Job-creation tax proposal could hurt hiring
Congress and the White House are thinking about passing a tax credit for companies that hire new workers, the NYT reports. We keep hearing talk of Stimulus II. This is what it's likely to look like, if it happens. The idea is that, by lowering the cost of hiring, companies will do more of it. Maryland has had a job-creation tax credit since right after the last bad recession, in the 1990s.
The danger with the federal proposal is that it could supress hiring until it gets passed. Companies that are about to staff up for the economic recovery might wait until they can claim the credit. Reports the NYT's Catherine Rampell:
The biggest fear among some, though, is that the proposal might unintentionally reduce job opportunities if it sits in Washington too long without passing.“Particularly for big employers, if they think a job creation tax credit is in the offing, it could certainly be an incentive to delay hiring,” said Lee E. Ohanian, an economics professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. “That means it could have the perverse effect of actually prolonging the recession.”
Comments
finagle To obtain, arrange or achieve by indirect, usually deceitful methods; To cheat; swindle; use crafty, deceitful methods.
Enough of the artful balloon squeezing whack a mole approaches.
Start handing out the shovels and the paint brushes and the hammers...those with anything on the ball will soon find themselves hired privately to do that work because they have demonstrated they warrant being hired.
Hopefully the actual need for them as new hires will converge with the accumulation of the job (and life) skills needed to hold that job.
Those who have shoveled or painted or hammered before will likely be hired first... if their other qualities aren't a negative.
In the mean time a lot of otherwise useful and needed works can be completed.
Posted by: MrRational | October 7, 2009 1:24 PM