GUEST AUTHOR BLOG: Where The Jobs Are by Jim Clifton, Chairman of Gallup and author of the soon to be released book, "THE COMING JOBS WAR."

Nobody is quite sure where jobs come from.

We know how chickens are hatched, but not jobs.

If the President, the Congress, and about 10,000 key American leaders don’t get agreement and then aligned on the urgent need for good jobs, the country and economy will be pulled further apart with competing solutions. This will make everything worse. No jobs means more political divide, potential societal stress and chaos.

It could get as bad as you can imagine if we don’t figure this out.

Here is the answer. Basically all job creation occurs in first year start-up businesses and then the rest in the 5% of small to medium-sized businesses that suddenly shoot-up to greatness. Job growth does not occur in big businesses. Big businesses are organizations with 10,000 or more employees. There are only 1000 “big” businesses in the US. These top 1000 businesses actually decrease net gained employees each year primarily for reasons of the process of acquiring and cutting costs and people and to some degree new efficiencies in technology. (Big business plays a very key role in the total ecosystem but are not themselves job creators.)

The specifics are this: America needs 5 million new real jobs created right now- real jobs, not “shovel- ready” government jobs. And about 10 million within the next five years to remain stable. We currently have about 500,000 new businesses per year start-up and this number is declining. We need 1,000,000 businesses to start-up each year to create enough new good jobs for available workers. Start-ups are currently declining, so job creation is losing energy.

There are six million current functioning small to medium-sized businesses and we need 5% or 300,000 of them to suddenly shoot up. There are the only two places on God’s green earth where authentic organic sustainable good jobs are created. Start-ups and shoot-ups. So the President, Congress and about 10,000 super impactful Americans need to point every decision and strategy at that.

Any other thinking is hallucination or at best a temporary or pretend job.

Here is something almost nobody knows.

These all-important start-ups and shoot-ups don’t occur because of new legislation, new rules, more free money, or any other government tweaking. They occur during moments of unusually high inspiration. They are created by Americans seeking the great American dream.

Freedom.

They are created by people seeking independence and extreme individuality…freedom. Maybe that is why it is called “free” enterprise. And, these moments of start-ups and shoot-ups occur only in the presence of high confidence. High confidence in self, country and government. When six million small and medium-sized businesses lose their confidence, they stop growing. They stop hiring. Millions simply go broke.

Administrations, Congress and 10,000 American leaders across US cities do however create an environment of confidence and inspiration…or one of no confidence and misery. It is the job of leaders to create environments of high enthusiasm for enterprisers and emerging big-time rainmakers.

A country bankrupt of confidence can never come back. America will not come back until it experiences new historical highs in inspiration. More specifically, high inspiration toward entrepreneurship and free enterprise. There is no other way out. There will be no surge in start-ups and shoot-ups until leaders change the environment from its current state of no confidence to high confidence. When it does, America will come back, new good jobs will hatch.

And oh yes. if we don’t figure out right now how jobs are hatched……China really is coming.

Jim Clifton is the Chairman of Gallup and author of the soon to be released book, "THE COMING JOBS WAR."

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