If you were in charge of everything, how would you fix it?
I'd expand the public sector. Lots more government jobs at all levels, plus a guaranteed govt. job at minimum wage for anybody who wanted to work. That solves the unemployment problem and helps tighten up the labor market.
Change taxation, a lot. Eliminate corporate taxes, eliminate taxes on anyone earning less than, say, $50,000, raise taxes on the superrich. Tariffs punishing the use of offshoring and cheap labor.
Paid for, mostly, with deficit spending.
Unemployment at a 4 or 5 percent level is healthy for capitalism, it creates competition and ensures a tangible advantage in most sectors.
As a federal government employee, I think there is waste in the system and I think there is a lot less waste in federal than there is in state public sectors. Menial labor jobs are contracted, low paying positions involve mostly data entry and repetitive tasks that do not require education or much training. There is competition for these jobs now, there would be little reason IMO to create more of them just for the sake of reducing unemployment as a whole. If a government job created does not produce it is a waste of taxpayer dollars, and the benefit structure is way too costly to hire people at the lowest levels just to do it.
I would be fine in creating public sector intern jobs to clean highways, waterways, and repair school yard play equipment. Stuff like that. Jobs that college kids can do to earn some extra money while learning the value of service to something bigger than themselves. But handing government jobs to under-qualified and transient types is burdensome and hollow. The service sector has plenty of opportunities for these people, McDonalds always has jobs open for those seeking minimum wage work.