Why would companies do that?

Because they would get benefits from the government, either in the form of tax incentives or others. We are helping Wall Street with money. We are helping automakers with money. The government is considering a stimulus package. Why not stimulate companies that create jobs? If a company can show that their payroll added 11% more jobs, the government should be happy to reward that company by all possible means.

Companies would want to do that also because the more people that have jobs, the more people that will be able to buy the goods or services from that company.

How many jobs would this create?

This would create an instant surge of 11% increase on the number of jobs that are required to work 40 hours a day.

Explaining the 11%
Assume a company with a 100 employees working 40 hours in a week. This would amount to 4000 work hours. The same 100 employees on a work week of 36 hours would work 3600 hours. To make up for the 400 hours, the company would need to hire 11 additional employees that would work 36 hours on a week, making up a total of 396 hours, very close to the 400 hours needed. In short, a company with 100 employees would immediately need 111 employees, an increase of 11% in the number of jobs.

Here is an idea to create millions of jobs

We are facing record levels of unemployment. President Obama mentioned in his campaign that we should not reward companies that send jobs overseas. We probably should be rewarding companies that create jobs here. Some ideas along that line are already surfacing, such as tax incentives for companies that create jobs.

Here is an idea: reduce the working week from 40 to 36 hours.