Recent worker polling confirms that workers feel vulnerable—and they feel that public policy does not serve them.
In places like Detroit and the San Francisco Bay Area, workers pour themselves into one, two, or sometimes three jobs, yet many feel insecure or unacknowledged.
Public workforce development systems cannot solve these shortfalls by themselves. But creating better pathways for workers to access jobs is one piece of a broader vision of systems that help working people get the jobs they deserve while meeting the needs of area businesses.
An Economy That Fails Workers
Data indicate that a wide swath of workers in the United States are struggling to stay afloat, grasping for opportunity and security that feels elusive, and feeling frustration that current public policies are not doing enough for them.
Data indicate that eliminating racial inequities in income could boost the Bay Area economy by $348 billion a year.
In Detroit, the median household income is $31,000 less than households in the broader region, and almost $45,000 less than a family of four needs to survive. Data suggest that only 26 percent of Detroit households are considered middle class as compared with 39 percent in the region.
Despite the growing diversity of the region’s workforce, workers of color remain crowded in lower paying and lower opportunity occupational groups, while White workers are overrepresented in many higher paying professions. Many workers also face the threat of being automated out.
In the Bay Area, a report by PolicyLink called Advancing Workforce Equity in the Bay Area: A Blueprint for Action found that only 47 percent of the region’s workers hold stable jobs. White workers with only a high school diploma earn higher wages, on average, than Latine workers with an associate’s degree. The same report indicates that eliminating racial inequities in income could boost the Bay Area economy by $348 billion a year.
Over 90 percent of workers polled point to family-sustaining pay, job security, and safe working conditions as the most important aspects of a quality job—but most lack access to these and other essential job qualities like the ability to have a say in the workplace or accessible training and educational opportunities.
The Need for Alignment and Evolution
A workforce development ecosystem works better by centering worker perspectives in the design of program solutions and policies. Worker voice and choice are necessary elements of a strong and equitable public system. Worker engagement in solving for employer talent challenges also benefits employers as it reduces turnover and boosts long-term retention.
Right now, the workforce development ecosystem’s stability is uncertain. First, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA)—enacted in 2014 and expired in 2020—remains overdue for reauthorization.
Against this backdrop, public funding for workforce development remains in limbo. Additionally, critical youth-focused programs like Job Corps have been paused.
Moreover, the number of adults being served has fallen. Since 2001, public funding for workforce development programs has also declined significantly.
Despite the workforce system’s call for universal access, very few women living on low incomes get access to public programs. Research also indicates that women living on very low incomes experience nominal wage growth after participating in current workforce programs.
A workforce development ecosystem works better by centering worker perspectives in the design of program solutions and policies.
Among men, data indicate that workforce programs struggle to address persistent wage gaps. A review of 75,000 Eligible Training Provider (ETP) programs in the United States shows that public workforce development training dollars do not promote job quality. For people facing the greatest challenges to get and keep a job, the public workforce system routinely fails to deliver family-sustaining jobs, and indeed, many workers are stuck in a “low-wage trap.”
Workforce system policies must work in tandem with other policies to address structural challenges faced by workers.
So, where do we go from here?
Charting New Paths Forward
We need to do more to fix our broken workforce development system. Our experiences show the value of starting by centering worker perspectives and needs in designing program solutions and policies, working alongside employers, providers, and adjacent ecosystem stakeholders.
Bolstering worker voice and choice, and empowering workers to help shape an effective workforce development system and a healthy labor market, are necessary elements of a strong and equitable public system. Worker engagement in solving for employer talent challenges is also a win-win for employers as it reduces turnover and supports long-term retention of workers.
Workforce development providers, worker-supporting organizations, and coalition partners are continuing to pilot, test, and refine new ways of aligning the workforce development system to catalyze economic mobility for workers while creating the conditions by which workers have greater say in the workplace.
Equally important, local philanthropic and workforce ecosystem collaborations are demonstrating that multidiscipline, multisector cooperation is a powerful tool for developing local program, policy, and systems solutions that promote family-supporting jobs and economic mobility.
The Bay Area provides one powerful example of the value of this approach. Leaders there are listening to and amplify worker interests while advancing a public workforce system aligned with promoting worker empowerment and choice.
In 2021, ReWork the Bay launched a pilot project to improve job quality by empowering workers to advocate for better pay and protections. In this project, frontline worker organizations and workforce development programs linked arms to integrate training and education on organizing and labor law into existing job training programs.
Worker rights education can be a transformative pairing with workforce development.
These programs helped bolster workers’ confidence by teaching workers about their workplace rights, ensuring that workers got the most out of job placements, and connecting workers to existing efforts to improve job quality in the region. The pilot program also helped increase employers’ knowledge of important workplace protections, which was helpful in ensuring common understanding for both workers and employers.
Survey results and participant and staff feedback tell us that participants felt a stronger sense of agency, self-confidence, and the ability to advocate for themselves as a result of the pilot project. Specifically, workers shared that they felt an increased awareness of safety guidelines and the prevention of common injuries, increased understanding of basic labor history and rights. We heard from workers that they felt more empowered to advocate for themselves and organize with other workers. And workers were more likely to get involved in policy change.
In short, these programs showed clearly that worker rights education can be a transformative pairing with workforce development.
Together with local partners, ReWork the Bay is also elevating policy and practice shifts in the public workforce system to align it with worker needs. This includes training that is varied by length or time commitment, integrated adult basic education and contextualized learning, language accessibility, and training that aligns with high-quality job placement. Equally important, our partners are testing how a modernized public workforce development system can mitigate the barriers to access and success in training programs—including the need for childcare, transportation, housing, and other supports.
An Example from Detroit
The economy in metro Detroit is vastly differently from that of the San Francisco Bay Area. But we still see common elements. Again, centering worker voice in the workforce development system is proving a critical element for meaningful change.
In Detroit, an emerging cross-section of leaders, including community-based nonprofit providers, nonprofit executives, employers and worker rights organizers, movement activists, and advocates have formed the Detroit Economic Justice Coalition. Together, the partners in this coalition are advancing a balanced public workforce infrastructure that serves employers and workers in solving for talent, employment, and wealth gaps.
In particular, this group is crafting a policy, practice, and systems-change playbook for Detroit’s public workforce development ecosystem. Centering worker perspectives as in the Bay Area, the Detroit coalition is helping to advance a set of priorities for the City and the State which include a call for ensuring that all Detroiters can access workforce and social services efficiently through “no wrong door” policies and practices. Additionally, the coalition is making sure that public data are transparently available.
Area healthcare employers are building partnerships across industry—and with jobseekers and colleagues—to solve for retention and career pathways. They are piloting new practices to address communication and infrastructure gaps so that frontline workers know about credentialing opportunities in advance and have access to the social supports that they need to take advantage of them.
Building What’s Next
The findings and lessons learned from our place-based efforts point to opportunities for adoption and replication across the country. We believe philanthropic collaboratives and their program and coalition partners can advance similar and aligned efforts by:
- Committing to center worker perspectives
Worker perspectives are needed to create effective and equitable program, policy, and systems solutions. Ensuring that workers have a voice in our systems and strategies will ensure durability, sustainability, and adaptability.
- Investing in local efforts that convene and activate diverse stakeholders
In communities across the country, we know that there is promise and opportunity in convening diverse stakeholders, building trust, and charting opportunities for action and collaboration.
- Creating a shared goal of systems change
Advancing ecosystem alignment and change requires intersecting stakeholders to collectively move from intention to action. Components for advancing a shared vision for systems change may include program development and piloting, research, public policy, organizing, movement development, and narrative change.
The current US system leaves far too many people behind. Advancing alignment across the workforce development ecosystem and economic justice partners is essential to building the next generation of durable public system solutions.
We’re excited to help build what’s next.
