There are many reasons companies aren’t hiring. They don’t have to because they can hire one person to do the work of several employees, the have more than enough employees—overseas, and some companies are just plain scared. This is the case with many companies that enjoy a substantial increase in profits from year to year, but instead of hiring, they choose to hold onto the profits. Some profitable companies have even gone a step further by laying off workers, even though they have the means to pay them.

According to a recent MSNBC.com report:

Business owners are a gun-shy bunch these days. When asked why they aren’t hiring, you’ll often hear the word “uncertainties.” Those range from not knowing whether taxes might increase at some point to worries about how health care reform could add to employee costs in the future.

Running a business is always going to be fraught with uncertainties, but these days business owners are feeling especially on edge about taking any sort of risk with hiring.

So what will it take for these companies to start hiring again? Michael Alter, President and CEO of SurePayroll, and Roosevelt University Professor Samuel Rosenberg spoke with Tribune reporter Kristin Samuelson about what needs to happen in order to coax profitable companies into loosening the belt. Alter says that to increase hiring, companies have to increase growth and slow their productivity gains, while Rosenberg feels that the market would have to grow to such an extent that the companies can’t meet the demand for their products.

Both agree that the road to recovery will be long and difficult. Alter mentions that because consumer spending drives growth, and you can’t spend if you’re not employed, it’s going to be very hard for the U.S. to come back. Rosenberg mentions that it will take a very, very long time for unemployment levels to drop to a more reasonable level, and this is impossible to predict.

The idea of a tax credit for companies that create new jobs, something the federal government has not tried since the 1970s, is gaining support among economists and Washington officials grappling with the highest unemployment in a generation.

The proposal has some bipartisan appeal among politicians eager both to help their unemployed constituents and to encourage small-business development. Legislators on Capitol Hill and President Obama’s economic team have been quietly researching the policy for several weeks.

“There is a lot of traction for this kind of idea,” said Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the Republican whip. “If the White House will take the lead on this, I’m fairly positive it would be welcomed in a bipartisan fashion.”

The New York Times article does a good job of explaining the pros and cons. Hopefully some form of this will pass.