I Am Empowered - I am the National Urban League

The National Urban League (NUL) analyzes policy debates in all areas from a job creation lens in order to be in the best position to design and promote targeted solutions that are innovative, effective and cost-efficient at facilitating job creation in hard-hit African American and urban communities. These include:

Public-private partnerships:

Public-private partnerships are an efficient solution for distributing the costs of alleviating investment, capital and regulatory hindrances that stifle job growth. Examples include partnerships to train urban residents for jobs in growing industries, incentives to promote the purchase of American manufactured goods by public and semi-public agencies, or shared financing obligations to invest in outdated urban infrastructure.

Solutions for establishing a solid and sustained foothold in emerging industries:

It is critical to have solutions that facilitate various points in the growth pipeline of emerging innovation industries in technology, broadband and energy. These include boosting minorities in STEM education, access to capital for minority entrepreneurs and tax inducements for urban commercialization of innovation.

Direct job creation:

When private demand is insufficient to drive economic growth and reduce the unemployment rate, financial support to localities and non-profits that employ people to provide much needed services in local communities helps to generate demand and reduce budget deficits. NUL has estimated that robust job creation can reduce the federal budget deficit by $310 billion.

Initiatives designed for immediate impact at the local level:

Government-sponsored economic development initiatives such as the Community Development Financial Institution Fund (CDFI) and New Market Tax Credits (NMTC) are proven and effective tools for fostering economic investment and job creation in those areas with the highest level of need. NUL has taken an active role in bringing these initiatives directly to our communities through the scheduled 2011 launch of the NUL CDFI, and an ongoing partnership with Stonehenge Capital for the placement of New Markets Tax Credits for development projects in economically challenged areas.

Job Training – The Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA) must be reauthorized in the 112th Congress. Focus must be placed on preparing and retraining workers for 21st century jobs by targeting young adults with less than a college education, as well as high school dropouts and older workers whose jobs were eliminated by the recent recession. Additional key NUL recommendations include:

• Restoring the Summer Youth Jobs Program as a stand-alone program and funding it with new monies at $5-7 billion to employ five million teens during the summer
• Insuring equitable representation of Minority Community Based Organizations on State and Local Workforce Investment Boards (WIBs) where policy and programmatic decisions are made
• Directly funding National Community-Based Intermediary Organizations
• Amending WIA to include the Urban Jobs Act of 2011 (S.922/H.R.683)
• Increasing the targeting percentage in WIA Youth Services to reach more out-of-school youth
• Reviewing WIA Performance Standards to prevent creaming the most job ready

Unemployment Insurance – Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits provide basic and essential support to people out of work due to no fault of their own and play an important role in stimulating the economy during times of slow economic growth. NUL believes that strengthening the system requires:

• Making the extension of benefits automatic in periods of extreme economic hardship which will provide the certainty that is essential for the UI payments to have the optimum stimulatory effect
• Adequately funding the UI program to ensure consistent and uninterrupted payment of benefits, especially during economic downturns
• Modernizing state UI eligibility rules that restrict the ability of certain classes of workers to access UI benefits, many of whom are minority and low-wage workers.
• See Report: Achieving Fairness and Efficiency in Unemployment Insurance - http://www.nul.org/sites/default/files/UnemploymentInsurance_June2010.pdf