Jobs

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s Speech At Syracuse University

/ Matthew Clemente / Leave a comment

Recently, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand spoke at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University as part of the State of Democracy Lecture series.

Here is a description of the talk:
Gillibrand’s talk, “The American Opportunity Agenda,” addressed proposals to help more middle-class women workers gain financial security by modernizing America’s outdated workplace policies.

Gillibrand was first sworn in as U.S. senator from New York in January 2009. Prior to her service in the Senate, she served in the U.S. House of Representatives, representing 10 counties in upstate New York’s 20th congressional district. She serves on the Senate agriculture, armed services, and aging committees.

Debating Paid Family Leave

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Debating Paid Family Leave

Recently, The Diane Rehm show discussed state programs that require paid family leave for workers and efforts to institute such policies federally. 

Here is a description of the podcast: 

Most federal workplace laws date back to the 1930s when a majority of mothers did not work outside the home. As family and work patterns have shifted, the need for paid time off to care for family members has increased. In the absence of federal paid leave, a few states have passed laws that allow employees to take paid leave to care for a newborn, adopted child or seriously ill relative. Rhode Island, California and New Jersey allow workers to pay part of their wages into a fund that pays for the leave. Diane and a panel of guests discuss the impact of paid leave on businesses and families.

 

GUESTS

Lisa Horn – director of congressional affairs, Society for Human Resource Management.

Brigid Schulte – reporter, The Washington Post and author of the upcoming book: “Overwhelmed: Work, Love and Play When No One Has the Time.”

Ellen Bravo – executive director, Family Values @ Work.

Kirsten Gillibrand – U.S. Senator, New York (D).

 

 

Lisa Dolak and Fareed Zakaria on the Need For Infrastructure Investment

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Lisa Dolak and Fareed Zakaria on the Need For Infrastructure Investment

After returning to Syracuse from a weekend at home, I decided to catch up with Ivory Tower, which I had DVR’ed. Moderated by Barbara Fought (Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University), this edition of Ivory Tower featured a powerhouse panel including: Tim Byrnes (Colgate University), Bob Greene (Cazenovia College), Bob Spitizer (SUNY Cortland), Kristi Andersen (Maxwell School of Syracuse University) and Lisa Dolak (Syracuse University College of Law).

The panel discussed President Obama’s State of the Union Address and its most promising proposals. During this discussion, Professor Lisa Dolak described the President’s call to invest in infrastructure as a “win-win” (9:45)  She explained that investing in infrastructure would not only fix our crumbling roads and bridges but would also put millions of Americans back to work.

Fareed Zakaria agrees and goes a step further.  According to Zakaria, investing in infrastructure would “win-win-win.”  In addition to the benefits Prof. Dolak describes, Zakaria points out that infrastructure spending is fiscally responsible.  This is so for two reasons.  First, fixing our infrastructure is an investment that needs to be made whether sooner or later.  However, if we wait to fix our our roads and bridges the costs will be greater since there will be further, more serious deterioration.  Second, investing in infrastructure would boost growth and thereby decrease the debt and deficit.

Filling the Skills Gap: Matching Jobs with the Jobless Through Innovative Internships

/ Matthew Clemente / Leave a comment

Filling the Skills Gap: Matching Jobs with the Jobless Through Innovative Internships

Last Sunday, 60 Minutes ran a story about an innovative jobs program, “Year Up.”  Year Up is an intensive year long job training program that matches poor urban youth with Fortune 500 companies, teaching them the specific skills necessary for the thousands of jobs that remain unfilled.  

Here is how the story began:

It may surprise you to learn that even in this time of stubbornly high unemployment there are hundreds of thousands of good jobs available that companies are finding hard to fill.

But one Wall Street veteran believes he’s found an overlooked source of talent that could be the answer. 

He started something called Year Up — a year-long jobs training boot camp for some of the country’s most disadvantaged young people. And so far thousands of graduates are now working at companies like J.P. Morgan, American Express and Facebook. The result is that many of the country’s most powerful CEOs are finding that they can do well by also doing good. 

Sunday Funday: Homeboy Bakery

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Sunday Funday: Homeboy Bakery

This edition of Sunday Funday is more heartwarming than humorous.  It is about a bakery in Los Angeles, the Homeboy Bakery, which turns gang members into productive members of society by giving them jobs and teaching them marketable (legal) skills.

Here is a description of the story from The CBS Sunday Morning Show:

Twenty-five years ago Father Greg Boyle started working with gang members in the poorest parish of Los Angeles. Today, his program, Homeboy Industries – a bakery and cafe employing former gang members – has grown to become one of the largest and most successful gang intervention efforts in the nation. Carter Evans reports.

For more public policy related video/audio, be sure to check out the SLACE Archive.