Editorial Board
Self-Employment Should Play a Bigger Role in Jobs Programs: View
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Cammie Allie and Ann Costlow are small-scale entrepreneurs who aren’t trying to start the next Microsoft. Yet both have battled back from unemployment to create successful businesses, with the sort of government support that could help thousands of other jobless people, too.
Allie manages apartment buildings in Portland, Oregon; Costlow owns four creperies in Maryland. To get started, each drew on business coaching and income support from an unusual state-funded jobless initiative. These self-employment assistance programs provide 26 weeks of income support, typically about $10,000. Participants try to start enterprises, rather than being required to look full time for traditional jobs.