Friday, October 30, 2009

Issue Lab

Issue Lab:
Job Sharing: Tax Credits to Prevent Layoffs and Stimulate Employment

Contributing Organization(s): Center for Economic and Policy Research

Author(s)/Creator(s): Dean Baker

The unemployment rate is expected to average 10.2 percent for 2010, 9.1 percent for 2011, and 7.3 percent for 2012. With this in mind, this Issue Brief describes a job sharing tax credit, designed to provide a quick and substantial boost to the economy. It would use tax dollars to pay firms to shorten the typical workweek, while keeping pay constant. This should cause employers to want to hire additional workers. A rough estimate of the impact of this tax credit is between 1.3 and 2.7 million jobs created.

1 comment:

TheTrucker said...

In a period of slack demand and fear, any grant to the "firm" will be taken by the owners and the management and "saved" just as it would if workers were to receive a tax cut.

IMHO, there is no "trickle down" top side method to "juice" the economy. The "investor" and the "rentier" will not become philanthropists if given more money and the bank bailouts seem to prove that point.

If true health care reform is delivered in the USA to take away some of the fear and anxiety of the producer class then that would be a bottom side stimulus that would improve the situation. All of the infrastructure projects seem a good idea but health care is more of a need than road repair and it seems to me that it would deliver a stronger stimulus.