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February 27, 2025

Powering AI: The Energy Workforce Crisis No One Is Talking About

We are used to thinking about how burgeoning artificial intelligence (AI) may affect jobs and employment. Usually, this means fixating on whether or not AI systems will replace or augment human labor. What is less often considered is the way AI will, and in fact already does, spur new demand for labor that has nothing…

February 24, 2025

AI and American Dynamism

Last year, I published a report, The Age of Uncertainty, on the challenges in understanding and estimating the job and skill impacts of artificial intelligence. One of the big problems was how quickly expert estimates become outdated, not due to any fault on the part of the experts, but because of how rapidly AI is evolving….

January 3, 2025

AI and People: Better Together

The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) has sparked widespread debate about its potential to displace highly-skilled workers. Recent research by Emilio Colombo and his colleagues, Towards the Terminator Economy, offers a more encouraging view. The authors’ findings suggest that among more highly skilled workers, generative AI may actually enhance productivity, increase wages, and boost employment….

December 5, 2024

SNAP and the “Make America Healthy Again” Agenda

President Trump has committed to “Make America Healthy Again.” Part of the solution will involve addressing issues within the federal government’s nutrition assistance programs. His nominees to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) will play a pivotal role in advancing this agenda. Nearly six in 10 Americans…

November 15, 2024

Calibration: Making AI a Partner at Work

Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping the workforce, yet the workers who stand to benefit the most are often the most wary of it. Lower-skilled and less-educated workers view AI as a threat, fearing job loss and marginalization. But research tells a different story. These workers could gain the most from AI—if they learn to use…

November 12, 2024

Irresistible Policy, Meet the Unmovable Labor Market

Gad Levanon, chief economist at The Burning Glass Institute, analyzed data relating to the share of undocumented workers in a wide variety of trades and lower-wage, lower-skilled occupations, as well as higher-skilled jobs in construction and manufacturing. Bear in mind that many of these occupations are related to housing, the largest contributor to our recent bout of high…

October 21, 2024

Dueling Child Tax Credit Proposals: Harris vs. Vance

JD Vance and Kamala Harris have at least one thing in common: proposals to expand the child tax credit (CTC). Currently, the CTC offers households up to $2,000 per child under the age of 17. It phases in as wages exceed $2,500 (an incentive to work) and phases out for high-income workers (a disincentive to…

October 18, 2024

What’s Working in America’s Workforce System

The American workforce is undergoing rapid changes driven by demographic shifts,  technological advancements, and evolving skill requirements. During this time of rapid disruption, the question arises: How can our training programs and workforce development systems do a better job of supporting workers and employers to meet their skill and employment needs? The Workforce Futures Initiative (WFI)—a collaborative research effort between…

October 8, 2024

Unplanned Obsolescence

Tech sector layoffs have grabbed a lot of headlines over the past two years since the Federal Reserve ended its zero interest rate policy that enabled vast investment in research, development, and high-tech start-ups and as artificial intelligence (AI) has begun to reshape a growing number of sectors. A recent article from the Wall Street Journal highlights a harsh…

October 3, 2024

The New “Old Girls Network” in the American Workplace

One of America’s great success stories has been the gradual opening of opportunities for women in nearly every field, from athletics to higher education. Nowhere has the change been more profound than in the workplace. In 1970, just over 15 percent of all management jobs were held by women. According to McKinsey, that figure has now risen…