Our Biggest Challenge And Highest Priority: JOBS

Tom Donohue
President and CEO, U.S. Chamber of Commerce

The 26 foot tall banner that stretches across the front of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce headquarters in Washington, D.C., spells out our nation’s biggest challenge and our highest priority in one word—J-O-B-S. That banner has served as a reminder to us and to all of Washington for nearly 15 months where our focus must be.

But over that same time period, we’ve seen the economy sputter. The June jobs report showed a discouraging rise in unemployment—9.2%. It’s more than 16% when you include part-timers who can’t find full-time work and those who have dropped out of the workforce altogether. A new survey released by the Chamber shows that 64% of small business executives say that they are not expecting to add to their payrolls in the next year. Another 12% plan to cut jobs.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that the fundamental can-do spirit of the American people hasn’t changed—neither has its free enterprise principles. We saw that firsthand at the Chamber’s second annual Jobs Summit on July 12, bringing together businesses large and small to brainstorm what it’s going to take to keep and create jobs and to turn around the economy.

The Chamber believes that stronger and faster economic growth is the best way to successfully put Americans back to work. For the past two years, however, we’ve treated the symptoms with few results. We must clear away government impediments and the resulting uncertainty that has strangled businesses, stifled our economy’s ability to grow, and slowed job creation. With government out of the way and the principles of free enterprise driving growth, we can deliver more customers for businesses, more revenues for government, and, most importantly, more jobs for Americans.

How do we do that? We must increase domestic energy production and reinvest in our nation’s crumbling transportation, energy, and water infrastructure. We must expand trade to send more American goods to customers across the globe, starting with ratification of free trade agreements with Colombia, Korea, and Panama. Regulatory burdens that hamstring American businesses must be eliminated so we can bring certainty back to the markets. And we must make long-term investments in our workforce, in our capital markets, and in technology innovations that will keep us globally competitive.

America has strong demographics, abundant natural resources, the world’s most productive workers, and a long history of picking ourselves up when we are down. We can do it again—and we must do it again to ensure our future prosperity.