Obama’s newest jobs plan for the unemployed: Go work for free!

[Better Believe It]

How Not to Solve the Jobs Problem
By Robert Kuttner
August 30, 2011

There is a lot of circumstantial evidence that President Obama is planning to include in his eagerly anticipated post-Labor Day jobs speech a variation on a truly lame state program called Georgia Works. The program, begun in 2003, pays people on unemployment insurance a small additional stipend, currently $240, if they agree to work 24 hours a week, for no wages, for a private employer while unemployed, in exchange for some form of training by the employer.

President Obama: “We’ve got to rethink how we do unemployment insurance. There is a smart program in Georgia. What they do is they say, all right, instead of you just getting unemployment insurance, just a check, what we’re going to do is we will give a subsidy to any company that hires you with your unemployment insurance so that you’re essentially earning a salary and getting your foot in the door into that company. And if they hire you full-time, then the unemployment insurance is used to subsidize you getting trained and getting a job.”

But that’s not how the program works at all. Basically, the company gets free labor while the person is receiving unemployment insurance. If the company does hire the person, there is no ongoing wage subsidy or training subsidy.

Obama is fearful that Republicans may block the next extension of unemployment insurance, and this Republican-style embellishment might be part of a bipartisan deal.


Read the full article at:

http://blog.prospect.org/robert_kuttner/2011/08/how-not-to-solve-the-jobs-prob.html


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House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said he believes there are some areas where his conference can work with Obama on policies to help get people back to work. In a statement, he said he agreed with Obama's suggestion earlier this week that states should get more control over infrastructure projects. Cantor also mentioned reforms to the unemployment system as an area where there might be some compromise.

http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/801-economy/179317-expectations-low-for-august-jobs-figures


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Feeble President, Feeble Plans
Obama’s jobs plan: Go work for free!
by Robert Kuttner
September 2, 2011

On Wednesday, I posted an item titled “How Not to Solve the Jobs Problem.” The case in point is President Barack Obama’s embrace of a state program called Georgia Works, which tries to turn unemployment insurance into a kind of sing-for-your-supper “workfare” program.

Jobless workers in Georgia drawing unemployment compensation are encouraged to go work for private employers—for free—in exchange for some kind of training. They get a small onetime stipend of $240 as an inducement. The premise is that working for free will help them get a foot in the door and maybe get hired (if the employer hires). According to Georgia’s own statistics, however, only about 15 percent do.

But let’s drill deeper. Why is the administration embracing such a right-wing and futile program? Obviously, the problem in Georgia is the unemployment rate, of 10.1 percent, not the fact that unemployed workers lack a few weeks’ training for low-wage jobs.

.... sources close to the White House say the president and his political advisers are terrified that the Republicans will block an extension of unemployment insurance, except in exchange for draconian cuts in other social programs. They hope that if they extend this feeble olive branch, Republicans might go along. My sources, however, say no such deal with the Republicans has been struck.

Read the full article at:

http://prospect.org/cs/articles?article=feeble_president_feeble_plans