This report addresses worsening job quality during the COVID-19 pandemic, using data from the 2020 Great Jobs Survey and building on the 2019 Great Jobs report. Among other insights, the report addresses how COVID-19 had a differential impact on high wage versus low wage workers, how job quality before the pandemic predicted job quality changes during the pandemic, and how COVID-19 has created new job quality challenges, such as increased remote work.

This resource provides guidance on language to help organizations more effectively communicate about racial economic equity. This document includes definitions of important terms and concepts for understanding racial economic equity, the racial wealth divide, and racial wealth equity as well as design guidelines on visually depicting diverse communities. This guide has relevance for a range of organizations interested in communicating about the important link between racial equity and job quality for those who want to advance racial equity.

Before the pandemic, food and drinking establishments were an important part of the business fabric in communities across the country, and these businesses employed over 12 million people. But as food businesses lost customers during the crisis, millions of restaurant workers lost work. Food and drinking establishments have been an important source of employment for women and people of color, who are over-represented in the industry’s lower paid occupations.

In this conversation we talk about ideas for business practices, public policies, and partnerships, including an innovative public/private effort that’s addressing the interests that workers, small business owners, and communities all share in a thriving restaurant sector.

The pandemic placed the economy into a sickening tailspin. Did it also catalyze advantageous changes that expand opportunity and equity? Companies can share economic success through various models. Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs), worker cooperatives, profit sharing, and forms of equity participation all present different opportunities to share that success. Employee-owned firms have also shown strong resilience through economic downturns and often use management approaches that lead to higher-quality jobs. How can these strategies help shape economic rebuilding? How can they address the inequalities and inequities that have divided our society and help us build a more resilient economy?

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.

This article discusses the barriers the lack of affordable childcare presents to parents and working people and the benefits the US would receive if this challenge were addressed

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

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 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.