A guide to ending America's jobs emergency by accelerating thetrue engine of job creation--start-upsFour years after the end of the Great Recession, 23 millionAmericans remain unemployed, underemployed, or have left theworkforce discouraged. Even worse, Washington policymakers seem outof ideas.Where the Jobs Are: Entrepreneurship and the Soul of theAmerican Economy shows how America can restore its greatjob-creation machine.Recent research has demonstrated that virtually all net new jobcreation in the United States over the past thirty years has comefrom businesses less than a year old--true "start-ups."Start-up businesses create an average of three million new jobseach year, while existing businesses of any size or age shed a netaverage of about one million jobs annually.Unfortunately, the vital signs of America's job-creatingentrepreneurial economy are flashing red alert. After remainingremarkably consistent for decades, the rate of new businessformation has declined significant in recent years, and the numberof new jobs created by new firms is also falling.In Where the Jobs Are, the authors recount the findingsof a remarkable summer they spent traveling the country to meet andconduct roundtables with entrepreneurs in a dozen cities. More than200 entrepreneurs participated--explaining in specific andvividly personal terms the issues, frustrations, and obstacles thatare undermining their efforts to launch new businesses, expandexisting young firms, and create jobs. Those obstacles include adangerously underperforming education system, self-defeatingimmigration policies that thwart the attraction and retention ofthe world's best talent, access to capital difficulties, a mountingregulatory burden, unnecessary tax complexity, and severeWashington-produced economic uncertainty.* Explains how start-ups are different from existing businesses,large or small, and why they represent the engine of jobcreation* Reveals how policymakers' failure to understand the uniquenature and needs of start-ups has undermined efforts to stimulatethe economy following the Great Recession* Presents a detailed, innovative, and uniquely credible 30-pointpolicy agenda based on what America's job creators said theyurgently needEngaging and informative, Where the Jobs Are reveals withunprecedented precision and clarity the major obstacles underminingthe fragile economic recovery, and provides a vitally importantgame plan to unleash the job-creating capacity of theentrepreneurial economy and put a beleaguered nation back towork.

Foreword Norman R. Augustine ixPreface Rob Nichols xiiiIntroduction xviiChapter 1 America's Jobs Emergency 1Chapter 2 Not Just Small Businesses . . . New 15Chapter 3 On the Road with America's Job Creators 23Chapter 4 "Not Enough People with the Skills We Need" 31Chapter 5 "Our Immigration Policies Are Insane" 53Chapter 6 "Not All Good Ideas Get Funded Anymore" 73Chapter 7 "Regulations Are Killing Us" 107Chapter 8 "Tax Payments Can Be the Difference between Survivaland Failure" 119Chapter 9 "There's Too Much Uncertainty--and It'sWashington's Fault" 131Conclusion 177Afterword Senator Jerry Moran (R-KS) Senator Mark Warner (D-VA)183Appendix Summary of Recommendations 187Notes 195Acknowledgments 229About the Authors 235Index 237