Issue Position: Jobs

Issue Position

Jobs

Jamie Wall: A Track Record of Creating Jobs

I've spent most of my adult life helping businesses grow and create jobs, both as a private business consultant and as the head of Wisconsin's economic development programs. I helped found the Northeast Wisconsin economic development partnership known as the New North, which brings together leaders in business, education, and government to help grow the region's economy.

The recession has hit our region especially hard. Wisconsin has been losing private sector jobs while the rest of the country is creating them at an increasing pace. We need to focus on creating good private sector jobs in competitive, modern businesses.

My goals are straightforward:

Encourage investment in small businesses and help companies deal with rising health care costs.
End tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas.
Ensure that American workers and businesses operate on an even playing field with their foreign competitors.
Help veterans join the workforce after they complete their service.
Develop quality education systems throughout life to produce highly-skilled, highly-trained workers.
Invest in our infrastructure to make Northeast Wisconsin more attractive to business.
Invest in research into new technologies that will produce quality jobs in the future.

Creating quality jobs, and more of them, in Northeast Wisconsin is my number one priority. To do this, we need to:

Help our manufacturers -- Manufacturing is the backbone of the Northeast Wisconsin economy, and we need to support manufacturing companies and the high-quality jobs they provide. That means helping them to modernize their operations to stay competitive by funding resources like the Manufacturing Extension Partnership. It also means fighting to ensure that American workers and businesses are on a level playing field with foreign competitors.

Maintain a skilled labor force -- Northeast Wisconsin has some of the best-trained and hardest-working people in the world, and the quality of our state's workforce is our biggest selling point to bring new jobs into Wisconsin. We need to maintain a quality education system that produces those workers, and we need to help people of all backgrounds get the education they need to fulfill their dreams. I support regional skills alliances, workforce development conducted at technical colleges, and other initiatives that prepare workers for high-skills jobs that offer family-supporting wages and benefits.

Promote entrepreneurship -- Northeast Wisconsin needs more companies that can turn a new idea into new jobs. That's why I worked with a national philanthropic foundation and several state non-profit organizations to develop the Wisconsin Entrepreneurs' Network to help new businesses right here in Northeast Wisconsin. Resources like the Small Business Administration can also help create new companies and quality jobs right here in Northeast Wisconsin.

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