If government wants to create jobs, they need to encourage businesses to create new value (by paying them to create that value). Employers will then hire people to create the value (and pay them (after skimming enough profit off the top to make it worth the effort)). The problem is, of course this requires the government to spend more (not less) which seems strongly against the current momentum.

I'd suggest the modern version of the Depression era work programs and/or the 60s space race. Perhaps something launching a major technological leap in robotics (which ironically would exacerbate our job "problem").