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…
December 1, 2023
The 2023 American Opportunity Index
The 2023 American Opportunity Index, a collaboration between the Burning Glass Institute, Harvard Business School’s Project on Managing the Future of Work, and the Schultz Family Foundation, examines the career paths of 4.72 million employees in 396 major U.S. companies. Unlike traditional job quality metrics, this index directly observes real-world outcomes by analyzing millions of…
December 1, 2023
Unlocking Economic Prosperity: Career Navigation in a Time of Rapid Change
New research from the Project on Workforce and the National Fund for Workforce Solutions sets an evidence-based, field-informed agenda for a 21st century career navigation ecosystem. Pathways to economic opportunity are broken in the United States, disproportionately affecting Black, Latinx, and Indigenous individuals and those from low-income backgrounds. Disrupting long-standing occupational segregation and improving outcomes for…
November 13, 2023
The Jobless AI Future Is Still a Long Way Off
Tech billionaire Elon Musk recently prophesied that there “will come a point where no job is needed,” owing to advances in artificial intelligence. But the fear that AI will cause mass unemployment is rooted in a zero-sum mentality that fundamentally misunderstands how economies evolve. WASHINGTON, DC – In a recent discussion with British Prime Minister Rishi…
