Job application The cost, in terms of adding to the federal budget deficit, would be as much as $378 billion annually in the first five years and $415 billion each of the following five years. (Photo: Shutterstock)

A U.S. program that guarantees jobs for the unemployed would attract about 15 million people even amid the lowest jobless rate since 2000, helping bring the economy to true full-employment status, according to a left-leaning group of academics.

The cost, in terms of adding to the federal budget deficit, would be as much as $378 billion annually in the first five years and $415 billion each of the following five years, according to the paper released Tuesday by researchers including Stephanie Kelton, a former economic adviser for 2016 presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. That’s assuming the program started in the first quarter of this year, offered $15-an-hour wages plus health insurance and childcare, and ran for a 10-year forecast period.

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