The unemployment crisis in America has been haunting the nation for years now, and is only expected to get worse. Michigan is especially sensitive and vulnerable to the issue as economists predict that by the end of 2011 unemployment will rise to at least 15% from its current 11.7%. We have been worried and complaining for some time, but has anyone proposed any way to revive the working world and once again live in a stable economy? If you think about it, not really.

Until today. A woman named Carla Emil posted on the Huffington Post Blog that she and her husband, Rich Silverstein, will no longer stand aside and watch as the unemployment status is deteriorating. So, she is proposing an idea, which she has named “One Job for America.” The basic concept is that if every small or large business were to add just one more job position to their companies, enough jobs would be produced to significantly affect the job market for the better. She admits she is no economist, politician or prestigious academic, but she has faith in this plan and is asking for a leap of faith from others.

“So here’s a chance for all of us to step up and, in the very best sense of the word, take responsibility. Maybe a better way to say it is that One Job for America encourages us to be responsible citizens and it gives us hope that we can participate in making this a better world. We can come together, as members of a national community, and try to solve this problem one job at a time. That sounds manageable. It sounds possible, doesn’t it? I realize it’s a little Capraesque. I think we could use some of that kind of optimism right now.”

Carla and her husband have created a website, OneJobForAmerica.org, which asks those in charge of a business to make a pledge to create a new job and later go back and document what position they made and who was hired.

While I could go into small details on the difficulties and problems that could be raised by this movement, I don’t really want to. Because even by reading this post I felt a sense of hope and optimism – whether justified or not. Maybe we need the common citizens to make big moves when our leaders and representatives fail to do so.

(Photo by sxc.hu)