Aspen Asks Series: What Will It Take? Building the Economy We Want
American workers are struggling in a labor market whose fundamentals are changing. Jobs are hard to find and they don’t pay like they used to. Good jobs require more education than in the past. Education is expensive, and has no guarantee it will pay off. And workers aren’t getting any younger–in less than 10 years, roughly one-quarter of the American workforce will be 55 or over, double the proportion it was just over a decade ago.
As we consider the new demands of good 21st century jobs, we need to also provide opportunities for working people to build the skills they need to succeed in those jobs. We can find examples of innovative approaches across the country. In Texas, a network of community-based, non-profit organizations affiliated with the Industrial Areas Foundation work with their local community colleges to help working adults succeed in certificate and degree programs that lead to good jobs in their communities. In New York City, the Department of Small Business Services operates industry-specific career centers in health care, manufacturing and transportation that work with community stakeholders and businesses to recruit, train, and place individuals in employment in these growing industries. As a country, we need new models of education and training such as these that meet the needs of people at all stages of life and in a variety of economic circumstances—and, importantly in a t ime of scarce public resources, we need to figure out how to pay for these systems
Meeting these challenges will require the innovation and social entrepreneurship of leaders in a variety of communities. What is working in different communities? How can local innovation start to inform a national strategy?
American workers are struggling in a labor market whose fundamentals are changing. Jobs are hard to find and they don’t pay like they used to. Good jobs require more education than in the past. Education is expensive, and has no guarantee it will pay off. And workers aren’t getting any younger–in less than 10 years, roughly one-quarter of the American workforce will be 55 or over, double the proportion it was just over a decade ago.