US President Barack Obama is asking
major corporations for their help in
putting the long-term unemployed back
to work.
CEOs from companies like Apple,
Walmart, Visa and Boeing are heading to
the White House on Friday to deliver
commitments to do their part.
Over 300 companies have signed on so
far, the White House said.
Although the unemployment rate has
declined to 6.7 per cent, long-term
joblessness in the US remains a major
problem.
The concern is that the longer someone
is out of a job, the harder it gets to find
a new one.
Companies are less likely to hire people
who haven’t used their skills in months
or wonder why another employer hasn’t
already snatched them up.
With that concern in mind, the Obama
administration has been working for
months to exact commitments from
companies to ensure their hiring
practices don’t discriminate against
long-term job-seekers.
That includes doing away with
candidate-screening methods that
disqualify applicants based on their
current employment status.
It also means ensuring that jobs ads
don’t discourage unemployed workers
from applying.
The White House couldn’t say how many
unemployed Americans might benefit
from the initiative but expected the
effects to snowball.
“We consider this not the destination,
but the launch,” said Gene Sperling, who
heads the White House’s National
Economic Council.
“Our hope is that as people see the
meeting with the president, the pledge,
that more will come work with us.”
Among the companies taking part:
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp and 21st
Century Fox.
Sperling said he emailed the
conservative business mogul about the
initiative, and Murdoch personally wrote
back to say he supported it.
Obama also plans to sign a presidential
memo on Friday directing the federal
government to apply the same standards
to its own hiring practices.
The Obama administration will also
direct $US150 million in grants toward
partnership programs that retrain,
mentor and place unemployed workers.
The initiative marks the latest attempt
by Obama to use what executive authority
he has to improve economic conditions
for Americans despite a political climate
that makes enacting his legislative
agenda nearly impossible.
In the past, Obama has supported
legislation in Congress that would make
it illegal for employers to discriminate
based on one’s employment status or
history.
“In terms of legislation. Let’s face it:
That’s not going to happen,” Sperling
said.
major corporations for their help in
putting the long-term unemployed back
to work.
CEOs from companies like Apple,
Walmart, Visa and Boeing are heading to
the White House on Friday to deliver
commitments to do their part.
Over 300 companies have signed on so
far, the White House said.
Although the unemployment rate has
declined to 6.7 per cent, long-term
joblessness in the US remains a major
problem.
The concern is that the longer someone
is out of a job, the harder it gets to find
a new one.
Companies are less likely to hire people
who haven’t used their skills in months
or wonder why another employer hasn’t
already snatched them up.
With that concern in mind, the Obama
administration has been working for
months to exact commitments from
companies to ensure their hiring
practices don’t discriminate against
long-term job-seekers.
That includes doing away with
candidate-screening methods that
disqualify applicants based on their
current employment status.
It also means ensuring that jobs ads
don’t discourage unemployed workers
from applying.
The White House couldn’t say how many
unemployed Americans might benefit
from the initiative but expected the
effects to snowball.
“We consider this not the destination,
but the launch,” said Gene Sperling, who
heads the White House’s National
Economic Council.
“Our hope is that as people see the
meeting with the president, the pledge,
that more will come work with us.”
Among the companies taking part:
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp and 21st
Century Fox.
Sperling said he emailed the
conservative business mogul about the
initiative, and Murdoch personally wrote
back to say he supported it.
Obama also plans to sign a presidential
memo on Friday directing the federal
government to apply the same standards
to its own hiring practices.
The Obama administration will also
direct $US150 million in grants toward
partnership programs that retrain,
mentor and place unemployed workers.
The initiative marks the latest attempt
by Obama to use what executive authority
he has to improve economic conditions
for Americans despite a political climate
that makes enacting his legislative
agenda nearly impossible.
In the past, Obama has supported
legislation in Congress that would make
it illegal for employers to discriminate
based on one’s employment status or
history.
“In terms of legislation. Let’s face it:
That’s not going to happen,” Sperling
said.
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