States Offer Programs and Incentives in Hopes of Getting Companies To Create Jobs

How about getting out of the way?

States this year awarded tax breaks to businesses, touted worker-training programs and even poached jobs from each other to boost their economies and create work for the nearly 12 million Americans still unemployed.

Oregon, for example, inked a 30-year tax deal to keep Nike from relocating. Wisconsin created a new "work-share" program that allows employers to cut workers' hours rather than give them pink slips. And Texas Gov. Rick Perry launched a high-profile campaign to entice employers in Illinois and California to move to the Lone Star State.

Four years after the recession officially ended, most states have bounced back fiscally, but their economies still aren't generating enough jobs for the millions of people who are still out of work or under-employed.