The True Extent of U.S. Unemployment
In the past few years official unemployment has gone from a high of 13% to below 4%. That may seem like a huge difference, but it’s not. The ups and downs of official employment are dwarfed by chronic, massive, hidden joblessness official unemployment rates don’t reflect. The truth is, 40% of working age Americans – 100 million people -- don’t work. 80 to 85 million of them would like to.
Rx for Job Recovery
None of the multitrillion-dollar stimulus packages Congress has passed in recent years, from deep corporate tax cuts to infrastructure spending to the Inflation Reduction Act, are directly targeted to job creation. None will create anything close to the tens of millions of new jobs we need to unwind mass joblessness and get America working. There is only one policy that can create jobs at this scale, and Get America Working! has articulated it: tax things, not people.
Testimonials
“Get America Working! can help ensure all workers benefit from more opportunities, a faster- growing economy, and true sustainability.”
““A potential windfall of human and social capital already exists in the accumulated population of chronically under- and unemployed groups, including older people, younger people, individuals of color, people with disabilities, and immigrants. Get America Working! is at work transforming this vast potential into a much-needed reality. There could be no better time for their essential work!” ”
““Get America Working! estimated that [tax shifting] could generate up to 45 million full-time equivalent jobs…. Millions of Americans want to go back to work. Here’s a way for Washington to open the door: Eliminate the payroll tax, and replace the revenue with non-labor taxes. ”
“Get America Working! addresses the millions [of] part-timers and those discouraged and dropped from the official US unemployment count and the shrinking labor force participation rate hovering in the 60% range. This non-partisan group points out how the official…unemployment figure masks the truth, and that over 100 million working-age Americans are not working – some by choice but the overwhelming majority for lack of job opportunities.”
“[Payroll tax shifting is] the one reform which would generate much faster job growth and ease the tax burden on employees and employers alike [is to] eliminate the payroll tax and replace it with non-labor taxes.”
““The revenue from a carbon tax could be used to offset a portion of the Social Security payroll tax, providing a pro-growth measure that reduces the cost of labor to employers and increases the returns for employees…. A revenue-neutral carbon tax where the proceeds are used to reduce the payroll tax is pro-growth, pro-work and pro-family. It would also be a progressive tax cut for millions of Americans. ”
““The payroll tax is, after all, a tax on work. Cutting it would encourage more people to join the labor force; it would also motivate those who are already working to increase the number of hours they work. Cut the tax, and the supply of labor will increase.”
