What Matters: Job creation essays curated by McKinsey & Company

What is the single most important step the U.S. should take to create more jobs?

Teach job creation at our business schools

22 July 2011

What if creating jobs — for ourselves and for others — became the mantra of our MBA, engineering, science and graduate programs?

Connect teenagers to the world of work

By Dana Goldstein

22 July 2011

If we wait until adulthood to offer workers vocational training, we risk leaving far too many of them behind.

Paint your roofs white

By Bill Clinton

19 July 2011

Look at the tar roofs covering millions of American buildings. They absorb huge amounts of heat when it’s hot.

Hire people, retire things

By Bill Drayton

19 July 2011

Is the country’s only choice either to go off the debt cliff or accept structural sky-high unemployment? There is another way.

Make permanent the research and experimentation tax credit

By Eric Spiegel

19 July 2011

Thirty years ago, the United States introduced the research and experimentation tax credit (sometimes called the research and development—or R&D—tax credit), making the U.S.

Give more money to the unemployed

By Clive Crook

19 July 2011

The unemployed, especially those with limited savings, will spend all or most of their benefits. And they just happen to be the principal victims of the recession.

Cut corporate taxes by a third

By Ross DeVol

19 July 2011

The single most important thing the U.S. can do to jumpstart job creation is to reduce the corporate tax rate to 23 percent.

Create an American infrastructure bank

By Michael Likosky

19 July 2011

Our war-tested commander in chief will earn his Nobel Prize not on the battleground of Afghanistan, but based on his success in rebuilding the American economy. His colleagues in Washington—Democrat and Republican—must demonstrate their mettle on the battlefield of job production rather than the platform of cable TV.

The time to deal with the budget deficit is now

By Martin Neil Baily

18 July 2011

By far the most important thing the federal government can do to build confidence is to agree on a ten-year plan to deal with the budget deficit. Any such plan will require higher taxes and cuts in spending.

It’s time to repeal complex and expensive government legislation

By Peter J. Wallison

18 July 2011

Congress has adopted policies that have made it difficult for businesses to anticipate their future costs.

Aim for higher inflation

By Matthew Yglesias

18 July 2011

The best step to create jobs and boost the economy would be for the Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee to announce a plan to target inflation at 3 or 4 percent.

Speaking in December of 1999 about Japan, current Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said that such a step “would confirm not only that the [Bank of Japan] is intent on moving safely away from a deflationary regime, but also that it intends to make up some of the ‘price-level gap’” that had opened up during years of low growth.

To create more jobs, start with the schools

By Michelle Rhee

18 July 2011

If we don’t teach our children critical skills, how can we expect them to create and land jobs in the twenty-first century and beyond?

Increase the money in circulation

By Ryan Avent

18 July 2011

The single most effective thing that could be done to create jobs would be for the Fed to return total spending in the economy to its pre-recession trend level.

Rolling out the welcome mat for entrepreneurs

By Carl J. Schramm

18 July 2011

If the US government really wants to stimulate job creation, it should do much more to welcome entrepreneurs and other skilled individuals from abroad who want to build companies in the United States.

Overhaul career and technical education

By Frederick Hess

18 July 2011

Economist Prakash Loungani of the International Monetary Fund has estimated that 25 percent of the unemployed are out of work today due to skill-job mismatches. Georgetown’s Harry Holzer has calculated that today’s unemployment rate of 9.

Lose the illusion of government job creation

By Michael P. Fleischer

18 July 2011

There is nothing the government can do to create more jobs. What it can do is get out of the way and let the free market grow.

Create a special job credit for the long-term unemployed

By Megan McArdle

15 July 2011

When unemployment numbers go up, as they have for the past few months, everyone gets scared. But the problem in this job market is not so much that unemployment is rising, as that it’s not falling.

Use these four cheap, no-nonsense ideas

By Paul Kedrosky

15 July 2011

Short of simply becoming cynical about job creation, what can be done? Surprisingly, quite a bit.

Supercharge the export potential of our major cities

By Bruce Katz and James S. Rubin

15 July 2011

America’s metropolitan areas still make the goods and provide the services the rest of the world wants. To date, they have rarely leveraged this potential.

Using immigration reform to create more jobs

By Darrell M. West

14 July 2011

The United States needs a policy agenda that defines immigration as a way to improve job creation, economic competitiveness, and national innovation.

The challenge of empathy

By Jody Lewen

14 July 2011

To create more jobs in this country, we must confront how we think and feel about people who are unemployed.

Unlocking capital for small business

By J. Michael Haynie

14 July 2011

The United States should create a national microlending program positioned to provide ready access to capital to small business.

Let’s create a risk-free hiring process

By Gerald Chertavian

14 July 2011

Ask any political candidate what the US can do today to create more jobs, and he or she will likely suggest solutions such as implement a job-creation tax credit, create an infrastructure bank, or fully fund the AmeriCorps program. Sure, these fixes will lead to job creation in the medium term, but what can our country do to ensure jobs are available now?

Let’s take a step back.

The way we work has changed. It’s time for the tax code to catch up

By Carl T. Camden

14 July 2011

The most important thing the United States can do to create jobs is strip away outdated policies that no longer support companies or the people who work in them.