The Coming Jobs War

Drawing on 75 years of Gallup studies and his own perspective as the company's chairman and CEO, Jim Clifton explains why jobs are the new global currency for leaders. More than peace or money or any other good, the business, government, military, city, and village leaders who can create good jobs will own the future.

The problem is that leaders don't know how to create jobs, especially in America. What they should do is recognize that the world is in a war for jobs. It seems that leadership has lost the will to win, especially in America, but this is a competition for our lives.

To win, leaders need to compete. Everyone does. The public school system needs to inculcate kids with the knowledge they'll need to compete in the jobs war. The business community needs to double the psychological engagement of workers so that it can compete with cheaper labor. The healthcare system must stop wasting the resources that we need to spend on job competition. Society needs to realize that entrepreneurs, not government, are the source of new jobs and put all its energy behind them. Perhaps most importantly, leaders need to recognize universities, mentors, and especially cities as a supercollider for job creation.

If that can be done - and it can be done, leaders have done it before - new good jobs will result. There's not moment to waste: the war has already begun.