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An Act to make effective provision for securing the right to work by guaranteeing employment to all adult persons who volunteer to do unskilled manual work in rural areas in the State of Maharashtra. The Act, a response to drought, famine, and poverty in the region, was signed into law in 1977 and subsequently created hundreds of millions of labor-hours on socially necessary infrastructure projects.

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French Territoires zero chômeur de longue durée (TZCLD) is an innovative program that provides employment for hundreds of long-term unemployed citizens in government-created Job-Oriented Companies (JOCs). Since the Great Financial Crisis of 2008, long-term unemployment has been higher across developed economies. The Zero Long Term Unemployment Territories experiment with implementing a Job Guarantee, albeit geographically limited for the moment, with the engagement of public sector, community, and private sector stakeholders. In 2023, it was announced that 50 new zones will be added to the program.

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The Presidential Employment Stimulus is direct job creation program that has created more than a million employment opportunities for workers in response to the COVID-19 crisis. It is a short-term public employment program as part of the Economic Recovery Strategy offering employment opportunities managed in a portfolio system to deliver a wide spectrum of socially valuable employment opportunities and protect existing jobs. The employment programs include expanding speed internet access to rural communities, improving schools, road maintenance, and arts and sports in an effort to combat the economic impacts of COVID-19 and build a better, more inclusive economy for the future.

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The National Rural Employment Guarantee in India is the largest rights-based public employment program in the world, providing 100 days of employment to 90 million rural workers each year. It is nationally funded with local and state governments playing a central role in deciding which work projects ought to be undertaken. This legally-guaranteed employment program is demand driven with protections in place to ensure the participation of women, people with disabilities, and other minority groups. The program has been an essential form of social protection for rural India where agricultural work is seasonal. See the MGNREGA program page for more details.

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The resolution text, adopted on November 23, 2023 by the European Parliament, affirms the role of public employment and a job guarantee in a just transition to an environmentally sustainable economy. See Recital G and Article 9:

“G. whereas innovative direct employment initiatives have emerged at local level in different Member States, such as the ‘Territoires zéro chômeur de longue durée’ in France and Belgium, the ‘Territori a disoccupazione zero’ in Italy, the ‘Job Guarantee’ in Austria, the ‘Basisbaan’ in the Netherlands and the ‘Solidarity Basic Income’ in Germany; whereas the local jobs created under these initiatives are often part of the social economy sector and implement projects addressing the unmet social and environmental needs of society by prioritising care and green services;

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9. Stresses that the creation of decent jobs needed to implement a just transition could be done through the implementation of demand-driven direct employment initiatives already experimented with in different Member States at local and regional level1; recalls that these initiatives often address unemployment and climate change simultaneously and therefore offer the double benefit of creating employment, while endowing people with the competencies needed to reorient the EU economy towards a greener and more sustainable model; in this regard, welcomes the Commission’s support to these experiments under the ESF Social Innovation+ initiative, in order to have a better understanding of their functioning and efficiency, to share best practices among Member States and to disseminate and stimulate the emergence of new initiatives all across the EU;”

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Just as the American Rescue Plan provided much needed federal resources to city, state, local, tribal, and territorial governments to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Green New Deal (GND) for Cities would provide funding directly to these governments to respond to the climate crisis, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs in the process. Already, cities, counties, and states around the country are fighting for Green New Deals where they live, and this legislation would make all of that possible.

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This legislation updates, modernizes, and expands the concept of the New Deal-era Civilian Conservation Corps: ensuring that all Americans who want to participate may do so, regardless of race, age, or gender; broadening the range of eligible projects; providing 21st century health and education benefits; deepening partnerships with unions; and preserving Tribal sovereignty. A diverse and equitable group of 1.5 million Americans over five years will complete federally-funded projects that help communities respond to climate change and transition to a clean economy. Civilian Climate Corps work will reduce carbon emissions, enable a transition to renewable energy, build healthier and more resilient communities, implement conservation projects with proven climate benefits, and help communities recover from climate disasters.

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The resolution outlines a framework for a bold economic renewal plan that addresses the four current ongoing and intersecting crises: the public health disaster, racial injustice, the climate crisis, and economic inequity. The THRIVE agenda is built on eight pillars, which span from creating millions of good, safe jobs with access to unions to averting climate catastrophe, all while investing in Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities.

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Today, we recommit to building a nation where every person can work, live, and thrive with dignity. The idea that all people should have a right to employment that ensures a dignified standard of living has deep roots in American history and remains an unfulfilled demand of the civil rights movement. Amidst the unprecedented pandemic, the employment crisis and a resounding demand for a more equitable economy, the need to affirm the right to meaningful, dignified work and a livable wage has never been clearer.

The right to a “useful and remunerative” job was the first and most fundamental right in President Franklin D. Roosevelt’sproposed Economic Bill of Rights. Sadie Alexander, the nation’s first Black economist, advocated a job guarantee to address racial discrimination against Black workers while improving labor market conditions for all workers. Martin Luther King, Jr. called for guaranteed jobs, and Coretta Scott King led a grassroots movement in support of a federal job guarantee.

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This bill directs the Department of Labor to establish a Full Employment National Trust Fund with two separate accounts for: (1) Employment Opportunity Grants to states, Indian tribes, local governments, publicly-funded elementary and secondary educational institutions, educational institutions in the Federal Work-Study Program, and tax-exempt non-profit organizations for job-creating activities in communities whose economy is not at a level of full employment; and (2) Workforce Investment programs. https:

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Today, through his Investing in America agenda, President Biden is delivering on that commitment by taking executive action to launch the American Climate Corps – a workforce training and service initiative that will ensure more young people have access to the skills-based training necessary for good-paying careers in the clean energy and climate resilience economy. The American Climate Corps will mobilize a new, diverse generation of more than 20,000 Americans – putting them to work conserving and restoring our lands and waters, bolstering community resilience, deploying clean energy, implementing energy efficient technologies, and advancing environmental justice, all while creating pathways to high-quality, good-paying clean energy and climate resilience jobs in the public and private sectors after they complete their paid training program.

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Reopen the debate on measures to effectively address long-term unemployment and the contribution of local and regional authorities. Address policy options, also through exploring the potential of the “Zero long-term Unemployment Zones”, building on employability and job creation, with the conviction that redirecting the collective costs of unemployment towards job creation can boost the economy and local labour market. Aims to address the lack of an EU initiative on the topic, since the Council Recommendation in 2016. Looks for optimum ways to fund (including EU funding) and coordinate zero long-term unemployment projects in the regions and cities of the Member States.

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