sept 5 2011 in anticipation of the presidents speech on job creation big business and big labor are weighing in with their own prescriptions for putting millions of unemployed americans back to work what solutions are they backing and can they agree on any and to what extent do these plans overlap with the one the president is expected to unveil when he speaks this thursday obamas speech comes on the heels of a bleak jobs report released friday which found no net gain in new jobs for august some 14 million americans remain out of work of those almost half have been out of work six months or longer the jobless rate is forecast to remain at around 9 percent through the end of 2012 tom donohue president of the us chamber of commerce and richard trumka president of the aflcio are offering their own plans for creating jobs both men last week described the steps they believe would produce job growth donohue in a preview of a more detailed plan the us chamber will submit this week to the white house advocates investing in us infrastructurebuilding or repairing schools ports roads bridges railroads airports such projects he says would put idle construction workers back to work the chamber also advocates investing in domestic energy production cutting red tape and removing regulatory barriers and approving pending freetrade agreements with south korea panama and columbiawhich the chamber says would save 380000 existing jobs and create thousands of new ones trumka president of the aflcio endorses infrastructure projects he also wants the federal government to create jobs directly though a program like the new deals wpa to boost consumer demand hed increase consumer confidence by extending unemployment benefits and by providing mortgage relief to homeowners worried that theyll lose their homes in addition the aflcio advocates a speculation tax that would force wall street to pay to rebuild the economy it helped destroy what will president obama recommend no one knows for sure but hes already said he favors infrastructure projects and advocates creation of an infrastructure bank to help fund them hes said he wants to extend payrolltax cuts in december congress and the white house agreed to a 1year cut in the amount of money employees have to pay in social security taxes that cut put an estimated 1000 in the pocket of the average family hell likely commit say white house watchers to a further extension of jobless benefits he may recommend one or more programs that would give employers new incentives to hireespecially to hire the longterm unemployed these programs might offer subsidies tax credits or both to participating employers are infrastructure projects then the only big thing the white house labor and business can agree on yes thats fair to say says damon silvers policy director for the aflciothats why you see both presidents trumka and donohue speaking jointly on this subject we all agree on that one on all the details maybe not but