The current job market is a trap. If you have a degree or you are actively looking for work, you already know how it goes. You spend hours applying online, get instantly filtered out by an AI bot, or run into endless ghost jobs that companies never actually fill. Entry level listings demand years of experience, and the pay does not even come close to covering the actual cost of living.

I am Ke via The Economic Dignity Project, and this system needs a total reset.

We are pushing for federal legislation called the Federal Employment Guarantee and Workforce Protection Act to force accountability into the hiring market. Here is the exact plan we want to set in place:

A universal job guarantee. If you are ready to work, you should have access to a secure public option job. That means a thirty dollar an hour baseline for college grads working in their field, and a seventeen to twenty dollar an hour baseline for general labor.

A ban on AI screening and ghost jobs. We need to make black box automated resume rejections and fake job postings illegal, putting real accountability back on employers.

Support for small businesses. We need to provide federal payroll offsets and training grants so small businesses can actually afford to hire and train people.

Limits on mass layoffs. We have to stop corporations from mass firing workers just to boost stock prices, and guarantee an immediate transition into public work if companies face verified insolvency.

People are immediately going to call this unrealistic, so here is how we handle the logistics and erase every single bottleneck:

Where does the funding come from? The public job option is funded by closing corporate tax loopholes, rolling back stock buybacks, and reallocating existing federal labor development funds. Instead of subsidizing failing corporate models, public money goes directly into paying workers for essential community infrastructure, public education support, and public works projects.

How do we stop companies from dodging the AI and ghost job ban? The Department of Labor will enforce strict digital auditing on hiring portals. If a company lists an open position, they have to prove an active vacancy and an interview pipeline within a set timeframe, or face heavy federal fines that feed directly back into worker training programs.

How does this affect small businesses? Unlike massive corporations, small businesses get federal payroll offsets and onboarding grants. They are not left holding the bag. The government actively helps them cover the cost of bringing new talent up to speed so they can grow without going under.

What about mass layoffs? Corporations can no longer lay off thousands of workers just to pump up quarterly stock prices for executives. If a company claims insolvency, the transition mechanism kicks in immediately, moving affected workers directly into secure public option roles without a single gap in income.

If we actually put this framework into motion, the benefits to society are massive:

Real economic security: Eradicating involuntary unemployment means no one is ever forced into starvation wages or survival panic just because the private market crashes.
Massive power shift back to workers: Because a secure public option sets a true living wage baseline, private companies will actually have to compete for talent by offering better pay, better hours, and actual respect.
Rebuilding actual communities: Public work isn't busywork; it targets real, neglected infrastructure needs, from green energy transitions and local community development to public education support.
Ending the graduate penalty: College grads stop getting trapped in the housekeeping-to-nowhere pipeline and finally step into professional fields matching the degrees they worked years for.
A full time job should actually support your life, not leave you stressed out and broke.

Sign this petition to demand the Federal Employment Guarantee and Workforce Protection Act.