The American Jobs Act Will Help the Long Term Unemployed  The long term unemployed in America are important to the economic recovery. Whilst those who are temporarily unemployed will eventually come back into employment and start contributing to the economy, they will often be offset by those losing work. For the U.S. economy to gain headway, spare capacity must be created in the economy for those who have not been employed for a long period of time. Should the U.S. be able to harness these workers and create extra employment capacity to keep them in employment, then the U.S. economy will see a boost as the number of people gaining work will outnumber those losing work to a more significant level than seen ordinarily in an economic recovery.  The American Jobs Act helps in this area by creating what is known as a “Bridge to Work” program which capitalises on initiatives that many states have put into place in order to deal with long term unemployment. Specifically these programmes help those without jobs take temporary or voluntary work whilst they also pursue on the job training in order to make them more employable in the long run. There is also a $4000 tax credit for employers that hire long-term unemployed workers. Further, prohibitions on discrimination based on length of unemployment will also come into place. As such the American Jobs Act is likely to stimulate the economy through the creation of a bigger and better trained work force.1