Obama Administration Accomplishments List
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- Accomplishment: Jobs for Main Street Act of 2010
- What is it?
Working in harmony with TARP and ARRA, the Jobs for Main Street Act included emergency and non-emergency funding for measures to be taken to help combat the economic downturn, including funding for transportation, energy and water, education, and employment resources, including small business loans. Additionally, funds to help with the struggle during times of unemployment were allocated to Medicaid, COBRA, Housing, and unemployment benefits. (ref) An additional measure that taken to increase jobs was the airing of PSAs in late 2011 informing the public about how to recognize pirated products, and educating the public on how American jobs are lost due to pirated products (ref).
- Why does it matter?
Economic downturns easily can form into a vicious cycle. The reason is that companies which normally would invest become more conservative with their money. Since they are afraid of potential revenue loss, they save as much as possible and invest as little as possible. Small businesses that supply larger companies lose revenue and go out of business. More people are unemployed and stop shopping, so revenues drop for the big companies, repeat ad infinitum.
Previous attempts to boost shopping with an extra tax rebate were based on a good idea, but a lot of people reacted the same way I did: "Oh thank goodness; I've barely been making ends meet. I'm going to stick this in my savings account and only use it if I absolutely have to." Unfortunately, a one-time small boost in income will not encourage many people to spend more money. Most people spend more when they feel confident that they will have a steady income, so they don't have to scrimp and save everything they can just in case.
By increasing funding for the above items, Jobs for Main Street provides a solid foundation and tools for people who are willing to put the effort to get back on their feet.
As someone who has experienced unemployment without any unemployment insurance pay, I am extremely conscious of all the ways in which government assistance provides tools for those of us who work very hard to get paid work. Employment offices offer a combination of a job-search focused library, job listing, free classes in resume development and other basic job hunting skills, and computers to use for internet job searching. In Massachusetts, these are called the "One Stop Career Centers," but every state has some version of the same.
As someone who historically always has excelled in my jobs, but has completely lacked the proper skills to find a job, having someone walk me through the process was a life saver. It's incredible how fast the job-search market changes, as well as what employers look for in a resume and cover letter, so without these government funded resources, many people would struggle to figure out what is correct. I don't want to sound down on public libraries -- which provide an extremely valuable resource both through job hunting materials, educational materials, and public computers -- but a number of job searching books will include techniques that are out of date by a year after the publish date! Without an expert to offer up-to-date advice, even people with a fantastic education and perfectly appropriate work experience can find themselves struggling to get past the AI resume filter programs in order to get a real person even to see their wonderful experience.
The Jobs for Main Street Act provides much-needed funds for these agencies, as well as increasing the availability of jobs for said job searchers.
