WASHINGTON & SANTA FE, NM (By Jennifer M. Granholm and Daniel G. Mulhern, USA Today) September 4, 2011― This Labor Day, we lament the cruel oxymoron of the "jobless recovery," an economy made anemic because its structure has irreversibly changed through globalization.

America has lost 42,000 factories since 2001.

We are witnessing the biggest foundational change to our nation's economy since the beginning of the industrial age.

Our global competitors are aggressively courting and winning the jobs of multinational corporations.

Here are six steps to create jobs without adding to the deficit:

1 Give global companies, which have parked over $1 trillion in earnings offshore to avoid U.S. corporate taxes, incentives to "repatriate" those foreign earnings. Lower the corporate income tax on a one-time basis to 15%. Then — and this is the important part — direct the potential $150 billion in tax revenue from those repatriated earnings to job creation. How?

2 Put half of those proceeds toward a blockbuster "Jobs Race to the Top," modeled on the highly effective Education Race to the Top. The education "race" had states doing back-flips to compete for federal dollars. Let's do the same for job creation in emerging global sectors such as robotics, nanotechnology, clean energy, defense technology and advanced manufacturing.

Require cash-hungry states to collaborate with the private sector to compete for grants or no-interest loans. For example, in Michigan we created a cluster of advanced battery companies to build the guts of the electric vehicle. The 18 companies now making batteries in Michigan are projected to create 63,000 jobs — all because we partnered with businesses in the competition for federal Department of Energy advanced battery grants. A robust national Jobs Race would empower states, bust bureaucracies and create scores of private sector jobs.

3 Invest the remaining proceeds toward capitalizing an infrastructure bank, broadly defined — construction for roads, bridges, technology, grid upgrades, schools. Make the loans low- or no-interest initially, bureaucracy-free, and require partnerships with lending institutions. Make sure the taxpayers get paid back over time.

4 Lower the nation's corporate tax rate from 35% to 25%, and pay for it by streamlining the tax code and eliminating loopholes.

5 Modernize our unemployment and workforce training systems. In Germany, government helps employers pay for work during recessions, preventing layoffs and helping workers stay employed when orders are slow.

Germany has a robust apprenticeship program to give young workers hands-on advanced manufacturing experience. America can adapt this model, which has helped Germany remain an industrial powerhouse even during the recession.

6 Adopt a federal clean energy standard to proclaim to clean energy businesses — which can locate anywhere — that a market exists here for their products. If the U.S. adopted a goal of acquiring 80% of our energy from "clean" sources by 2035, clean-tech businesses would flock here.

In industrial countries, the renewable energy sector has seen growth of 630% since 2004. Investments in clean-tech companies, which totaled $243 billion worldwide last year, have created over a million new jobs in less than a decade.

But the bulk of those investments and jobs are going to China and Germany because they created a market by committing to energy security. We must, too. And it wouldn't cost one dime from the U.S. Treasury to adopt a national clean energy standard.

Non-partisan proposals like these would help "crack the code" of job creation without adding to the deficit. Most important, they would create jobs for millions of unemployed Americans. Labor Day is the best time to get to work.

Jennifer M. Granholm, the former governor of Michigan, and Daniel G. Mulhern are co-authors of A Governor's Story: The Fight for Jobs and America's Economic Future.