Congress Needs Your Job Creation Ideas

With the unemployment rate stuck at 9.5 percent and no real sign of improvement on the near horizon, it is past time for Congress and the Administration to start getting serious about creating JOBS. That means putting a stop to the political gamesmanship. It calls for a collective rolling up the sleeves and getting down to the business of leading. It requires getting all hands on deck;  pulling out all the stops; throwing open the flood gates;  unleashing the hounds--or whatever cliché that's appropriate to convey the sense of urgency needed to get Americans back to work.

Officially there are 14.6 million Americans out of work, however that number soars to 31 million if you include those involuntarily working part time and those who have simply given up looking for a job, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In light of those startling numbers job creation has to be at the top of (and maybe the only thing on) everyone's to do list in Washington.

I applaud House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for calling Congress back from its August recess to pass a $26 billion jobs bill sought by the states to avert massive teacher, police and fire layoffs that would have made an already awful situation even worse.

In addition, I'm heartened that manufacturing jobs increased by 36,000 in July, specifically in the auto and fabricated metals industries. According to the BLS, since December 2009 manufacturing employment has expanded by 183,000.

All of that's good news, but it is far from enough. Much more needs to be done to create jobs to turn this economy around and to start bringing the unemployment numbers down.

Clearly, there's no easy fix and there are no simple answers, especially when you consider the depth of this recession. Since the start of the recession in December 2007 the ranks of the unemployed have swollen by 8.2 million. In January 2008 the unemployment rate stood at 4.7 percent. Since then the economy has been steadily shedding jobs and the unemployment has ticked up and up---June 2008, 4.9%; Dec. 2008, 5.8%; April 2009, 7%; Nov. 2009, 9%; March 2010, 9.7%; and, July 2010, 9.5%.

However, we have to stop wringing our hands and taking tentative half-measures to address the problem.  Enough with relying solely on business tax credits or investments in green technologies to spark hiring and create jobs. Those initiatives will most likely bear fruit in the long-run, but America needs to return to work now.

The bottom line is that no one party and no one person have all the answers. That's why I asking my readers to give me your suggestions for creating jobs, strengthening the economy, and most importantly putting Americans back to work.

I will take the best of your ideas and present them to key members of Congress. Maybe with an assist from you and me Congress can get serious and creative about creating jobs and putting people back to work.

Submit your ideas through our blog or by contacting us through our website.