The economy is always reorganizing based on productivity increases. The massive shift from agriculture to industry is an example. These are long term trends that the workforce adapts to on a supply and demand basis. They are not really amenable to government policy and really shouldn't be. An increase in productivity cuts jobs in one industry, but increases per capita wealth so demand and workforce availability increase for new industry and services. A recession is a short term event. A government policy to minimize it should focus on short term impact without potentially long term detriments. Bush pushed policies with long term negative impacts that he already wanted before a recession on the pretext of a recession that quite probably hurt the recovery in jobs terms.

Regards,
Mark