Private sector can help in jobs training

(From CNN Opinion) -- President Barack Obama has outlined his ambitious American Jobs Act, which contains many good elements to stimulate the economy in the long term. Yet its impact will take many years to significantly reduce the 25 million people looking for full-time work.

Cutting payroll taxes is great for those of us who have jobs, but it's impossible to predict what effect it will have on the unemployed. Tax credits might work in some industries, but there isn't much evidence they produce jobs that weren't already being planned. Although infrastructure investments are critical, the effect on joblessness will be very slow to materialize. Somehow we need to get wages into people's pockets by the first quarter of 2012.

The pain in our communities is such that people are impatient with solutions that are long-term and unpredictable. Instead, we must focus on initiatives that can put people back to work and avoid government bureaucracy. While Congress is considering the president's proposal, we need the private sector to make immediate investments in job creation.

The National Fund for Workforce Solutions, working with 31 regions, urban and rural, from Seattle to Sarasota and San Diego to Hartford, has ideas to help.

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