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…
October 30, 2024
Workforce Strategies for New Industrial Policies: Governors’ Emerging Solutions
New research from the Project on Workforce and the National Governors Association highlights how governors are leveraging new industrial policy opportunities to strengthen workforce development and meet labor market needs. As the federal government allocates trillions of dollars toward new industrial policies, states face a significant challenge: they will only succeed in realizing the economic…
October 30, 2024
American Opportunity Index 2024
The 2024 American Opportunity Index measures how well America’s largest companies drive economic mobility and positive career outcomes for their employees—actions that also can help fuel business performance. It is based on independent data and is the only measure of employer quality to evaluate what really happens to workers at America’s largest employers over time….
October 25, 2024
How Workforce Education Can Boost Earnings and Fill Jobs
Republicans and Democrats alike agree about the importance of workforce training. They’re right: Despite a recent labor-market cooling, there are still 7.7 million unfilled jobs in the United States. Unfortunately, America’s workforce-education system is a patchwork of dubious efficacy. Workforce programs are underfunded, tangled in red tape, and often fail to achieve their goals. Fixing this is hard: There’s…
July 24, 2024
Housing and the American Worker
As the American Worker Project analysis shows, real wages have increased over time. Real wages are nominal wages corrected for changes in the price level, and a natural approach to understanding the way in which housing policy affects real wages is through (housing) prices. But the importance of housing to the economic well-being of the typical American…
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…
April 3, 2024
The Social Workplace: Social Capital, Human Dignity, and Work in America, Volume III
Executive Summary In this report, we analyze 41 interviews of participants in an earlier quantitative survey of worker attitudes. These interviews were targeted to survey participants age 22–29 to better understand the priorities and concerns of younger workers. Our findings underscore the paramount importance of flexibility and purpose in work. Our analysis suggests the definition…
February 22, 2024
A Slow Start for Skills-Based Hiring
Growing second-thoughts on bachelors’ degrees and labor market pressures have caused employers to move toward more inclusive recruitment practices through “skills-based hiring.” This approach prioritizes the specific abilities and competencies relevant to a job over traditional educational credentials, including college degrees, based on the theory that degrees often have little to no connection to ability….
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 22, 2024
Can Workforce Development Programs Improve Labor Force Participation?
Harry Holzer, a Senior Fellow at Brookings and a key contributor to AEI’s Workforce Futures Initiative (WFI), published a recent analysis of the potential of the publicly-funded US workforce system to reduce unemployment and boost labor force participation. To my mind, he makes a strong argument for increasing basic supports for work engagement as a way of getting chronically…