Sept 22, 2026
Earlier this year, Upjohn Institute Senior Economist Tim Bartik participated in a symposium hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. The event, How Can Public Policy Boost Hiring? featured several speakers sharing findings, lessons, and design considerations for policies to address hiring gaps.
As described by Tim Bartik:
“This Minneapolis Fed symposium was a useful exploration of how ‘labor demand policies’ — policies that provide either subsidies or services to employers to encourage them to create jobs or do hiring — may be useful in making the labor market work better. My key arguments at the symposium included that these policies can have long-run as well as short-run benefits, because getting people into jobs in the short run boosts their job skills, which has long-run payoffs in higher employment and wages. Getting people into jobs also has substantial spillover benefits on families and neighborhoods, by reducing substance abuse and crime, and strengthening families.”
The attendees covered a range of topics, including the role of labor demand policies in promoting employment, how to design a policy for maximum impact, how to target policy benefits to specific worker populations and areas, getting workers into the right jobs, and making policy flexible enough to shift with the broader economy.
You can watch a recording of the event here. To read more about the event, click here.
Labor demand policies at the national level are discussed in Bartik's 2001 book "Jobs for the Poor: Can Labor Demand Policies Help?," published by the Russell Sage Foundation. Improving economic development policies at the state level is discussed in a 2022 report by Bartik, "How State Governments Can Target Job Opportunities to Distressed Places.”