HOW TO CREATE JOBS

American business leaders share their thoughts on improving employment opportunities

GET SERIOUS ABOUT JOB POLICY
"In theory, we all benefit when we can get services more cheaply abroad. But as a practical matter, there are huge costs of dislocated workers and job insecurity. The answer is not to try to stop outsourcing, but we do have to get serious about job retraining, lifetime learning, extended unemployment insurance and wage insurance. We may also want to not permit companies to deduct the expense of outsourcing from their income taxes, and use the savings to help workers who lost jobs."
— Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor, and professor of economic policy at Brandeis University .

YOU HAVE TO KEEP UP WITH THE FIELD:
"If you're the CEO of a large company, your responsibility is to your shareholders and to have your company have the lowest costs possible. So if your competition is sending jobs overseas, you're almost forced to do the same. Otherwise you're not going to be able to sell your product."
— Wayne Huizenga, chairman of Huizenga Holdings, on CNNfn last week.

LEARN FROM HISTORY:
"In the 1990s, some IT hardware production was offshored, taking jobs abroad. But when the components—disc drives, modems—came back to the U.S., they were 10% to 30% cheaper. That meant that many more U.S. businesses could afford to buy computers and use them to produce more of their products better, leading to more jobs in the U.S., especially for workers with IT skills who knew how to use the computers."
— Catherine Mann, senior fellow, Institute for International Economics.

ADAPT OR LOSE OUT:
"Our system has had obvious strains ... We need to be forward-looking to adapt our educational system to the evolving needs of the economy. Protectionism will do little to create jobs, and if foreigners retaliate, we will surely lose jobs. We need to discover the means to enhance the skills of our work force and to further open markets here and abroad."
— Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, speaking in Omaha, Neb., last week.

WE NEED TO LEARN HOW TO WIN AGAIN:
"Let's compete—by training the best workers, investing in R. and D., erecting the best infrastructure and building an education system that graduates students who rank with the world's best. Our goal is to be competitive with the best so we both win and create jobs."
— Craig Barrett, CEO, Intel Corp.

Source: [ Time.com]