Shared-Work Programs Save Jobs in States, If Businesses Use Them

Unemployment is surging amid a nationwide avalanche of layoffs in the U.S., but there’s a way companies can keep their employees.

Smith Gardens, a flower and plant grower in Washington state, has used the state’s short-time compensation, or shared-work, program to help it retain trained staff members during the ebbs and flows of seasonal labor needs. SharedWork has been in existence for decades in the state but the arrangement -- and others like it -- offer a potential model for others to adopt to soften the economic blow of the coronavirus.

“It’s been our biggest stress-reliever, acting very much like ...