Employment is the core strategy in Prout for distributing wealth to individuals and ensuring that they are able to purchase the necessary goods and services for their basic needs and development. Except for those with special needs and unable to work, all capable adults should have access to jobs with decent wages.
Prout views welfare economies, which rely on public supports and/or private charity to provide their working population with basic needs, as basically defective. Through proper economic planning and equitable pay scales, adequate employment opportunities can be generated. The former may require the creation of labor-intensive enterprises in the initial stages, as well as the reduction of working hours later on as the pace of automation increases. The latter will be ensured through Prout’s extensive system of cooperatives which will be responsible for most of the production in the economy. The collective ownership structure of cooperatives is committed to an equitable distribution of wages and profits, resulting in improved living standards for its workers.
Additionally, economic regions that plan for 100% employment must target job creation for local residents who spend most of their wages and profits locally. Non-local populations tend to extract the wealth they accumulate from the local economy, thereby weakening the region’s ability to grow and create jobs.