Labor Day 2011: Not Everyone Will Be Celebrating #P2 #TCOT FROM Knowledge@Wharton

If you look up the words "Labor Day" on the web site of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), you will learn that this holiday — first celebrated on September 5, 1882, in New York City — "is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers." The labor force, the site notes, "has added materially to the highest standard of living and the greatest production the world has ever known…. It is appropriate, therefore, that the nation pay tribute on Labor Day to the creator of so much of the nation's strength, freedom, and leadership — the American worker."

Unfortunately, for 9.1% of these lauded American workers, Labor Day 2011 finds them without a job and, in some cases, with little hope of finding one soon. The economy continues to limp along two years after the financial crisis, and most economists don't expect the employment situation to improve until the end of 2012, at the earliest. Department of Labor figures released on September 2 piled on more bad news: Not only did the  unemployment rate remain unchanged for the month of August, but no new jobs were added to the economy despite expectations that the figures would show some improvement.

Acknowledging the importance of jumpstarting the economy and getting people back to work, President Obama plans to lay out a jobs agenda in a speech to Congress on Thursday.

KnowledgeToday asked several Wharton professors to each propose one idea for getting people back to work.

Peter Cappelli, director of Wharton's Center for Human Resources and professor of management: "The most successful government policy for encouraging jobs is hiring subsidies — programs where the government gives employers some kind of subsidy for each new hire they make, usually in the form of a tax break of some kind. There has been extensive research on these programs, especially in Europe where they have been popular, and they work better than anything else at promoting new jobs. They have been tried in various forms in the U.S., mainly to help disadvantaged workers get into the labor market, but they were also used after the 1991 recession to promote hiring. While the results have not been spectacular, they are better than any other option under consideration."

REST AT  http://knowledgetoday.wharton.upenn.edu/2011/09/labor-day-2011-not-everyone-will-be-celebrating/