Mid-market: solution to job creation.

• Author: Rock, Rote
• Position: LETTER FROM THE CHAIRMAN

My second quarter 2014 publisher's letter elicited much response. In my piece, I posed the question whether boards should periodically inquire about the number of jobs being created in their companies. I posited that CEOs and their boards should build businesses that retain jobs and create new ones. Americans want to work, and American businesses owe them good-paying jobs, which not only provide a living but also offer self-worth, respect, and dignity.

One reader wrote: "Creating jobs must be on the top of minds of executive teams and boards.... Without creating strong, stable, and highly valued jobs, our communities and cultures weaken."

Another wrote: "I applaud your encouragement of the job creation question in the boardroom?'

Six and half years after the beginning of the Great Recession, America has Finally recovered the nine million jobs lost during 2008-09. Today there are as many Americans working as there were in March 2008. The Obama administration has trumpeted this "achievement," but underplays the 15 million additional workers that have entered the labor market during this period, resulting in the labor force participation rate dropping by almost three percentage points. Moreover, many of the jobs created during "the recovery" have been at the lower end of the wage scale, thus millions of re-employed workers have experienced downward mobility. Today, median household income is less than it was seven years ago. Where are the jobs in America being created? Eighty percent derive from small and mid-size companies...