The Open Philanthropy Project recommended a grant of $150,000 to help launch Employ America and cover a six-month pilot period. Employ America will focus on making the public and intellectual case for policies that support full employment and building a broader set of allies to further that goal, especially with an eye to the next economic downturn. In order to do so, it will produce research and analysis on the state of the labor market and current and potential macroeconomic policies and policymakers. It will be led by Sam Bell, who has previously consulted for the Open Philanthropy Project and its grantee Fed Up. As labor market conditions have improved over the last few years, Open Philanthropy has become less confident about the appropriate short term stance of monetary policy, but continues to believe it is worthwhile to support research and advocacy like this, at least through the next recession.
This grant falls within Open Philanthropy's focus area of macroeconomic stabilization policy.