For the tens of millions of American adults that lack basic literacy, numeracy, and digital skills, most cannot access employment opportunities in high-wage, high-demand occupations and industries that are increasingly focusing on skills in their hiring processes. Year Up provides its participants with the opportunity to develop essential career readiness and business skills, build foundational technical capabilities, and complete an immersive, work-based learning experience with a leading employer partner. American Institutes for Research’s (AIR’s) PROMISE Center is partnering with Year Up to expand its nationwide program with fidelity. In this Q&A, AIR shares how this work could help scale up effective skills-based training programs, expand and diversify the workforce, and support employers’ skills-based hiring practices.

As the COVID-19 pandemic entered its third year, the initial shocks of closures and layoffs had subsided, and indicators suggested the U.S. economy was on the rebound. Unemployment was at historical lows, wages were rising, and employers were expanding hiring practices, attempting to open doors to more job seekers. Yet, there were approximately two job openings for every one job seeker, indicating there were not enough workers in the job market. The Worker Voices Project is a Federal Reserve System research effort, started in May 2022, engaging low-wage workers and nondegree job seekers through focus groups across the country to understand their experiences of the economy in the recovery. This report offers a nuanced perspective on how these workers and job seekers navigate employment and strive for economic stability in the labor market.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) provides programming and support to help ensure that individuals released from federal custody can successfully transition from prison to the community. This transition can be challenging, and many returning citizens ultimately reengage with the criminal justice system at some point. Preparing returning citizens for employment and supporting them through the reentry and employment processes can improve reentry outcomes and strengthen communities. To explore challenges and opportunities associated with improving employment outcomes among BOP releasees, the National Institute of Justice hosted a virtual workshop of BOP staff, community-based reentry service providers, researchers, national employers, and other experts. This RAND Corporation report summarizes discussion points from the workshop and presents a wide-ranging set of needs identified by workshop participants.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, unemployment in the American economy spiked to 20 million in mid-2020. While it dropped to 5.7 million in December 2022, the labor market is still in flux, and jobs in some fields remain unfilled. In response, higher education systems and states across the country are turning to community colleges to provide both long- and short-term workforce training programs in high-demand fields. The Virginia Community College System has developed programs for helping adults access training and earn credentials that improve their labor market prospects and provide on-ramps to further education. Two of these programs include FastForward and Get a Skill, Get a Job, Get Ahead. This Accelerating Recovery in Community Colleges Network blogpost introduces two research projects on the programs that will provide information about the associations between postsecondary student aid and student education and workforce outcomes, and how community colleges can build pathways to high-opportunity jobs and careers.

Despite notably high levels of job vacancies due to the Great Resignation, the current job market favors individuals with four-year degrees and advanced credentials. This creates barriers for individuals who are unable to access traditional college degrees, a population that is disproportionally represented by racial and ethnic minorities as well as members of marginalized communities. Registered apprenticeships are a recognized sustainable solution to increase equitable hiring of skilled workers from diverse backgrounds. This UnidosUS fact sheet highlights the existing need for apprenticeship to be incorporated as best practices for recruitment, employee retention, and sustainable hiring practices.

A shift to skills-based hiring instead of degree-based hiring is not only a sensible public sector reform to find qualified workers in a tight labor market but can also unlock economic mobility for millions of workers who have been overlooked for decades. Numerous states are reviewing roles to determine which ones have unnecessary degree requirements, while others have already removed degree requirements from 90% of state jobs. This Brookings blogpost explores these low-cost actions as pathways to open state hiring processes to more applicants and improve economic mobility for qualified workers who have been excluded from state hiring systems.

Nearly one in five jobs in the United States are in the service sector, including in retail, grocery, pharmacy, fast food, and fulfillment, but there are countervailing views on who works these jobs and to what end. One assumption is that service sector employment is dominated by workers who are temporarily in this line of work and using it as a source of extra income or as a first rung on a ladder towards career growth and economic opportunity. The alternative belief is that service sector workers rely on this work to get by in supporting their families, and that these jobs may be more poverty traps than mobility ladders. This Shift Project brief draws on data from surveying 2,601 workers in these sectors to examine their experiences of material hardship, economic security, and their expectations for future upward mobility, and how job quality shapes those forecasts. This data provides an unprecedented view into the personal histories, economic realities, and career trajectories of service sector workers.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey estimates that 1 in 4 women and 1 in 10 men experience intimate partner violence in their lifetimes. Survivors of gender-based violence often face multiple barriers to employment, including limited skills, gaps in their education and work histories, housing instability, and mental health and substance use needs. Urban Institute conducted an evaluation of the Career Readiness Training Program, Sanctuary for Families’ workforce development program in New York City designed specifically for domestic violence survivors. This Urban Institute report explores the findings of the evaluation – for example, after completing the program, clients were more successful in overcoming critical barriers to employment such as low self-esteem, gaining employment, and improving financial self-sufficiency.

The U.S. labor force participation rate has been trending downwards since the beginning of the 21st century. This paper notes that labor force participation (the percentage of people working or looking for work) plummeted during the first two months of the COVID-19 pandemic, representing a decline of more than 8.2 million people. About half of the drop was quickly regained, and participation recovered further in the second half of 2021. About 40% (nearly 1 million workers) of the persistent decline can be attributed to the continuation of pre-pandemic demographic trends. The authors discuss four possible explanations for the remaining 60% of the decline (about 1.4 million workers): cash payments to households in 2020 and 2021 that made it easier for some people to postpone looking for a new job; fear of catching COVID; long-COVID symptoms that make it difficult to work; and changing work-life balance preferences.