in opposition  to another large spending bill &#8212; regardless of what it contains.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m  really surprised that we&#8217;re even debating the need for a new stimulus  in light of our experience with the old stimulus,&#8221; said Rep. Spencer  Bachus (Ala.), senior Republican on the Financial Services panel.<\/p>\n<p>Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) agreed, arguing that the  Democrats&#8217; $787 billion stimulus bill was &#8220;a complete failure.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m  not even sure that John Maynard Keynes would have [supported] that  particular stimulus program,&#8221; Hensarling said. &#8220;And here we are  contemplating another one.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Testifying before the House  panel Tuesday, Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody\u2019s Economy.com,  carried another message, warning lawmakers that current interest-rate  and deficit-spending levels leave policymakers will few remedies should  the country slip back into recession. With that in mind, Zandi urged  panel members \u201cto be aggressive\u201d in crafting more stiumulus measures.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf we have another recession, we will have no policy  response,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have to err on the side of doing too much.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) (EPA\/ZUMApress.com) As job creation continues to be the caboose of economic recovery, employment experts of all stripes are hiking the pressure on Congress to tackle the crisis by encouraging employers to cut hours rather than firing workers. And more and more lawmakers are taking heed. Seventeen states [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4315,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-359442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4315"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359442\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}