Upjohn Author ORCID Identifier
Issue Date
May 2025
Abstract
Places in the United States differ greatly in their residents’ access to jobs, especially good jobs. Although the federal and state governments provide about $80 billion annually to create jobs through multiple programs, these job-creation initiatives are rarely targeted to economically distressed places, where the job-creation benefits for local residents are greatest. Moreover, many of these programs take the form of business tax incentives, which are less effective at job creation than customized services for businesses and workers. I argue that the prime-age employment rate of places should be used to target job-creation programs and review which such programs are most successful in terms of having low expenditures per created job. I also discuss how these programs can be scaled and adapted to each place’s needs.
Series
Policy Paper No. 2025-035
DOI
10.17848/pol2025-035
Sponsorship
Washington Center for Equitable Growth
Keywords
place-based policy, economic distress, local labor markets, job-creation, cost-effective, government policy, Recompete
Subject Areas
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT; Local labor markets; Regional policy and planning; Business and tax incentives; Urban issues; Transportation and infrastructure
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Included in
Economic Policy Commons, Growth and Development Commons, Labor Economics Commons, Regional Economics Commons, Urban Studies Commons
Citation
Bartik, Timothy. 2025. "Federal and State Governments Can Help Solve the Employment Problems of People in Distressed Places to Spur Equitable Growth." Policy Paper No. 2025-035. Policy paper prepared for Washington Center for Equitable Growth. https://doi.org/10.17848/pol2025-035