With the presidential campaigns heating up and unemployment hovering around 8 percent, you can bet that both presidential candidates' platforms will center around creating jobs and improving the job market.
While they disagree on the how, President Obama and former Senator Mitt Romney both agree on the what: America needs more jobs.
But whose platform will impact the unemployment rate the most? To figure it out, let's look at their platforms side by side:
Retrain Workers and Re-evaluate Unemployment Resources
Obama: Consolidate existing federal programs for retraining workers to create a single resource for the unemployed. Additionally, create community career centers by partnering businesses and community colleges together.
Romney: Also consolidate existing programs, but use a block grant to give these programs to the states. Additionally, create Personal Re-employment Accounts to be used to retrain eligible individuals; these accounts would also place individuals with companies that provide on-the-job training.
Changes to Immigrant Employment
Obama: Adjust existing policy to grant citizenship to immigrants (with visas) currently being offered jobs in the math, science, and engineering industries. Additionally, make it easier for exchange students seeking degrees in the same or similar fields to get green cards post-graduation to help fill the unemployment gap in the tech industry. Obama's policies would extend to children who came to America illegally as children.
Romney: Similar to Obama's plan, although Romney's would not include coverage for children who illegally immigrated to this country.
Federal Workforce
Obama: Continue to add to the federal workforce to help lower the unemployment rate.
Romney: Cut the federal workforce by 10 percent in order to reallocate federal resources.
Local Businesses
Obama: Give tax cuts to local businesses while taxing multinational corporations who outsource jobs and profits, in order to provide more funds and resources for local businesses to hire additional employees.
Romney: No tax cuts for local businesses; instead, tax cuts for multinational corporations and incentives for them to bring profits back to the United States through a territorial corporate tax system.
Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs
Obama: Adjust current regulations and extend tax relief to small businesses that are creating jobs and raising wages.
Romney: End the inheritance tax and alternative minimum wage tax. Additionally, provide a 20 percent tax reduction for all income tax brackets, including small businesses filing as individuals.
So who wins in terms of jobs? Obama's platform provides more incentives for small businesses and entrepreneurs, ensuring that under his continued presidency, startups and small businesses will continue to be a hot-bed for job seekers.
However, the Romney tax cuts seem to favor small businesses in a non-controversial way. Obama again does more for local businesses, while Romney's incentives for multinational corporations will still bring jobs and income stateside.
Their similar positions concerning immigrant employment put Obama slightly in the lead with his inclusion of children who illegally immigrated to America.
Although Romney plans to cut the federal workforce, he also provides a plan to grow the private sector and redistribute government jobs. His Personal Reemployment Act would help place workers directly in companies ready to employ them, while Obama's retraining program would focus on college and university recruitment. They target different sectors of the unemployed, fairly equal in size and importance.
Overall, Obama's structure is designed to alter the fundamental competitiveness of the U.S. economy. Because of this large-scale alteration, his plan has a slower pace for results, whereas Romney is going for a more immediate impact. While he may see short-term results, there will be issues in the long run if the fundamentals are not right.
Most importantly, however, is the fact that both candidates are consciously creating plans to reinvigorate the job market and help lower unemployment.
Which candidate do you think has the better job platform? Why?
Amit De is the CEO and co-founder of CareerLeaf, a platform that helps job seekers showcase their skills and talents, search for jobs, and track and organize communications all from one place.