New Ideas for Unemployment

The WSJ had a great article today about how a French Telecom is helping battle unemployment. Instead of giving people notice that they will be laid off with severance packages and a big middle finger for their trouble, the Telecom is helping employees do something useful by helping them start small businesses.

They do everything from helping to draft business plans, and helping entrepreneurs secure funding for their small business. It will also help employees get more education if they need it, and they have worked with other public-sector employers to take in its workers. If the project fails within three years, the employee can return to the company. The most amazing thing to me about the experiment so far is that one in six of the new projects have failed.

This is a great idea and I'm unsure as to why this hasn't caught on with companies like Ford, GM, and other companies who from time to time have to dump several thousands of employees (Answer: because they're dumb ). Obviously, it would take time and money but the investment would be miniscule to what could be a potential boon for the new small business owner, the company, and the economy.

Read More: WSJ, Unemployment, Small Business