To achieve vibrant communities and expand economic opportunity, capital must play a key aligning role. Business lenders and investors, including those such as CDFIs that seek social impact as well as financial returns, are important contributors to the local economy and job creation. But what kinds of jobs are the businesses they finance creating? What kinds of jobs do we want them to create? Can we influence the quality of these jobs? And what can job quality advocates in workforce development and other fields learn from pioneering investors and lenders about strategies to measure job quality in firms and drive business practice change?

This event features representatives from CDFIs and investors to discuss these questions.

In her book Unbound: How Inequality Constricts Our Economy and What We Can Do About It, Heather Boushey, President and CEO of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, considers how inequality is restricting growth and imagines how a more equitable economy would function. The book also raises two key questions: How can we better measure our economy to understand how it can improve the lives of individuals and how do we better support working families so we can set them and their children up for success?

The Economic Opportunities Program, Ascend, Financial Security Program, and Program on Philanthropy and Social Innovation hosted a book talk with Heather and a panel discussion including other experts to explore these questions about defining and measuring economic success and how we can work more broadly to create growth with purpose.

Lack of access to quality jobs is a key contributor to rising inequality. Race, gender, and place all play a critical role in who has access to quality work and economic mobility. How can leaders across fields take concrete steps to assess and address disparities in job quality in a regional labor market and improve outcomes for all workers? This event explores the following questions: Why prioritize and measure job quality in your work? What data sources, tools, and approaches can you put to work immediately to assess job quality in your local labor market? How can you disaggregate data by race, gender, and place, and analyze disparities in job quality in a region?

In an engaging book, Beaten Down, Worked Up – The Past, Present, and Future of American Labor, veteran New York Times reporter Steven Greenhouse relates how working people organized to address similar challenges in the past, how the gains they achieved began to erode, and how working people today are again finding their voice. Like their predecessors, workers are uniting in common purpose to respond to today’s challenges and demand a better world of work for themselves and for future generations.

Enjoy this conversation with one of the nation’s leading labor reporters discussing the past, present, and future of work in America and the role of working people in determining that future.

The future of work has received an avalanche of attention over the past several years from the media, academics, and policymakers. However, most discussion has been theoretical and speculative. And the challenges facing opportunity youth have largely been left out of this conversation. Given this context, the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program and Aspen Institute Forum for Community Solutions, with support from the Citi Foundation, developed a practical approach and toolkit that community leaders can use to begin to learn how the future of work is playing out right now in their local economies. The toolkit includes a framework and questions to guide conversations with employers and young adults to learn from them about the nature and structure of work in specific occupations and what’s changing now; a guide to resources for conducting background labor market research to inform conversations; and sights from three organizations that pilot-tested the approach and toolkit in their communities

Companies can play an important role in making online upskilling accessible and relevant to frontline workers. Our latest report documents one partnered approach to designing and piloting an online training program for incumbent workers, led by a food service company, a civic leadership organization, and a local university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It explores how Eat’n Park partnered with Robert Morris University and the Allegheny Conference on Community Development to design and deliver digital training to frontline Eat’n Park employees. Our profile shares findings from a pilot customer service training program, focusing on the experiences of workers who participated and their managers

Good Jobs, Good Business is a comprehensive toolkit for small business owners seeking to improve job quality. The toolkit includes sections on Employee Compensation, Scheduling and Paid Leave, Hiring and Professional Development, Employee Engagement, Health Benefits, Retirement and Wealth Building, Racial Equity, and Covid-19. Each section helps users develop a business case and provides guidance on implementing new policies. This resource is designed for small business owners but can also be used by partners (including lenders and workforce development organizations) to coach businesses on job quality improvements with potential business benefits.

This paper lays out a potential path forward for “Next Gen” workforce organizations seeking to improve job quality for workers and elevate employer competitiveness. It shares the strategy, organizational culture, and field-tested practices that JVS Boston developed to engage employers in strengthening job quality and in turn more effectively meet employer and employee needs in a tight labor market.

In this article, the authors present findings from their research demonstrating the benefits of profit-sharing and worker ownership models for both employees and businesses. They describe different models of profit-sharing and also cite past studies documenting a range of benefits for employees participating in these businesses, including higher wages and better benefits compared to peers. This article has application for business leaders exploring different job quality strategies as well as policy and economic development leaders positioned to expand the use of profit-sharing models.

This fact sheet displays the disproportionate effect technological change may have on Black workers and presents potential benefits that effective training programs could have on Black communities. This resource is useful for practitioners seeking to design training programs that center equity.