Good jobs are the newest hot topic in workforce development, but that hasn’t always been the case. Almost a decade ago, when the National Fund started promoting job quality, it seemed like a radical idea. We love seeing good jobs…
The numbers we tout every month are not the best reflection of the state of our economy for working Americans Evaluating the labor market is a challenging task. The media and politicians lean on tangible metrics like the number of…
For decades, young people have been told that the only way to be successful is to get a bachelor’s degree, find an entry-level job, and climb the company ladder. Yet there are often large gaps between the broad academic knowledge…
You cannot address what is not named. At the National Fund, we are committed to naming and confronting systemic racial inequities that exist within our own organization, non-profit sector, and the broader workforce development system. Our work is rooted in…
Developing trauma-informed workplaces Americans have grown all too accustomed to violence. Just in the last couple of weeks, we witnessed mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, where 10 Black people were targeted for their Blackness and murdered in their community’s…
Now that vaccines, test kits, and COVID-19 treatments are more readily available and COVID-19 variants are becoming less severe, people have begun the return to office and to normal operations as part of what many are calling a “post-pandemic” world.…
May is Building Safety Month, an excellent time to highlight that safety in the physical work environment is foundational to a good job, company success, and global sustainability. Building and workplace safety in the United States has been evolving since…
Reflections on the San Francisco Bay Area I just returned from a family spring break vacation in California. On our road trip from Los Angeles to San Francisco, we visited the Chinese American Museum and Japanese American National Museum, drove…
Black and Latina entrepreneurs critical for a post-pandemic workforce The Great Recession has some people asking, “Where are the workers?” and others to quip, “No one wants to work anymore.” While the economy continues to pick up pace in a…
As healthcare employers continue to struggle to fill high-demand positions, it’s critical for organizations to explore historically underutilized talent. For example, people with physical or developmental disabilities are too often excluded from the workforce. As a result, workplaces committed to…