This guidebook offers an equity-based approach to research to strengthen the quality and authenticity of information used to drive decision-making. The guide addresses existing power dynamics and unintended biases in the creation of research and focuses on community members as authors and owners of information. In addition to describing seven inequities and opportunities for change in the research process, this resource provides guidance for community organizations, researchers, and funders. This resource may be particularly useful to individuals and organizations interested in centering input from community organizations, community members, and/or workers to inform job quality strategies.

This case study of a company in Milwaukee is part of an Equity in Apprenticeship series highlighting programs that use apprenticeship to extend career opportunities to historically marginalized groups. Employers and practitioners can glean lessons related to achieving equitable outcomes through apprenticeship programs.

This racial equity tool is designed to support workforce development organizations and practitioners to advance their racial equity practice. The assessment guides workforce development organizations and practitioners to evaluate their programs, operations, and culture in order to identify areas of strength and opportunities for growth. Practitioners can use the toolkit to explore approaches that support institutional racial equity, evaluate their current efforts, and plan next steps to strengthen their practices.

In the coming decades, the success of the US economy will become increasingly tied to the success of Latino Americans. With 58 million Latinos in the US today and projections of population growth in the years to come, Latino workers, consumers, and business owners will shape the present and future of the US economy. How can we secure economic stability and mobility for Latino workers, families, and communities? What policies, practices, or strategies could help to improve job quality, increase skills and access to high-quality jobs, and expand business ownership opportunities?

The Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program (EOP) and the Latinos and Society Program (AILAS) invite you to watch “Drivers of Opportunity: How Will Latinos Shape the Future of the American Dream?”

Headlines warn that changes in retail will lead to disruptive job loss for frontline workers such as cashiers, salespersons, stock clerks, and order fillers. But there may be more to the story. New technologies, the rise of ecommerce, and shifting business strategies, marketing approaches, and customer expectations are altering the way businesses sell, customers shop, and employees work. How will these changes influence retail businesses’ employment practices and the shape of retail jobs? Will the response to these changes vary across segments of the retail industry, whether companies are publicly traded or privately held, small or large, brick-and-mortar or online, or local or multinational? What are the opportunities to create new jobs with potentially more productive, meaningful, and rewarding work?

We invite you to watch What’s in Store: The Future of Work in Retail, a panel discussion on these questions as part of the Economic Opportunities Program‘s Working in America event series.

We like to think that the US labor market is a meritocracy — that people who work hard will attain good jobs, climb the career ladder, or start and grow businesses. The experience of Black Americans, however, raises questions about whether the reality lines up with the ideal. The unemployment rate among Black Americans is roughly double that of White Americans, and Black college graduates are roughly twice as likely to be unemployed as White college graduates. Over the past three decades, Black workers have attained higher levels of education and experience, but have not seen a commensurate increases in earnings, benefits, and economic standing. In this event, panelists discuss how we understand the experience of Black workers in the US, and what it tells us about working in America today.

This report highlights examples from businesses that are driving innovation and growth by advancing racial equity. These examples are particularly helpful to articulate the business value that advancing job quality and racial equity can provide to corporations and push back on narratives that racial equity work is a distraction from core business values, instead of an integral part of creating good jobs.

This research examines the experiences of LGBTQ staff of color in nonprofit organizations, who report structural barriers that limit access and opportunity to advance to leadership positions. The report describes the compounding effects of race and sexuality on career advancement for LGBTQ people of color and highlights the role of bias in promotions to leadership positions. This resource can be used to underscore the importance of applying an intersectional lens when developing or refining an organization’s policies and practices related to career advancement.

This toolkit provides leaders in the restaurant industry with practical resources for assessing, planning, and implementing steps to embed racial equity in workplace practices. Through partnerships with two restaurants, the toolkit highlights skills and tools critical to supporting restaurants on their racial equity journey and provides tangible examples to support implementation. This toolkit can help employers and their partners identify where racial bias may be operating in a restaurant’s policies and practices and implement solutions.

This issue brief by PHI analyzes the impacts of recent policy changes in New York state impacting home care aides and defines what a quality job looks like for a caregiver. The elements of a quality job in this occupation are organized in three categories: compensation, opportunity, and supports. While designed for care workers, the framework has relevance across industries and application for all practitioners seeking to define and assess job quality in an organization.