Economic Opportunities Program Monthly Digest — January 2026
The Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program (EOP) advances strategies, policies, and ideas to help low- and moderate-income people thrive in a changing economy.
We are pleased to present a selection of our work from the past month.
If a colleague shared this newsletter with you, consider subscribing to our mailing list or connecting on social media. To learn more about our work, visit aspeninstitute.org/eop.
Commentary
- To Help Small Businesses Recover From the L.A. Fires, Invest in Community Lenders by Joyce Klein (Business Ownership Initiative) and Amy Hereford (LiftFund), originally published in the Chronicle of Philanthropy
- Missing Demand May Miss the Opportunity: Research Insights for States Building Talent Marketplaces That Work by Haley Glover (UpSkill America), Sarah Schultz (Alvarez & Marsal), and Paul Tearnen (Alvarez & Marsal)
Click here to view more commentary.
Videos
- Back to the Future of Work: Revisiting the Past and Shaping the Future, featuring Liba Wenig Rubenstein (Future of Work Initiative), Mary L. Gray (Microsoft Research), Michelle Miller (Harvard Law School), Arun Sundararajan (NYU Stern School of Business), and moderator Anmol Chaddha (Omidyar Network, Future of Work Initiative Fellow).
- Beyond 9 to 5: Facilitating Good Jobs for People with Unpredictable Schedules, featuring Marcy Chong (Service Employees International Union), Minsun Ji (Rocky Mountain Employee Ownership Center; Drivers Cooperative-Colorado), Wingham Rowan (Beyond Jobs), Nick Schultz (Consultant; formerly Pacific Gateway Workforce Investment Network), and moderator Matt Helmer (Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program).
- Worker Power Starts With Connection — Marcy Chong
- What Worker Ownership Looks Like in the Platform Economy — Minsun Ji
- Designing Labor Markets for Real Lives — Wingham Rowan
- Giving Contingent Workers Real Economic Agency — Nick Schultz
- Five Big Ideas for Employee Ownership, from the 2025 Employee Ownership Ideas Forum, hosted in partnership with the Rutgers Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing.
- Worker Cooperatives for People Who are Incarcerated — Jessica Gordon-Nembhard, City University of New York
- Creating Clearer Pathways to Employee Ownership — Tammy J. Miller, Former Lieutenant Governor of North Dakota
- Why This Is the Moment to Expand Employee Ownership — Phil Reeves, Apis and Heritage
- Employee Ownership Across the Political Spectrum — Jesse Walker, Reason Magazine
- How Higher Education Can Strengthen Local Economies Through Employee Ownership — Leslie Wilson, University of Northern Iowa
Click here to view more videos. Click here to subscribe.
Podcasts
- Back to the Future of Work: Revisiting the Past and Shaping the Future, featuring Liba Wenig Rubenstein (Future of Work Initiative), Mary L. Gray (Microsoft Research), Michelle Miller (Harvard Law School), Arun Sundararajan (NYU Stern School of Business), and moderator Anmol Chaddha (Omidyar Network, Future of Work Initiative Fellow).
- Beyond 9 to 5: Facilitating Good Jobs for People with Unpredictable Schedules, featuring Marcy Chong (Service Employees International Union), Minsun Ji (Rocky Mountain Employee Ownership Center; Drivers Cooperative-Colorado), Wingham Rowan (Beyond Jobs), Nick Schultz (Consultant; formerly Pacific Gateway Workforce Investment Network), and moderator Matt Helmer (Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program).
- Five Big Ideas for Employee Ownership, from the 2025 Employee Ownership Ideas Forum, hosted in partnership with the Rutgers Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing.
- Worker Cooperatives for People Who are Incarcerated — Jessica Gordon-Nembhard, City University of New York
- Creating Clearer Pathways to Employee Ownership — Tammy J. Miller, Former Lieutenant Governor of North Dakota
- Why This Is the Moment to Expand Employee Ownership — Phil Reeves, Apis and Heritage
- Employee Ownership Across the Political Spectrum — Jesse Walker, Reason Magazine
- How Higher Education Can Strengthen Local Economies Through Employee Ownership — Leslie Wilson, University of Northern Iowa
Click here to view more podcasts. Click here to subscribe.
Newsletters
- Job Quality Newsletter – 2025 Highlights by Maureen Conway
- From the Forum: Five Big Ideas for Employee Ownership by Frances Almodovar
- Resource Roundup — A Look at the Year Ahead by Maxwell Johnson
- Upcoming Events — January & February 2026 by Economic Opportunities Program Staff
- Monthly Digest Double Issue — November & December 2025 by Economic Opportunities Program Staff
Click here to view more newsletters. Click here to subscribe.
Upcoming Events
- February 19 — Building New Narratives on Work and Opportunity in the US South (online).
- June 2-3, 2026 — Employee Ownership Ideas Forum (Washington DC and online). Registration will open in winter 2026. Click here to save the date.
Click here to view more events.
About the Monthly Digest
The Economic Opportunities Program’s Monthly Digest newsletter is a recap of public activities from the past month, including new publications, commentary, videos, podcasts, news clips, and more. Click here to subscribe.
About the Economic Opportunities Program
The Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program advances strategies, policies, and ideas to help low- and moderate-income people thrive in a changing economy.
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Videos
Work and the Social Contract in the Age of AI: How did we get here?
“Social contract” has quickly become one of the most-used, least-defined phrases in the AI policy conversation. This first event in a two-part series will trace the origin and history of the American social contract, examining how work became the anchor of economic security, mobility, and civic identity in the United States.
Videos
Disposable Workers: A Book Talk with MIT Sloan Professor Paul Osterman
For decades, economists and policymakers have debated how to help workers get better jobs. But what if the more fundamental problem is that employers have systematically redesigned work itself to make a third of the workforce expendable? In his forthcoming book, “Disposable Workers: The Transformation of Employment,” MIT Sloan Professor Emeritus Paul Osterman examines this idea and what it would take to reverse it.
The Workforce of the Future Starts with Adult Basic Education
To create a future-ready workforce system, we must move beyond outdated credentials and analog processes to one that is skills-first, transparent, data-driven, and aligned with the evolving needs of workers, educators, and employers.
Foundational Skills: Early Insights from Employers and Providers
This publication examines how fragmented skills, credentialing, and workforce data systems limit the potential of skills-based hiring and advancement, and outlines a shared vision for building the interoperable infrastructure needed to create a connected skills ecosystem that benefits workers, employers, educators, and governments.
Videos
How Tax Policy Can Help Employers Expand Access to Learning
In this interview, Chelsea Miller of Upskill America speaks with Nick Greif of InStride about how employers can design education benefits that are more accessible, strategic, and aligned with workforce goals.
