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November 27, 2024

Finally, a Win for Working Men

Since the 1970s, working men, particularly those without college degrees, have experienced lower employment rates, increased social isolation and growing health risks. Today, we are starting to see early signs that this problem may be abating.   But lately, men have started going back to work. During most recessions, the male employment rate falls and never returns…

November 22, 2024

A Side Effect of the Booming Job Market: Wage Inequality Is Way Down

Lessons of the post-COVID economy. When voters tell you what they are concerned about, believe them. Exit polls from the presidential election the show that the economy ranked first among voters’ concerns at 32 percent, almost three times more than the next closest issue, immigration. A plurality of voters—45 percent—said that their financial situation was worse than…

October 8, 2024

The Longshoremen Are Making the Wrong Demands

They shouldn’t be trying to block automation. They should be trying adapt to it. The International Longshoremen’s Association ended a three-day strike last Thursday after reaching a deal with a consortium of port operators for a large wage increase for the the 47,000 dockworkers, phased in over the next few years. The deal gives both…

April 11, 2024

What a New Report on 10 years of AI Research Reveals

‘Lifelong learning’ is not just a buzzword. It’s a necessity as artificial intelligence changes the workplace As artificial intelligence advances, the landscape of work may be undergoing a seismic shift. The economic potential of this emerging technology is staggering; many predict that it will be a transformative force on par with innovations like the steam engine, electricity or the transistor. To paraphrase Bette Davis in “All About Eve,” “Fasten…

March 19, 2024

Conservatives Distrust Higher Ed—But Still Need Degrees

Ideological opposition to “woke” colleges and universities could harm conservatives and rural communities. American’s faith in our colleges and universities has seen a marked decline in recent years, with the percentage of adults who say they have “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in the institutions of higher education plunging from 57 percent to…

February 23, 2024

Study What You Love or Study What Will Make You Money?

There’s a better way to think about—and talk to young people about—college. When it comes to education, adolescents and young adults face a dilemma: to follow their intrinsic interests or to choose a course of study they think (or have been told) will secure their economic futures. For most, to ask this question is to…

February 20, 2024

Planning a Career in the Age of AI

After decades of industrial robots, factory layoffs, and outsourcing, automation has finally arrived in the cubicle. A recent Wall Street Journal article spotlighted how the new “robots for the mind”—the complex algorithms and language models of generative AI—are creating rising uncertainty in the professional class.  In the past, automation has generally been more of a concern for blue-collar workers, especially those in the…

January 31, 2024

Perspective: The ‘social workplace’ and why it matters to Zoomers

Social connections are increasingly as important as pay to younger workers. A mission-led workplace can help In his 1759 book “The Theory of Moral Sentiments,” Adam Smith observed that human sociality is the taproot of economics. The instinct to “truck, barter and exchange,” Smith argued, arises out of our need for others and is the…

January 12, 2024

Get Ready for AI-Driven Skill Democratization

For decades, automation has been a rough road for middle-skill workers. These jobs used to provide plentiful, family-supporting employment opportunities for those with only a high school education or even less. Robotics and, to a lesser extent, trade dramatically reduced the number of middle-skill jobs leading to what economists called a “polarized” labor market: many high-skilled and low-skilled…

December 14, 2023

Perspective: What Flexibility Means for Younger Workers — and Their Employers

Just about all workers say they want flexibility. But older and younger workers differ on what this means. As we think about the future of work, it’s clear that workers need to have the skills to help them adapt to rapidly changing technology. Many of the jobs today’s young adults occupy didn’t exist 50 years…