How can government best stimulate job growth: Invest in businesses that create jobs, or the people who fill them?<\/p>\n
That’s a matter for debate, as 21 states launch job initiatives using federal stimulus funds.<\/p>\n
In Charlotte, North Carolina, the Mecklenburg County Department of Social Services<\/a> is teaming up with five non-profit job training programs to create the “Opportunity Project.”<\/a> Five hundred low-income residents will have a chance to reboot their careers, thanks to $10 million dollars in federal stimulus money.<\/p>\n “We can actually place people in jobs — full-time jobs, part-time jobs — and pay 100 percent of the wages,” said DSS Director Mary Wilson.<\/p>\n Critics of such programs say federal money would be better invested with job creators, in the form of payroll tax breaks for businesses. U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA) questions what will happen to temporary jobs when federal stimulus funds run out.<\/p>\n “They’re make-do jobs,” Gingrey said. “They’re not jobs that are going to be there for the long-run. And in doing it that way, it’s much more costly than a tax cut.”<\/p>\n But the director of one of the non-profits participating in the Charlotte program says there is a case for investing in both employers and employees.<\/p>\n