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Obama signs jobs bill. What do you think?

March 18th, 2010
By Anthony Balderrama in Featured, News and trends, The right job, Who's hiring
7 Comments

If you watch or read any news — and I hope you do — then you know legislation about health care is the talk of the town these days. The health bill has become the Kate and Jon Gosselin of 2010, except it’s actually important and affects our lives. Lost in the coverage, however, is the jobs bill. Remember that? A few months ago the jobs bill was front and center, but lately it isn’t getting the coverage it deserves.

Two weeks ago the House passed the bill, and then it went to the Senate. Yesterday, the Senate passed the bill, 68-29. (If you want to see how your senator voted, look at this excellent map from The New York Times.) Today President Obama signed the bill into law. Obama said:

A consensus is forming that, partly because of the necessary — and often unpopular – measures we took over the past year, our economy is growing again and we may soon be adding jobs instead of losing them. The jobs bill I’m signing today is intended to help accelerate this process. (Reuters)

Among the provisions in the bill are tax breaks for small-business owners and Social Security breaks for employers hiring unemployed job seekers. Just how many jobs will be created, if any, is a topic of much debate right now. Experts (and regular Americans like you and me) wonder whether or not enough jobs will be created to offset the record unemployment rate. Obama seems to understand this and has said this bill isn’t the answer to everything, but rather a step toward recovery, according to the New York Times.

What do you think? Is this law going to help? Is it better than nothing? Does it leave out important provisions? Let us know what you’re thinking.

About Anthony Balderrama

Anthony Balderrama writes about hiring trends, workplace issues and job search tactics for CareerBuilder.com and its blog The Work Buzz. He was born and raised in Dallas (115° degrees isn’t hot!) before moving to Chicago (-23° isn’t cold!). He studied creative writing, therefore everything he writes is usually cut in half once he realizes he spent 400 words just on the intro. He knows that looking for a job and dealing with co-workers are not always fun activities, and reading about them is even less thrilling. That’s why he’ll take any opportunity he can to mention his favorite TV show or band in an article. Basically Anthony’s doing whatever he can to avoid hate mail.