Commentary A California-sponsored program to help companies fund employees has helped create 124,000 new jobs since the program began in 2013. Furthermore, the “multiplier effect” of those primary jobs led to about 1.7 times that amount in additional positions within the same geographic areas, totaling about 338,000 extra jobs. Through the California Competes Tax Credit (CCTC) program, the state gave employers $1.23 billion in tax credits (reduced taxes or cash back when employers file tax returns) in return for a verifiable promise to create 124,000 new jobs. Creating those 124,000 positions cost the state about $9,000 each. However, the average cost to the state of creating all the jobs—directly and indirectly through the multiplier effect—was slightly less than $4,000 per new job created. A just-published “working paper” submitted to the National Bureau of Economic Research by a team of rigorous researchers using cutting-edge econometric analysis showed the state’s CCTC program, …