On jobs, both seen as lacking creativity

WITH A QUARTER of the city's population living in poverty, jobs are a key issue for Philadelphians.

Both Democratic presidential candidates have pledged to create jobs. U.S. Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have released plans to generate more green-energy jobs, to fund more job training and to keep more jobs in the United States.

But neither is thinking creatively enough about job creation, according to Amy Liu, deputy director of the the Metropolitan Policy Program for the Brookings Institution.

"They do mention infrastructure and they do mention green jobs," Liu said.

"But that's about the extent of their plans . . . I think the solutions are not long-term and not comprehensive enough."

According to Liu, Pennsylvania has lost more than 200,000 manufacturing jobs since 2000.

And although those jobs have been replaced, the new positions are lower-paying and less stable.

"The average wages in the state have slipped," Liu said. "We're replacing with retail jobs, hospitality jobs with not a lot of career ladders.

"How do we improve the growth of high-quality jobs, in high-paying sectors?"

Liu said that the candidates' proposals were very similar - and narrow in focus.

For example, she said that both talk about investing in research, but don't say how they will develop those research ideas.

Or they both stress green jobs, but not how to help smaller businesses adopt new technologies.

"Innovation isn't just about high-tech firms, but helping small- and medium-sized firms innovate and adopt new technology," Liu said.

Liu said that the government should consider setting up a National Innovation Foundation, which would work on development and growth around the country.

"There is no single place in the federal government that wakes up every day and thinks about innovation," she said.

The issue that has dominated much of the job conversation has been the North American Free Trade Agreement, on which Clinton and Obama have clashed.

NAFTA, passed during President Bill Clinton's administration, is disliked by labor unions, because it moved many blue-collar jobs out of the United States.

Clinton says she opposed the deal behind the scenes. But her first-lady schedules show her holding at least five meetings in 1993 to help win congressional approval of NAFTA.

Obama has criticized Clinton, saying he always opposed NAFTA. But Clinton attacked him earlier in the primary season over a meeting his senior economic adviser held with Canadian officials. A post-meeting memo written by a Canadian official said Obama's adviser told them that the pledges to reform NAFTA were "more reflective of political maneuvering than policy."

Obama's campaign has said he is committed to reforming NAFTA.

At right are some of the candidates' proposals. *