Elaine L. Edgcomb and Tamra Thetford of FIELD at The Aspen Institute examine the growing role of microenterprise as a job development strategy and how state and local governments, among others, can can support more microenterprise development.

[ download report ]
[ download brief ]

Big Ideas for Jobs

This report is part of the Big Ideas for Jobs project. The ideas were proposed by experts in the job creation field who were tasked with developing new ideas about programs and policies that can help to create jobs. As a starting point, the following criteria were established for the ideas:

1. The proposed programs should be designed for implementation by cities and/or states with or without federal support, should lead to net new job creation in a short-term framework, and should be accessible for low-skilled workers and offer some career opportunity;
2. They should be practical, with implementation not requiring major political or institutional changes;
3. Ideas should be sustainable, not requiring significant new investment and feasible at a relatively low cost per job;
4. They should be scalable, at least at the state level; and
5. They should be already tested.

The ideas have been divided into the categories of Tax and Employment Policy, Sectoral or Industry Ideas, Entrepreneurship. 

[ read more ]