Percentage of Long-Term Unemployed American Workers as of February 2010

The first few months of 2010 have made some cautiously optimistic that we have begun to see initial signs of recovery in our job market. The unemployment rate for February was 9.7 percent, holding steady from the previous month. However, even with the end of the recession last summer and the subsequent slowing of unemployment growth, we are clearly experiencing a jobless recovery.

There are now 14.9 million Americans who have been unemployed for an average of 30 weeks- an all-time high. Of these, 6.1 million (40.9%) have been unemployed for more than six months. Unfortunately, the unemployment rate understates the true weakness of the labor market as it excludes those who want to work but who have given up actively searching as well as people who are working but can't get full-time employment. When these workers are factored in, the number of unemployed and under-employed comes to 26.2 million workers or one in six of all U.S. workers. This is more than double the total at the start of the recession.

A demographic breakdown shows that while all major groups have experienced substantial increases in unemployment, men, racial and ethnic minorities, young workers, and workers with lower levels of schooling are disproportionately feeling the impact. According to the Economic Policy Institute, unemployment was 15.8 percent among black workers and 12.4 percent among Hispanic workers in February, compared to 8.8 percent among white workers (increases of  6.8, 6.1, and 4.4 percentage points, respectively, since the start of the recession). For workers age 25 or older, unemployment reached 10.5 percent for high school educated workers versus five percent for those with a college degree (increases of 5.8 and 2.9 percentage points, respectively, since the start of the recession). And while all states are experiencing some degree of unemployment, it is mostly concentrated in the Midwest, California, and the Southwest.  Michigan's rate, the worst in the nation, was 14.3 percent as of January, while California's stood at 12.5 percent.

In their recent report, the Economic Policy Institute offered some particularly alarming data for workers in those hardest hit groups and their families. It forecasts that unemployment in 2010 could reach 18.1 percent for African American workers nationally and a staggering 27.8 percent for African American workers in Michigan. According to the report, these high rates of joblessness could leave half of all the country's African American children in poverty.

If the economy creates an average of 200,000 jobs a month going forward, which is a reasonable rate by most estimates, it will still take over a decade to reduce unemployment to 5 percent.[1] At the core of this jobless recovery is a significant structural change in our economy that is leading to an oversupply of lower-skilled workers, a geographic "resorting" of where the jobs are, and ongoing uncertainty about the kinds of skills and training that are needed to prepare Americans for the jobs of tomorrow.

This means that, for all the promise of the Jobs Bill recently passed by Congress, this will be, at most, a short-term fix. What is needed is a long-term investment strategy to grow our economy, retool our existing workforce, and prepare the next generation of America's workforce for jobs. This strategy must pay particular attention to race, class, and location of America's workers.

Turning around this dire situation will require a heavy lift for America and demands long-term collaboration among government, foundations, the private sector, and the non-profit sector.  At the Surdna Foundation, while we stand ready to leverage short-term strategies to help America's workers, we are also committed to investing in advocacy, policy reform, practice, and programs that support a longer-term vision and address the core of America's economic and workforce challenges to ensure that we rebuild in a manner that helps us realize a more sustainable and just future for America's workers and communities.  To this end, we are investing in infrastructure and place-making efforts that will not only help put Americans back to work but also strengthen the foundation on which the next, more sustainable economy to grow. At the core of these efforts, it will be critical to make sure those most affected by the recession have access to these jobs, and that the jobs created from these investments are quality jobs that lead to additional opportunities for further skill-building and career advancement.

We are also committed to improving the overall effectiveness, efficiency, and connectivity of economic development, education, and workforce development efforts, investing in strategies that break down the silos among these systems to maximize their impact to help low- and moderate-income workers. In addition, we recognize that our identities' as Americans are changing and so we are committed to growing our economy to include workers that reflect the changing demographics of our population. Therefore we are supporting the development of high-growth, minority-owned businesses so that our economy of tomorrow better represents who we are as Americans.

Finally, we recognize that it is not enough to simply create jobs if those jobs do not offer family-sustaining wages, benefits, opportunities for career advancement and self-fulfillment. Nor is it sustainable when a worker comes back to her community without strategies to protect her earnings through responsible financial tools that help her build and preserve assets. This gap, in part, has led us to the economic challenges we are facing today. For this purpose, we will invest in strategies that help rebuild the economic stability of America's workers, especially those of our "fragile middle class," through enhanced asset-building strategies and a stronger commitment to quality jobs.

At the Surdna Foundation, we believe that such a comprehensive approach is necessary if we want to achieve greater economic resilience. We recognize that such fundamental changes to how we view and invest in our economy and our workforce will take time but see this approach as essential to fulfilling our mission to build strong local economies that are just and sustainable.

For more information about our approach to our grantmaking, please review our grant guidelines.

[1] Signs of Healing in the Labor Market though Unemployment Remains High, Economic Policy Institute.

By Robert Pollin, Department of Economics and Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts-Amherst

On March 22, the Surdna Foundation convened a small conference of researchers at its New York City headquarters on the topic of "Major Economic Challenges Ahead in Building a Clean-Energy Economy in the United States."  I had the opportunity to work with colleagues at the Surdna Foundation in helping to organize this event.

The aim of the conference was to bring together a wide range of researchers whose work either directly or indirectly addresses the economic challenges of transforming the United States into a clean-energy economy over the next 20-30 years.  The conference participants who have been working explicitly on matters of clean energy included Marilyn Brown of Georgia Tech, Mark Delucchi of UC Davis, Gary Gereffi of Duke, Skip Laitner of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, and Robert Repetto of the UN Foundation, as well as my University of Massachusetts colleagues James Heintz and Heidi Garrett-Peltier.  Those who work in other areas related to clean energy included Eileen Appelbaum of Rutgers, who works on labor markets and gender issues; Fred Block of UC Davis, whose recent research is on U.S. industrial policy; Richard Freeman of Harvard, whose research covers a wide span of issues in labor economics; and Chad Stone of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, who is interested in linking a clean-energy agenda with measures to reduce poverty.  The other conference participants, offering important perspectives as non-specialists, included John Hawkins and Beth Herz of Surdna and Debbie Zeidenberg of PERI.

The debates over major issues of concern started spontaneously and immediately in the morning, even before the first presentation (my own) began.  The high energy level was maintained non-stop throughout the full day meeting.  At the same time, the discussions were focused, both around strictly methodological issues and broader concerns about policy.

In terms of the policy ideas coming out of the discussion, as well as written comments provided by participants after they had time to reflect on our discussions, I think the main ideas can be summarized as follows:

Stress energy efficiency. Media portraits of a clean-energy agenda concentrate on images of windmills or solar panels.  Obviously, renewable energy sources, in particular wind and solar power, will be major factors in building a clean-energy economy in the U.S.  But investments in energy efficiency will play at least as important a role.  This includes investments in retrofitting our existing building stock; enhancing the efficiency of our electrical grid transmission system, through "smart grid" investments; and dramatically expanding our public transportation systems.

At least in the short-run, there are several major advantages of such investments in energy efficiency relative to renewable energy investments.  These include:  1) The technologies are known and reliable, so that the risks associated with such investments are low; 2) Energy efficiency investments will necessarily take place in all communities, and the spending will be concentrated within those communities as opposed to leaking out of the communities through imports; and 3) These investments are major engines of new job creation, with a wide range of opportunities becoming available in all communities.

Industrial Policies. Fred Block stressed the point that the February 2009 economic stimulus program, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), incorporated for the first time in the U.S. a broad set of measures to stimulate private investments in clean energy.  But the ARRA is designed only as a two-year program.  Thus, Block asks, "What additional policy steps are required to catalyze the high levels of private investment and spending in clean energy and infrastructure that are needed from 2011 onwards?  How do we assure that the right tax incentives, financing structures, and regulatory rules are in place to assure the levels of "clean investment" needed on both economic and environmental grounds?"

Incorporating Private and Public Funding Sources. The ARRA provided an unprecedented level of federal financial support for a clean-energy investment agenda.  That support was financed through federal deficit spending.  Moving forward, we certainly cannot expect comparable levels of support for clean-energy investments coming from federal deficit spending.   A major policy research question will therefore be how to design an approach to financing that will maximize whatever is likely to be available for this agenda.  For example, Chad Stone suggested that we focus on ways of redirecting the existing levels of federal R&D spending to support a clean-energy agenda.  A broader question is how to create incentives for the private sector to redirect a significant share of their investment funds to clean energy.

Low-Wage Workers and the Poor. If, at least in the short-run, the primary effect of a clean-energy policy agenda is to raise energy prices for low-income households, then this will certainly undermine any long-term prospects for the clean-energy project.  By contrast, my PERI colleagues and I have proposed that there are three basic ways in which a clean-energy investment agenda can benefit low-income people:  1) by creating abundant new job opportunities; 2) by lowering home energy costs through building retrofits; and 3) by significantly lowering transportation costs through major investments in public transit.  Beyond these channels, Chad Stone emphasized that a cash assistance program is still a vital ingredient in a climate and energy program designed to put a price on carbon, since low-income people will disproportionately feel the effects of any increase in fossil fuel prices.

Improving Communications. Several conference participants stressed the central role of improving communication of our research findings and policy recommendations.    This is certainly an area that will require much more effective work, including joint efforts between researchers and those with more expertise in broadly-based communications initiatives.

The overarching purpose of our conference was to explore more deeply the ways in which a clean-energy investment agenda can become a centerpiece of economic policy in the U.S. over the next generation.  Lots of important ideas came out of the conference.  Most importantly, the conference enabled us to see more clearly both how much we have achieved to date and the major challenges that we face moving forward.

By Bruce Katz

If there's a silver lining to be found in the Great Recession, it's that it has forced the nation to step back, take stock of where we've been, and begin to shift our priorities toward more productive, sustainable economic activities.  In the process, it has also brought long overdue attention to the older cities and metros of the country's industrial heartland, particularly those most impacted by the near-collapse of the auto sector.

On May 18, over 300 government, civic, educational, business, and philanthropic leaders from these communities traveled to D.C. to talk with members of Congress and the administration about how they can partner together to transform their long-struggling economies.  The Summit, entitled "Auto Communities and the Next Economy: Partnerships in Innovation" featured a stellar cast of speakers and panelists, and an audience eager to hear what they had to say.  The optimism in the room at the onset of the day was tentative (decades of economic decline tend to quell expectations).  By 5:00, however, the mood had radically changed.

Ed Montgomery, the executive director of the White House Council on Automotive Communities and Workers, helped set the tone early on as an announcement was made about the administration's crucial decision to dedicate $836 million of federal dollars to help clean up environmental problems at closed automotive sites, and put these blighted facilities back into productive use.  The announcement was critical both substantively-such an investment is vital to auto communities' efforts to renew their economies-and symbolically, as it demonstrates, in very real ways, the commitment of the federal government to these places.

As the event progressed, however, hope continued to swell for reasons perhaps less tangible, but equally significant.  Throughout the day, program participants broke away from more traditional talk on revitalizing distressed urban communities and began to engage instead in a very different discourse, one focused on how the big economic decisions made in Washington-on trade, on capital, on tax, on manufacturing-impact the ability of state and metropolitan leaders to develop and commercialize new technologies, export their goods and services to countries abroad, and ultimately create and preserve jobs and businesses.  It was the 'macro' meeting the 'metro' right there on the dais, conveying, maybe not even with full intent, a powerful message that everyone in that room knew departed from traditional orthodoxy.

Our collective charge forward is to strengthen this connection and build the public and private partnerships needed to help propel America's older industrial communities into the Post-Recession economy.  As we at Brookings have argued, this "next" economy will be one that is at once export-oriented, low-carbon, innovation-fueled, and opportunity-rich.  It will be an economy where we export more and waste less, innovate in what matters, deploy and produce more of what we invent and make education a competitive priority for the nation. And, importantly, it will be an economy that could play quite well to the global market experience, the research and educational prowess, the advanced manufacturing expertise, and the other distinctive strengths of auto-impacted and older industrial communities.

As the Summit revealed, countless state and regional innovations aimed at re-tooling these metros are already underway, driven by growing alliances among business, nonprofit, government, and philanthropic leaders like the Surdna Foundation, whose longstanding investments in older industrial cities and metros have made such efforts possible. But they can't do it alone:  They need a responsive federal government to help them overcome their challenges, leverage their assets, and take creative ideas, policies, and programs to scale.

The imperatives of the next economy are well understood, demonstrated by President Obama's call to double U.S. exports, expand federal investment in science, technology and education and modernize the nation's infrastructure to help our communities compete globally.  Central elements of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), as well as dozens of programs and investments enacted in the president's FY 2010 budget, and proposed in the president's FY2011 budget, will help move the ball forward.

But this is just a start.  Ensuring a competitive position in the next economy demands that the United States thinks and acts more boldly and strategically about what it will take to spur the kind of economic growth that will not only bring about a healthy recovery, but make the nation strong and prosperous in the years to come.  In practice, this means establishing a common national platform for private-sector led economic growth, particularly in emerging markets like clean energy.  It means getting smarter about how, where, and on what precious federal dollars are spent to stimulate innovation in both new and existing industries.  And it means designing programs and policies that are attentive to the attributes and market realities of the nation's auto-impacted and older industrial metropolitan areas so that they can be full participants-indeed, leaders-in the country's economic transition.

The level of dialogue and participation that was achieved at the Summit provided good reasons to be optimistic, however cautiously, about the future of these communities.  It's now up to local, state, and federal leaders and stakeholders to use it as a launching pad from which to grow and nurture their assets, and build a stronger nation in the process.

Bruce Katz is the Vice President and Founding Director of the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC.

The Surdna Foundation, a New York City-based family foundation founded by John E. Andrus in 1917, seeks a Program Associate to support its Sustainable Environments Program.  With assets over $700 million and a grantmaking budget in excess of $30 million, Surdna focuses in three grantmaking areas: Sustainable Environments, Strong Local Economies, and Thriving Cultures. The Surdna Foundation seeks to foster just and sustainable communities in the United States-communities guided by principles of social justice. The work environment at Surdna is team-oriented and collegial and diversity is valued.

Responsibilities

The Program Associate (PA) for the Sustainable Environments (SE) Program provides all administrative support for two professional staff members: a Program Director and a Program Officer. The PA also provides substantive programmatic support to the portfolio including reviewing and responding to letters of inquiry from grant seekers, supporting due diligence for potential grants, keeping the program up-to-date on relevant news developments, and monitoring grantee progress.  The administrative work in support of the SE Program includes editing and proofing grantmaking dockets and program budget in advance of each of three annual board meetings; scheduling meetings/phone calls and arranging travel schedules for the SE Program's professional staff members; organizing mid-size special events that support the program's goals; creating expense reports; speaking directly with grantees, grant seekers and Surdna's Board of Directors.  There are also grants management responsibilities including writing discretionary grant recommendations and working with the Grants Administrator to track incoming proposals, grants, and grantee reports for the SE Program.  The Program Associate will also work closely with the Office Manager in maintaining office systems. The Program Associate works as a part of a small team of Program Associates supporting the other grantmaking areas, providing mutual support on large projects and peak load periods.  The candidate should be an agile problem solver with the ability to handle several administrative tasks simultaneously, and be able to maintain patience and composure while handling competing demands.  This position offers exceptional access to the environmental community and to the practice of philanthropy.

Qualifications

• BA/BS degree required. A degree in a related field and an interest in nonprofit/ environmental issues are highly preferred.
• Two-years minimum work experience, with previous office/administrative experience required.
• Previous nonprofit or foundation experience is a plus.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook.
• Excellent analytical thinking, writing, speaking and editing skills.
• A strong team-player, with a diplomatic, professional manner, and a sense of humor.
• Commitment to applying skills broadly within Surdna in support of the foundation's mission.

Competitive salary and excellent benefits.

Surdna Foundation is an equal opportunity employer

Please send resume and cover letter to:

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Submissions accepted on rolling basis.

Deadline for submissions - July 16^th, 2010