Sec. 2. Findings and Purpose

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Congress finds the following: The Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act of 1978 established an interim 5-year target of 3-percent unemployment for individuals 20 years of age and older, and 4 percent for individuals age 16 and over within 5 years, with full employment to be achieved as soon as practicable thereafter. The Federal Government has previously established full employment as a national goal in national legislation, including the Employment Act of 1946 and the Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act of 1978.

Pursuant to these Acts, the Congress declared it is the continuing policy and responsibility of the Federal Government to use all practicable means to create and maintain conditions which promote useful employment opportunities for all who seek them, including the self-employed. Pursuant to these Acts, the Congress declared and established as a national goal the fulfillment of the right to full opportunities for useful paid employment at fair rates of compensation of all individuals able, willing, and seeking to work.

The Nation has suffered substantial unemployment and underemployment, and idleness of productive resources over prolonged periods of time, imposing numerous economic and social costs on the Nation. The Nation has been deprived of the full supply of goods and services, the full utilization of labor and capital resources, and the related increases in economic well-being that would occur under conditions of genuine full employment. The current output of goods and services is insufficient to meet pressing national priorities for infrastructure, transportation, energy, education, health care, child and elder care, and many other necessary public and human services.

Unemployment and underemployment expose many workers and families to significant, social, psychological and physiological costs, including disruption of family life, the loss of individual dignity and self-respect, and the aggravation of physical and psychological illnesses. Persisting unemployment and underemployment have devastating financial consequences, resulting in the loss of income and spending power for families, and interfering with their ability to save and accumulate assets for a secure family life and retirement.

High levels of unemployment and inadequate consumer demand also contribute to poor conditions for retail businesses, manufacturers and many other firms to grow and prosper. In the real estate sector, the Congress finds that continuing high levels of unemployment contribute to foreclosures, evictions, and commercial vacancies, undermining the quality of neighborhood and community life, and hampering prospects for economic recovery and national prosperity. The historic promise of this earlier legislation has not been fully realized, and we re-declare and reaffirm our support for achieving a national goal of jobs for all at living wages.

The United States has a duty under Articles 55 and 56 of the United Nations Charter to promote “full employment” and the “universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion”. The human rights the United States has a duty to promote pursuant to this obligation are set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 23 of the Universal Declaration states that “Everyone has the right to work” and to “just and favorable remuneration” that insures for his or her family “an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection”.

The Congress has a strong interest in seeking the progressive reduction and elimination of job disparities among groups of workers who experience chronically higher rates of unemployment and underemployment. Even at the top of the business cycle, when national unemployment rates drop to the 4-percent to 5-percent range, job vacancy surveys show that the economy does not provide enough jobs to employ everyone who wants to work. Reliance on direct job creation to close the economy’s job gap is especially important at such times, because it provides a means of creating additional jobs without adding significantly to inflationary pressures, a very difficult goal to achieve at the top of the business cycle via macroeconomic policy interventions.

The Congress intends to maximize the creation of private, public and nonprofit sector jobs through improved use of general economic and structural policies, including measures to encourage private sector investment and capital formation; an increased public investment in research and development, infrastructure, energy, education, public services and the environment, and other essential goods and services. It is the purpose of the Humphrey-Hawkins 21st Century Full Employment and Training Act of 2015 to fulfill the right to useful work at living wages for all persons seeking employment by establishing a Full Employment Trust Fund to fund and operate a national program of public service employment and to provide additional labor market opportunities to complement those offered by the existing private, public, and nonprofit sectors.