Scholars Strategy Network REPORT RELEASE: Creating Jobs in the Time of COVID-19

BOSTON, April 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- With the COVID-19 crisis wreaking havoc on the American economy, Washington's primary responses have been focused on providing stimulus. Yet as the economic toll becomes ever more clear, these policies are proving inadequate for the challenge before us.

A new policy proposal released today, "A Federal Jobs Guarantee: Anti-Poverty and Infrastructure Policy for a Better Future" by the Scholars Strategy Network lays out why this crisis demands bold action. First, millions of private sector jobs are not coming back, even once the country opens back up. Second, America needs a dramatic increase in public sector capacity. And third, direct government employment stabilizes income and reduces inequality for workers.

Written by Harvard University's Daniel Carpenter and The Ohio State University's Darrick Hamilton, the report recommends concrete options for creating new federal jobs, including:

• Millions of jobs to implement the Green New Deal; 
• At least one million jobs to retrofit and staff schools and other public goods;
• 250,000 jobs in the public health sector to support expanded health care services, COVID-19 testing, and contact tracing;
• Hundreds of thousands of jobs to expand job training, as well as unemployment insurance and other social insurance programs; and
• 100,000 jobs to support post offices and implement postal banking.

"For decades, we've under-invested in science, government, research, public health, infrastructure, and education—and let huge portions of the population, especially Black Americans, experience deep disparities in employment and wealth," said Avi Green, Scholars Strategy Network Executive Director. "By developing one big idea to address both of those problems at once, while also addressing the coronavirus crisis and the recession, Carpenter and Hamilton are pointing to a way forward."

Read the full policy proposal: https://scholars.org/contribution/federal-job-guarantee

The Scholars Strategy Network is a one-stop resource that connects journalists, policymakers, and civic leaders to America's top scholars and their research. Together they inform news and help solve the nation's toughest policy problems.

SOURCE Scholars Strategy Network