CHAPTER 1
Getting Back to Full Employment
Chapter Summary
When the breadwinner in a household is out of work, or can’t find full-time work, it puts everyone living under
the same roof at risk of hunger. Child hunger is directly related to the poverty that results from parents being
unemployed or underemployed. Safety net
programs do not fully compensate for the loss
of income. Presently, hunger rates in the United
States remain tremendously high in part because
of a weak recovery since the end of the Great
Recession. Without a deliberate attempt to reduce
it, unemployment is likely to remain high for a
long time. Getting back to full employment must
become a higher priority for the White House,
Congress and the Federal Reserve. They have
tools to spur faster rates of job creation and put
millions of more people back to work.
MAIN RECOMMENDATIONS IN THIS CHAPTER
• The Federal Reserve Board should maintain
its pro-jobs monetary policy as long as
unemployment remains high and inflation low.
• Congress should manage its work on the national
budget differently—economic stimulus rather
than job-killing cuts.
• Congress and the president should invest in
infrastructure and emerging industries.
• Congress and the president should support
entrepreneurship in low-income communities.
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