The best way to create jobs would be to boost demand with another round of stimulus. Any serious stimulus, though, seems to be off the table at this point. If it is not possible to increase demand enough to bring the economy back to full employment, we can go the opposite route of sharing the work that does exist.

"The basic point is simple. If we encourage employers to deal with reduced demand by shortening work hours rather than laying people off, we can get back to full employment relatively quickly. Every month, firms lay off or fire roughly 2 million people. If this figure can be reduced by 10 percent through work sharing, it would be equivalent to creating 200,000 additional jobs a month.

A work-sharing policy uses the money that would otherwise go to unemployment benefits to compensate workers for part of their reduction in hours..."

to read Dean Baker's "Work Sharing is the Answer," August 12, 2011, click on

http://www.zcommunications.org/work-sharing-is-the-answer-by-dean-baker