Yes. There have been many direct employment programs around the world—small and large—that we can use as examples. Often these have been targeted or time-limited programs. For example, Argentina’s jobs program was implemented during the serious economic crisis in the early 2000s; it was phased out as the economy recovered. Similarly, the United States created the New Deal jobs programs during the Great Depression to deal with its employment crisis and, like Argentina, shut down those programs when economic conditions improved. On the other hand, over the past decade, India has been running a permanent JG program.

Smaller programs, such as youth employment guarantees and programs for the homeless and ex-convicts, also point to overwhelmingly positive results. The following is a brief discussion:

I. LARGE-SCALE EMPLOYMENT PROGRAMS:

1. Plan Jefes y Jefas, Argentina

2. National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), India

3. New Deal, the United States

II. YOUTH EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEES:

1. Youth Incentive Entitlement Pilot Projects (YIEPP), the United States

2. Future Jobs Fund, the United Kingdom

III. SMALL DIRECT EMPLOYMENT PROGRAMS:

Localized programs in distressed communities that serve the homeless and ex-convicts

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I. LARGE EMPLOYMENT PROGRAMS IN THE US and ABROAD

Around the world there have been large-scale direct job creation initiatives that offer useful insights.

1. Plan Jefes y Jefas in Argentina

Argentina created the Plan Jefes y Jefas in the depths of the 2001 economic crisis. It guaranteed four hours of daily work paid at the minimum wage to an unemployed (male or female) head of household. While it was not a universal public service employment program, its significance lies in the fact that it was explicitly modeled after the public service employment proposal developed in the United States (aka, the employer of last resort).

The program grew quickly to two million workers (5 percent of the population and 13 percent of the labor force participated) but it also shrunk as the economy recovered. Though the program was discontinued as the economy recovered, it exhibited key features of the JG proposal that were discussed above—it showed countercyclical features, the Jefes wage served as a base wage, it produced valuable public goods and services, and it had significant positive impact on the workers and their families, especially on marginalized communities and on women. Administration and institutional capacity were not obstacles to the program’s speedy launch and operation. The program was up and running within six months after it was signed into law.

2. National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) in India

As discussed above, the JG is a permanent, universal program that provides jobs to all, in good times or bad. The program in India comes close to such a program. The NREGA guarantees at least 100 days of wage work to each household per year. The program enshrines the right to paid work into law—a right that has been written into the constitutions of many countries, inspired by the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, though signatory countries have yet to meet that mandate. India’s program guarantees work by household only, not per individual—as in this JG proposal.

Though the social and economic conditions of India are profoundly different from those in the United States, the significance of NREGA lies in the fact that it has created a rights-based framework for wage employment programs and has charged the government with the legal responsibility for providing employment to those who ask for it.

NREGA, just like the JG, not only guarantees employment on demand, but also aims to create specific productive public assets in communities—wells, ponds, roads, parks, etc.—and provide needed public services, like water conservation, horticulture, flood prevention, drought proofing, and other environmental projects. Apart from NREGA’s documented environmental benefits, the program has reduced the pay gap between men and women amongst the poor and has helped raise wages at the bottom for private sector workers.

3. The New Deal in the United States

In many ways, the New Deal invented the model of large-scale direct employment programs during the Great Depression. An estimated 13 million workers participated in the Works Progress Administration (WPA)—the largest of the jobs programs. As Taylor (2009) argues, the WPA can be credited not only with providing income to its workers, but also with creating the infrastructure that supported the war effort as well as the postwar boom. Indeed, Taylor (2009) argues that the WPA brought the United States into the twentieth century.

In the United States, the New Deal was up and running in four months and, as noted, Plan Jefes y Jefas was up and running in six months. These programs were similar in size (relative to the national populations) to the JG program proposed here. And while the JG deviates significantly from these large-scale employment programs, research into each of them has informed this proposal.

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II. YOUTH EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEES

Experience with direct youth employment programs suggests that they bring important benefits to young people

1. Youth Incentive Entitlement Pilot Projects (YIEPP) in the United States

In the United States from 1978 to 1980, the YIEPP guaranteed employment to 76,000 youth. In its short life, the program was especially successful in reducing youth unemployment rates, closing the employment-to-population gap between black and white youth, and improving their ability to transition to private sector employment opportunities. The largest and most drastic employment increases were observed among black youth. Program evaluation documents indicate that, once again, delivering the job guarantee was not stunted by administrative challenges. Indeed, despite some startup difficulties, the program boasted significant managerial success (Farkas 1982).