RECENT ARTICLES
- From Accenture: Reinventing our Marketing function with AI agents has been a transformative journey – and a collaborative effort across Marketing, Talent, and our AI teams. By treating these agents as valued team members dedicated to elevating the work of our ingenious humans, we’ve not only delivered breakthrough performance but also fostered a culture of curiosity and innovation. The future of marketing is here, and it’s a blend of human creativity and AI intelligence. Join us on this exciting journey as we continue to explore the endless possibilities of AI in marketing and operations. Click here to read more.
- From The Annie E. Casey Foundation: For the first time, Title IV‑B mandates that states and tribes consult with those most affected by child welfare policies — youth, parents, foster families and kinship caregivers. Public accountability measures now require states to publish their plans and report on how they incorporate these perspectives, equipping those affected by child welfare to help shape policies and practices. Click here to read more.
- From The Aspen Institute: Today’s job market increasingly places a premium on skills, with companies seeking to fill roles based on specific technical capabilities rather than traditional qualifications. Businesses are showcasing how these skills can be acquired through nontraditional methods, bypassing the barriers of higher education. This shift — driven by rising education costs, evolving workforce demands, and advances in technology — offers a faster, more affordable way to address immediate talent needs. Yet focusing solely on short-form credentials and technical skills risks missing a critical opportunity: building a workforce that not only fills roles, but thrives and grows over the long term. Click here to read more.
- From Brookings: No set of policies will eliminate the devastating consequences of climate change, and addressing those consequences must include an energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. But expansive portable benefits can protect the basic material needs of individuals and communities harmed by the climate crisis. Designing these benefits is no small task and will require careful research. A central principle guiding this research must be a reconsideration of old assumptions about place-based economic security. Click here to read more.
- From Center for American Progress: Families across the United States have long faced challenges accessing affordable, high-quality child care options that fit their needs. Updated data on child care and early learning in each state and across the nation illustrate the urgent need for holistic public policymaking and robust investments in the sector. Having access to the most recently available information on key child care and early learning topics is essential for understanding who is most deeply affected by this crisis, the conditions of the workforce, and accessibility and affordability of early learning opportunities and for informing solutions that best support children, families, providers, educators, and the economy overall. Click here to read more.
- From Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: Independent studies have repeatedly shown that SNAP’s work requirements do not increase employment or earnings. Misguided efforts to expand the scope of SNAP’s work requirements rest on the false assumptions that people who receive benefits do not work and must be compelled to do so — and on the view, contradicted repeatedly by research and real-world experience, that the paperwork laden requirements and under-resourced human service agencies can properly identify who is working and who should be exempt. Click here to read more.
- From Economic Policy Institute: Paid sick leave laws have passed at state and local levels in record numbers over the last few years. These laws improve public health by reducing the spread of illness, and their costs to businesses are extremely modest—generally requiring no measurable change to business practices. Yet new evidence is building support for a benefit that workers have long known about, and employers are only recently getting hip to: Paid sick leave is a key work support that may increase employment and workforce attachment. Click here to read more.
- From FedCommunities: The post-pandemic surge in new banking deserts—a result of bank branch closures across the US—appears to be leveling off, according to the latest data available in the Banking Deserts Dashboard. As of mid-2024, there are 3,629 banking deserts and 3,094 potential banking deserts across the US. These numbers indicate that 11 new banking deserts and 15 new potential banking deserts appeared in the past year. Although these recent increases are small relative to prior years, 12.3 million Americans currently live in areas defined as banking deserts. Another 11.1 million Americans live in potential banking deserts. This lack of access to a physical bank branch can create obstacles for certain consumers, including those who are lower-income, are older, live in a rural area, or have a disability, who are all more likely to visit their bank in person. Click here to read more.
- From the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta: Over the two years following that event, southern mayors, city managers, public servants, and community-based organizations continued to come together through the SCEI to access subject matter experts, build a network of peers, and address economic inclusion challenges in the region. SCEI teams from cities such as Montgomery, Alabama, Tallahassee, Florida, and Savannah, Georgia, worked to develop southern-specific strategies that address economic disparities, many of which are correlated with race, ethnicity, and geography. Over the two-year initiative and the months following, partners have been working together to help participating cities achieve their economic inclusion goals Click here to read more.
- From Gallup Workplace Insights: Gallup’s Economic Confidence Index has grown less negative since the 2024 election, driven primarily by more Republicans perceiving the economy as getting better. January’s drop from December results mainly from Democrats’ more negative future outlook. Overall, Americans are less likely to mention the economy as the nation’s top problem than they were before the election, and confidence in the job market is slightly stronger than it was then. Click here to read more.
- From the International Association of Workforce Professionals (IAWP): Disasters, whether natural or man-made, such as hurricanes, wildfires, pandemics, or cyberattacks, have the potential to disrupt economies and workforce systems significantly. To mitigate these challenges and ensure a swift recovery, the U.S. Department of Labor has released the “Disaster Lifecycle from Preparedness through Resiliency: A Guide for State Workforce Agencies (SWAs).” This comprehensive resource outlines strategies and best practices to prepare, respond, recover, and build resilience within workforce systems. This article highlights the guide’s key elements and provides actionable recommendations for state workforce agencies to enhance their disaster readiness. Click here to read more.
- From Jobs for the Future: While workforce development isn’t a cure-all for these challenges, it is a powerful tool for equipping current and future workers with the skills they need to thrive in today’s economy. But the U.S. workforce system is underfunded and in need of updating to fully meet the skill needs of America’s workforce, especially in today’s turbulent economy. Click here to read more.
- From JPMorganChase: JPMorganChase, Axios, and the U.S. Conference of Mayors today announced the launch of Zoom In, a partnership designed to share and scale insights on driving local economic growth and prosperity in communities across the country. The partnership will feature how local elected officials, community and business leaders, and policy experts are working together to set and drive an agenda that moves their communities forward, from housing and inflation to health care and the impact of new innovations on the workforce. Click here to read more.
- From Manpower: The future of work isn’t about finding the perfect hybrid formula or the ideal number of office days. It’s about creating environments where trust is the default setting, where impact matters more than hours logged, and where genuine connections happen organically across all channels. The organizations that thrive won’t be the ones with the most sophisticated hybrid policies; they’ll be the ones that understand trust is built one authentic interaction at a time. Click here to read more.
- From McKinsey & Company: Tech is a critical driver of growth for e-commerce organizations as much as any other. But when it comes to value, it’s never just tech: Leaders must look to their strategic, talent, and operating models when making future plans and figure out how to draft tech into service of their goals—rather than expect tech to do the work for them. Click here to read more.
- From the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE): Please note: Would-be employers should expect to provide new grads with tangible supports. New graduates do expect to be compensated well. They define “good benefits” as annual salary increases, a company matched 401(k), and medical and dental insurances. However, employers that can meet new grads’ basic desire to feel a sense of security have a very significant edge over competing organizations that assume a high salary alone can attract and retain a productive workforce. Click here to read more.
- From the National Association of Counties (NACO): On January 27, Chairman Brendan Carr of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced that the FCC would be withdrawing consideration of a proposed rulemaking that sought to build upon the FCC’s 2022 rule titled Improving Competitive Broadband Access to Multiple Tenant Environments. The proposed rulemaking, which was circulated internally at the FCC in 2024 but had yet to be brought publicly to a comment period, proposed to ban arrangements by managed service providers and owners or operators of multiple tenant environments to offer bulk cable and internet services to all residents. Click here to read more.
- From the National Association of Workforce Boards (NAWB): The 118th Congress will conclude without having completed work to reauthorize the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). This leaves our nation’s public workforce system once again at a crossroads as workforce development boards look ahead to the future. WIOA was last updated in 2014 with an authorization period of five years, concluding in 2019. It remains a national imperative that Congress work to successfully reauthorize this critically important public investment which serves as the workforce ecosystem’s backbone in communities and states across this country. Click here to read more.
- From the National Conference of State Legislatures: Unlike the private sector, state governments are not driven by profit margins and may have constrained budgets. This reality necessitates other approaches to retain employees. The discussion of legislative staff directors and survey results unearthed the following three tactics: creating opportunities for leadership development and career growth; offering workplace flexibility; and showing staff appreciation. Click here to read more.
- From the National League of Cities (NLC): In California, SchoolHouse Connection estimates that only one in six infants and toddlers experiencing homelessness are enrolled in early childhood development programs like Head Start. In 2023, after noticing that a significant number of families who lost their housing were dropping out of the traditional Head Start program, the City of Oakland decided to take an innovative approach to reaching children and families by launching their “Ready, Set, Go! Mobile Classroom.” This ‘preschool on wheels’ makes stops at various locations around the city including homeless shelters and city parks to meet residents where they are to keep more children enrolled in Head Start and Early Head Start programs. Click here to read more.
- From the National Fund for Workforce Solutions: It’s understandable that most are tempted to turn to Washington for answers to address the big challenges and seek big investments to move the needle. But here’s the thing, while people are facing challenges that are universal, the solutions don’t all come from Washington. The best solutions often spring up from seeds that are planted in local communities. Job opportunities, employers’ talent needs, education and training systems, and access to resources are grounded in local communities. Click here to read more.
- From the National Skills Coalition: The Infrastructure Equity Policy Project, which launched as part of National Skills Coalition’s People Powered Infrastructure campaign, aims to address the labor gap expected to arise from federal investments in infrastructure and clean energy. With nearly 3 million jobs generated annually—70 percent of which are accessible to workers without a bachelor’s degree—the challenge lies in preparing the 1.1 million workers currently lacking the necessary training. The project is focused on building diverse coalitions to increase training and supports for people to access infrastructure and clean energy jobs, particularly for women and workers of color. Click here to read more.
- From Prosperity Now: The EITC isn’t a handout–it’s a crucial part of our tax system that ensures eligible workers, with or without children, can keep more of the hard-earned money they earn. Some proposed changes, including the elimination of the Head of Household filing status, could disproportionately harm single parents, making it even harder for them to stay financially stable. It is essential to preserve and strengthen policies that help working families, like the EITC that has lifted millions out of poverty over the past five decades. Click here to read more.
- From the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM): The fight against burnout is a cultural one, requiring a shift in how organizations approach work. A combination of flexible policies, empathetic leadership, and proactive mental health support can transform burnout from an inevitability to an opportunity for change. SHRM data shows that organizations with a strong culture of support see a 60% reduction in absenteeism and a 37% improvement in employee productivity. Click here to read more.
- From the U.S. Chamber of Commerce: American businesses play an instrumental role in positively impacting global education outcomes. It starts with strong relationships and collaboration between business leaders, policymakers, and nonprofit leaders around the world. Increased collaboration ensures business leaders take an informed approach when investing in the education infrastructure in specific regions across the globe. Click here to read more.
- From Workforce Monitor: The rate of staffing employment growth slowed during the week of Jan. 13–19, with the ASA Staffing Index increasing 1.6% to a rounded value of 82. Staffing companies cited inclement weather as a primary factor that prevented further growth. Staffing jobs were 5.9% lower relative to the same period last year, narrowing the gap from 8.5% observed the previous week. New starts also increased slightly in the third week of the year, up 2.3% from the prior week. Four in 10 staffing companies (41%) reported gains in new assignments week-to-week. Click here to read more.
- From Workday: AI has forever altered our expectations for how we interact with machines, changing our user experience paradigms. As we look ahead, we can build AI agents that responsibly understand people’s roles and tasks. These systems will know the nuanced details of our systems, predict and reason next steps, and take actions to achieve our goals. Click here to read more.
- From WorkingNation: With workers on the frontlines of the AI revolution facing uncertainty about how they’ll be affected by technology, the AFL-CIO wants to make sure the workers have a say about its use. “We like to say, we’re sort of in the Wild West. It’s like we’re in a live-action experiment where companies are testing out these tools and purchasing new systems, sometimes without a lot of insight. And workers really bear the very human cost when those things don’t work out well,” says Amanda Ballantyne, the executive director of the AFL-CIO Technology Institute. Click here to read more.
- From WorkRise: Using data from B Corporation certification assessments, the report compares job quality metrics between certified B Corps—firms that have made social and environmental commitments—and similar non-B Corp firms. The analysis finds that B Corps were more likely to offer benefits such as parental leave, health insurance, flexible scheduling, professional development, and employee feedback mechanisms. It further finds that, conditional on their job quality characteristics, B Corps and comparison firms do not differ significantly on indicators of firm outcomes such as job growth and revenue. These results provide potential insights for policymakers, employers, and other labor market stakeholders seeking to improve job quality to benefit workers, either through voluntary adoption of associated employer practices, or corresponding policy levers related to job quality. Click here to read more.
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DATA TOOLS
- From Atlanta Regional Commission: Each week ARC, in partnership with Neighborhood Nexus, provides updated research and analytics through the 33on blog. From a look at housing, rental rates, and cost of living to the job market and latest on wages, this blog is a one-stop portal to a treasure trove of local and regional data. Click here to learn more.
- From Brookings: Using data from hundreds of thousands of real job transitions, the Job Mobility and Smart Growth Toolkit shows how workers can advance through labor markets—featuring national and city-by-city data on wage levels, local labor demand, and job mobility rankings for 441 occupations, from retail salespeople to cooks to computer programmers. Click here to see the toolkit.
- From FedCommunities: FedCommunities is offering Using Qualitative Research to Understand the Economy: A Toolkit for researchers, policymakers, employers, and workforce organizations interested in engaging directly with the populations they serve to elevate those populations’ perspectives in policy, programming, and practice. Research that engages communities as equal partners can yield unique, authentic results. This new Worker Voices Project toolkit, “Using Qualitative Research to Understand the Economy: A Toolkit,” offers insights on the community-engaged qualitative research practices used for the Fed’s Worker Voices Project and shows how researchers, policymakers, and workforce organizations might use these methods in their own work. Click here to access the toolkit.
- From the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, Center for Workforce and Economic Opportunity (CWEO): The Unemployment Claims Monitor displays data from the weekly and monthly unemployment claims reports from the U.S. Department of Labor. It is updated every Thursday. Users will find weekly and monthly data on claims and on who have filed for unemployment insurance, including special unemployment programs like Short-Time Compensation (or Workshare), Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees, Ex-Service Members, and Extended Benefits programs. The Opportunity Occupations Monitor displays opportunity employment and its prevalence across labor markets. Opportunity employment is an estimate of the number and share of jobs accessible to workers without a bachelor’s degree that pays more than the national median wage. Click here to learn more.
- From the Georgia Department of Labor: The Georgia Department of Labor provides access to a complete set of data tools for workforce developers to better understand the labor market conditions in Georgia. The portal also includes resources for job seekers and employers. Click here to learn more.
- From Georgia Power: Georgia Power’s Community & Economic Development team maintains interactive tools to take a deeper dive into the data on target industries, the labor force, and more. Click here to learn more.
- From the National Fund for Workforce Solutions: The National Fund for Workforce Solutions’ Workforce Equity Dashboard provides disaggregated data that uncovers racial gaps in workforce outcomes, identifies opportunities to advance racial equity across systems, and informs high-impact strategies to build a future where employers, workers, and communities prosper. This dashboard was developed in partnership with the National Equity Atlas. Click here to learn more.
- From Neighborhood Nexus: Neighborhood Nexus, a data partner of ARC, developed Data Nexus, a powerful tool to find, visualize, analyze, and download community data including demographic, education, health, and economic indicators from state and national sources, all in one place. Click here to learn more.
- From the Partnership for Southern Equity: The Metro Atlanta Racial Equity Atlas (MAREA) is designed to offer an immersive, story-centric experience that contextualizes personal narratives with engaging, interactive community data and historical background. This tool has been developed by the Partnership for Southern Equity, Neighborhood Nexus, and archi. Click here to learn more.
- From Prosperity Now: The Prosperity Now Scorecard is a comprehensive resource for data on household financial health, racial economic inequality, and policy recommendations to help put everyone in our country on a path to prosperity. Click here to access.
- From the Technical College System of Georgia: TCSG’s Data and Research provides access to the System Scorecard, enrollment data, and more. Click here to learn more.
- From the University of Georgia, Carl Vinson Institute of Government (CVIOG): CVIOG has developed toolkits and other resources on a variety of workforce topics. Click here to learn more.
- From the U.S. Chamber of Commerce: Right now, there are too many jobs without people to fill them. As a result, businesses can’t grow, compete, or thrive. The America Works Data Center captures trends on job openings, labor force participation, quit rates, and more. Click here to learn more.
- From WorkSource Georgia: Through its portal, WorkSource Georgia provides access to labor market facts, area profiles, industry profiles, educational profiles, and occupational profiles. Click here to learn more.