John Dearie & Courtney Geduldig 
Where the Jobs Are 
Entrepreneurship and the Soul of the American Economy

A guide to ending America’s jobs emergency by accelerating the
true engine of job creation–start-ups

Four years after the end of the Great Recession, 23 million
Americans remain unemployed, underemployed, or have left the
workforce discouraged. Even worse, Washington policymakers seem out
of ideas.

Where the Jobs Are: Entrepreneurship and the Soul of the
American Economy shows how America can restore its great
job-creation machine.

Recent research has demonstrated that virtually all net new job
creation in the United States over the past thirty years has come
from businesses less than a year old–true ‘start-ups.’
Start-up businesses create an average of three million new jobs
each year, while existing businesses of any size or age shed a net
average of about one million jobs annually.

Unfortunately, the vital signs of America’s job-creating
entrepreneurial economy are flashing red alert. After remaining
remarkably consistent for decades, the rate of new business
formation has declined significant in recent years, and the number
of new jobs created by new firms is also falling.

In Where the Jobs Are, the authors recount the findings
of a remarkable summer they spent traveling the country to meet and
conduct roundtables with entrepreneurs in a dozen cities. More than
200 entrepreneurs participated–explaining in specific and
vividly personal terms the issues, frustrations, and obstacles that
are undermining their efforts to launch new businesses, expand
existing young firms, and create jobs. Those obstacles include a
dangerously underperforming education system, self-defeating
immigration policies that thwart the attraction and retention of
the world’s best talent, access to capital difficulties, a mounting
regulatory burden, unnecessary tax complexity, and severe
Washington-produced economic uncertainty.

* Explains how start-ups are different from existing businesses,
large or small, and why they represent the engine of job
creation

* Reveals how policymakers’ failure to understand the unique
nature and needs of start-ups has undermined efforts to stimulate
the economy following the Great Recession

* Presents a detailed, innovative, and uniquely credible 30-point
policy agenda based on what America’s job creators said they
urgently need

Engaging and informative, Where the Jobs Are reveals with
unprecedented precision and clarity the major obstacles undermining
the fragile economic recovery, and provides a vitally important
game plan to unleash the job-creating capacity of the
entrepreneurial economy and put a beleaguered nation back to
work.

Table of Content

Foreword Norman R. Augustine ix

Preface Rob Nichols xiii

Introduction xvii

Chapter 1 America’s Jobs Emergency 1

Chapter 2 Not Just Small Businesses . . . New 15

Chapter 3 On the Road with America’s Job Creators 23

Chapter 4 ‘Not Enough People with the Skills We Need’ 31

Chapter 5 ‘Our Immigration Policies Are Insane’ 53

Chapter 6 ‘Not All Good Ideas Get Funded Anymore’ 73

Chapter 7 ‘Regulations Are Killing Us’ 107

Chapter 8 ‘Tax Payments Can Be the Difference between Survival
and Failure’ 119

Chapter 9 ‘There’s Too Much Uncertainty–and It’s
Washington’s Fault’ 131

Conclusion 177

Afterword Senator Jerry Moran (R-KS) Senator Mark Warner (D-VA)
183

Appendix Summary of Recommendations 187

Notes 195

Acknowledgments 229

About the Authors 235

Index 237

About the author

JOHN DEARIE is Executive Vice President for Policy at the
Financial Services Forum. Prior to joining the Forum in 2001, he
spent nine years at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where he
held positions in the banking studies, foreign exchange, and policy
and analysis areas. His writing has appeared in the Wall Street
Journal, Financial Times, Politico, American Banker, and
China’s Caijing magazine. Dearie lives with his wife and two
children in Great Falls, Virginia.

COURTNEY GEDULDIG is Vice President of Global Regulatory
Affairs at Standard & Poor’s. Prior to joining S&P, she was
managing director and head of federal government relations at the
Financial Services Forum. Geduldig served as chief financial
counsel to Senator Bob Corker (R-TN), handling a wide range of
issues including financial markets, housing, banking, taxes,
manufacturing, and international trade finance, and playing a key
role in drafting and advising Senator Corker on the Dodd-Frank Wall
Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. She also spent two years
as the deputy assistant secretary for banking and finance at the
U.S. Treasury Department. Geduldig is a member of the Maryland
State Bar and lives with her husband, son, and daughter in Mc Lean,
Virginia.