Employment and Jobs

Impact of COVID-19 Study

January 11, 2021  • UpSkill America

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With the support of the Strada Education Network and Walmart.org, we conducted a 12-month, three-phase study to speak directly with employers to learn how the pandemic and heightened attention to racial inequities have influenced company employment plans for the months and years ahead.

This PowerPoint deck captures our key takeaways from an initial round of employer interviews, including employers’ experiences as they adapted and survived during the upheaval of 2020. Additionally, employers shared perspectives about skill needs and workforce practice changes that are likely to be with us into the foreseeable future. You’ll learn such things as:

  • The workforce skill needs that are increasingly important,
  • The ways in which these skill needs are influencing a range of employment practices, including education and training programs for frontline workers,
  • How the pandemic and heightened attention on racial inequities are influencing businesses’ workplace hiring practices as well as plans to support career advancement for frontline workers, and
  • The employee concerns (both personal and professional) that surfaced in 2020 and how businesses are supporting their employees.
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UpSkill America is an employer-led movement that promotes training and advancement practices to help workers progress in their careers and move into better-paying jobs. UpSkill America is an initiative of the Economic Opportunities Program.

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