PUTTING AMERICA BACK TO WORK SHOULD BE TOP ECONOMIC POLICY
Americans got some bad new last Friday with the Department of Labor
released the latest unemployment numbers. For the first time since
1983, the nation’s unemployment rate hit 10.2 percent. That means one
in ten workers in America are without work.
Nine months ago, President Obama and the Congress passed a $787
billion stimulus package to help boost our sagging economy. And while
economists and some news reports contend the recession is over – we
aren’t seeing the jobs return.
As the national debate of health care turns from a boil to a simmer,
it’s imperative that our national and state leaders begin to look for
measures to help create new jobs.
That focus on job development should begin with looking at creating
new businesses and helping small businesses. During the last decade,
nearly 70% of all new jobs were created from firms with 50 or fewer
employees. Many of the new jobs come from new companies, small or big,
but they represent new segments of our service economy.
For example, look at the computer sector with the explosion of Yahoo
and Google. Then you have smaller upstart companies in pharmaceutical
research and development and we have the potential to drive new
businesses through biotech and green energy. There is tremendous
potential we just have to push it.
The key will be helping new businesses access credit in a credit
market that is adverse to risk. The banks like to say on television
they are loaning money – but you will learn real quick in the business
world that access to credit for a business start-up, new product
launch or expansion virtually doesn’t exist. The banks are loaning
small business owners the money they need to grow.
One area that could help is providing Small Business Administration
loans to new businesses. We should also look at having the Federal
Reserve inject funds into more community banks that seem to thrive in
the small business marketplace.
State leaders should take the money that Dell Computer is giving back
to the state after getting nearly $200 million in incentives to build
their manufacturing facility in Forsythe County only to close it four
years later to the community college system to invest in the Small
Business Development Centers.
The SBDC programs offer expert help to small business owners. They
help them write a sustainable business plan looking at operational
costs, capital needs, human resources and every major element of
running a business. Providing additional resources to our community
colleges will mean they have the ability to help the start-ups and the
small business entrepreneur. We should also look at tax credits for
new job creation – providing incentives to new businesses and small
businesses for helping jump start our economy.
We need to get back to the basics in our economy and that means we
need to focus on putting Americans back to work – and there’s no
better place to do that than helping grow our nation’s small businesses.
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