Generating Jobs: How to Increase Demand for Less-skilled Workers

Generating Jobs asks whether anything can be done to improve the lot of low-skilled workers by intervening in the labor market on their behalf. These "micro demand-side" policies seek to improve wages and employment levels - either by lowering the costs of hiring low-skilled workers through employer subsidies, or by legislating wage levels, benefit levels, or hours of employment, or by providing employment via government jobs. Although these policies are not currently popular in the United States, they have long been used in many countries. Generating Jobs asks if any of these policies might be applicable to the current problems of low-skilled workers in the United States.