The Economic Opportunities Program advances strategies, policies, and ideas to help low- and moderate-income people thrive in a changing economy.

We recognize that race, gender, and place intersect with and intensify the challenge of economic inequality and we address these dynamics by advancing an inclusive vision of economic justice. For over 25 years, EOP has focused on expanding individuals’ opportunities to connect to quality work, start businesses, and build economic stability that provides the freedom to pursue opportunity.

We collaborate with national and local leaders across the United States – nonprofit leaders, policymakers, labor leaders, business leaders, educators, academics, and more – and we actively seek input and ideas from individuals and communities affected by proposed approaches to address economic opportunity challenges. Through our leadership and fellowship programs; applied research and evaluation; data and analysis; and dialogue with diverse stakeholders, we work at both local and national levels to build understanding and galvanize action to address the challenge of economic opportunity in America.

Join our mailing list and follow us on social media for regular updates on our work.

Prison to Proprietor: Entrepreneurship as a Re-Entry Strategy
Publications

Prison to Proprietor: Entrepreneurship as a Re-Entry Strategy

This guide examines the role of business ownership and entrepreneurship in helping formerly-incarcerated individuals navigate re-entry.

Benchmarking the Performance of Business Development Services
Publications

Benchmarking the Performance of Business Development Services

This guide illustrates a step-by-step process that organizations providing business development services can use to generate benchmarking data related to these services on the microTracker site, and through consulting services with microTracker staff.

Publications

Increase your Client Outcomes IQ

The guide is designed as a useful tool for microenterprise practitioners who want to use client outcomes data to raise funds, improve program services, and set organizational goals.

Prince George’s County, Maryland: Investing in Infrastructure, Local Businesses, and Jobs
Publications

Prince George’s County, Maryland: Investing in Infrastructure, Local Businesses, and Jobs

Complying with a federal mandate to clean up the Chesapeake Bay is expected to spur $10 billion in public investment across the DC metro area over the next decade. Leaders in Prince George’s County, Maryland, are determined to make sure that this investment will not only achieve its environmental goals, but also spur local business development and create jobs for county residents. To strengthen this effort, representatives from the public, private, and nonprofit sectors applied to the CTWP to learn from and share with peers nationally, and to further develop their strategies to maximize the social benefits of this large public investment.

Northwest Georgia: Partnering to Connect Workers to Jobs in the Floor Covering Industry
Publications

Northwest Georgia: Partnering to Connect Workers to Jobs in the Floor Covering Industry

The Northwest Georgia Regional Workforce Partnership is developing a new talent pipeline for employment in local advanced manufacturing industries, with an initial focus on the floor covering industry. The new education and training pipeline builds on the local public school system’s college and career academy infrastructure and will connect high school students and graduates to advanced manufacturing jobs that business leaders indicate are difficult to fill.

Buffalo, New York: Building Off A Breakthrough
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Buffalo, New York: Building Off A Breakthrough

A “New Buffalo” is emerging, and civic optimism is riding high in western New York. In 2014, the city and region marked the reversal of a 50-year decline in population amidst a burst of economic revitalization, including the creation of new jobs in health care, academia, research, and clean energy. Looking to harness this momentum is the Buffalo Niagara Regional Workforce Coalition, a multiyear, multisector collective effort that has brought together key regional leaders from business, philanthropy, government, and education.

Houston, Texas: Developing Prototypes for Workforce Development Strategies
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Houston, Texas: Developing Prototypes for Workforce Development Strategies

Greater Houston is the nation’s fourth largest metro economy and has enjoyed four years of extraordinary growth, creating more than 480,000 jobs since the bottom of the recession—three jobs for every one lost. But this growth has also intensified employers’ struggle to fill key occupations, particularly in middle-skill careers and professions. UpSkill Houston, and the local leaders involved in the Communities that Work Partnership (CTWP), have adopted a series of innovative prototypes to speed workforce innovation and to scale what works to meet the demand for these middle-skill jobs.

Arizona: Understanding Skill Needs of Technology Occupations
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Arizona: Understanding Skill Needs of Technology Occupations

Despite a positive growth outlook for IT in Arizona, there is local concern that the state lacks qualified workers to support the future of IT and that talent is leaving the area for professional opportunities elsewhere. As a result, in 2014 the IT Sector Partnership was launched with the intention of engaging a wide range of stakeholders to address the state’s workforce gap. The partnership aimed to define the challenges facing employers—both within the IT industry and in other sectors employing IT workers—and then develop and implement strategies to meet those needs.

The Freelance Economy and Workforce System Meet in the Bay Area
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The Freelance Economy and Workforce System Meet in the Bay Area

The “on-demand” or “1099” economy is reengineering how millions of Americans work, and California’s San Francisco Bay Area is at the forefront of these changes. Four members of the Bay Area team participating in the Communities that Work Partnership (CTWP) set out to understand this challenge and explore how the public workforce development system—the one-stop job centers, community colleges, and publicly funded community-based training programs—could meet the skills needs of freelancers, and the businesses that hire them, in the region’s 1099 economy.

New York City: Partnering to Improve Domestic Workers’ Job Quality
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New York City: Partnering to Improve Domestic Workers’ Job Quality

The New York City Communities that Work Partnership is built on a long-standing collaboration among organizations that worked together to pass the New York State Domestic Workers Bill of Rights (BOR). The New York City partners are aware of how challenging it will be—given the uniquely private nature of domestic work—to enforce new labor regulations. Thus their work has expanded to consider how they can address challenges that affect both workers and their employers through workforce development strategies.

Improving Immigrant Access To Workforce Services: Partnerships, Practices & Policies
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Improving Immigrant Access To Workforce Services: Partnerships, Practices & Policies

How can workforce development and immigrant-serving organizations work together?

A New WIOA Measure Deserves A New Way Of Measuring
Publications

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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More from the Economic Opportunities Program

Foundational Skills: National Survey Findings
Publications

Foundational Skills: National Survey Findings

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.

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Podcasts Videos

What Employee Ownership Means to Workers

This conversation is part of our Opportunity in America series, where we take a look at the economy, what’s working, what’s broken, and really how we fix it to make sure that everyone can succeed in today’s economy.

Resource Roundup: Wages and Affordability
Blog Posts
Room for Growth: A Survey of Upskilling Approaches — 2026 Analysis
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Room for Growth: A Survey of Upskilling Approaches — 2026 Analysis

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.

Building Economic Security: A Book Talk with Arindrajit Dube and Carrie Joy Grimes
Podcasts Videos

Building Economic Security: A Book Talk with Arindrajit Dube and Carrie Joy Grimes

Economic security shouldn’t be a lottery. Yet for millions of working families, stagnant wages and precarious jobs collide with the daily grind of managing money on shaky ground — leaving stability feeling less like a plan and more like a gamble. Fixing that takes more than one lever. It takes structural reform and the tools people need to take control of their financial lives, working together.

What Employee Ownership Means to Workers
Publications

What Employee Ownership Means to Workers

Insights from Focus Groups with Employee Owners