Postscript On Solving The Jobs Problem: The Council’s Progress Report

As a follow-up to my blog post yesterday on Doing A Willie Sutton on the Jobs Problem, let’s note that Jeff Immelt, Chairman and CEO of GE and Ken Chenault, Chairman and CEO of American Express [AXP] have offered a progress report for the President’s Jobs and Competitiveness Council, which comprises 26 private-sector leaders.

The Council, they say, is taking a comprehensive approach with eight teams focused on specific areas such as skills and training, regulatory reform, and innovation. They offered five miscellaneous short-term actions that won’t surprise anyone:

• Train workers for today’s open jobs.
• Streamline permitting.
• Boost jobs in travel and tourism.
• Facilitate small-business loans.
• Put construction workers back to work.

But they also recognize this is not enough. Over the next 90 days, the council will “turn to addressing the actions needed to make a more significant, longer-term impact…. To truly bend the curve over the longer term, we need a more strategic view.”

Indeed! The Council has yet to show any sign in its progress report that it has come to terms with: what is the problem that they are trying to solve? Do they see the jobs problem as cyclical or structural? If structural, which specific structural issues? Does the committee have the right expertise with the relevant issues? Do they have the capacity on the committee to do a Willie Sutton on the jobs problem and recognize the obvious that the participants of the committee are among those responsible for the significant parts of the problem?

We look forward to the Council’s recommendations in September.