I had the pleasure to meet the brilliant and affable Gallup CEO, Jim Clifton, after his talk to the Cleveland City Club. Here are some snippets from his talk.
Americans have clearly shifted in their definition of the “American Dream” from family, peace, God and freedom to jobs. Of the 150 million who want jobs, 80% actually have full time work. 30 million people don’t have jobs and 18 million don’t have hope. Some of this is due to the fact that many old jobs are never coming back. Every American is one degree away from someone who is hopeless. This is an astounding statistic given its profound implication as problem and solution.
What America needs is a new generation of entrepreneurs who have always been and will continue to be the largest engine for jobs. It’s not going to come from innovation which is easier to create than entrepreneurs. And for corporate America: “Big companies create no jobs at all.” And the new generation of worker doesn’t just want a job, they want jobs that have social meaning.
Entrepreneurs who are about 3 in a 1000 are the alchemy of unusual optimism and unusual determination.
On a global scale, of the 5 billion adults, 3 billion say they want jobs and there are 1.2 billion jobs available. 3 of the 7 billion of us on the planet live on less than $2 a day.
So what should the US government do? Essentially, stay out of the way. “National programs don’t work.” With enormous variations by city, “We have to fix America one city at a time.”
