Insights for Workforce Developers and Employers

RECENT ARTICLES

• From Accenture: AI practitioners have spent the past couple of years building the investment argument. Now they have to answer for the economics: token costs are arriving as a new and material line item with a growth rate that is outrunning the ability to justify it. Tokenomics is a boardroom concern today, as the costs of every prompt, inference and agentic interaction jump faster than a company’s ability to prove the value they create. Click here to read more. 

• From The Annie E. Casey Foundation: Lead­ing for bet­ter results has nev­er been sim­ple. Today’s lead­ers are nav­i­gat­ing uncer­tain­ty, respond­ing to con­stant change and bal­anc­ing the needs of staff, part­ners and com­mu­ni­ties — often while man­ag­ing their own stress. When pres­sure becomes chron­ic, it can affect more than our health. It can make it hard­er to think clear­ly, build rela­tion­ships, solve prob­lems and stay focused on the results we hope to achieve. Click here to read more. 

• From American Economic Association:A paper in the American Economic Journal: Microeconomics examines the effects of litigation on the medical device industry, a research-intensive sector that accounts for a large share of product liability cases. The authors combine FDA application data for 45 leading device firms between 1995 and 2020 with records of multidistrict litigations, the dominant procedure for large product liability cases. They find that during years of litigation, defendant firms are about 33 percent less likely to submit an FDA application in the litigated product category. Click here to read more. 

• From The Aspen Institute: As employers, educators, and workforce leaders prepare for a rapidly changing economy, conversations increasingly center on artificial intelligence, skills-based hiring, talent development, and economic mobility. Yet underneath each of these priorities lies something even more fundamental: people need the foundational skills that allow them to participate, adapt, and advance. Literacy, numeracy, digital fluency, English language proficiency, and the ability to continually learn are not simply educational outcomes. They are workforce infrastructure. Click here to read more.

• From Brookings: The debate over AI and work is often framed as a choice between mass unemployment and widespread human augmentation. The economic evidence supports neither conclusion. Instead, the literature suggests that AI will likely produce sharply divergent labor-market outcomes on dramatically different timelines, rapidly displacing some forms of work while gradually augmenting others. These effects will also likely vary substantially across occupations, industries, and even employers. Click here to read more. 

• From Center for American Progress: The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released its Employment Situation report for August 2026, showing that 162,000 jobs were added to the U.S. economy while the unemployment rate stayed the same, at 4.1 percent. This stronger-than-expected job growth is welcome, but it may represent only a brief rebound, given BLS projections over the coming decade. Click here to read more.

• From Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is a vital resource for millions of households in the U.S. SNAP is designed to alleviate hunger, improve food security, and provide essential support to low-income households in meeting basic needs. However, the program’s effectiveness is hampered by complex administrative processes that create significant barriers for potential participants. These so-called administrative burdens take various forms, including learning costs, compliance costs, and psychological costs. Click here to read more.

• From Economic Policy Institute: A national comparison of hourly wages at the median and for low-wage (10th percentile) workers demonstrates the clear monetary benefit of federal over private-sector employment. This is shown to be true across race and gender both at the middle and lower end of the wage distribution. The hourly wage of a typical (i.e., median) Black federal worker is more than 40% higher than that of the median Black worker in the private sector. Black federal workers—median and 10th percentile—also have higher wages than same gender white workers in the private sector. Click here to read more.

• From FedCommunities: Over the past few years, artificial intelligence (AI) has evolved from a possibility into reality in workplaces and everyday life. Its expanding use is introducing new ways of working, even as its longer-term effects on workers, employers, and communities remain uncertain. The Federal Reserve’s Community Development function has documented this change and contributed to a growing body of research on the potential economic impacts of AI. Click here to read more. 

• From the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta: This paper develops algorithms for estimating a principal components (PC) model for monthly macroeconomic data mixed with either weekly or daily data. When aggregated appropriately, the mixed frequency activity model PC closely resembles both the Chicago Fed National Activity Index and GDPNow’s dynamic factor. Moreover, the PCs from all three models can be well approximated using the subset of data that would remain available during a widespread government shutdown. Click here to read more. 

• From Gallup Workplace Insights: This year’s industry rating declines leave several sectors that have traditionally enjoyed relatively favorable public images with somewhat lower ratings. The computer industry, once rated positively by three-quarters of Americans, has fallen to a record low, while farming and agriculture has retreated from its previous highs even as it remains the nation’s best-rated sector. At the same time, the broader industry landscape remains characterized by modest public ratings, with only farming and restaurants viewed positively by a majority of Americans. Click here to read more. 

• From the International Association of Workforce Professionals (IAWP): BLS is not predicting that occupations with high AI exposure will disappear. In fact, the agency specifically cautions against interpreting the categories that way. High exposure does not mean employment will decline, and low exposure does not mean a job is protected from technological change. The categories also do not predict wages, productivity, adoption of AI or the probability that workers will be replaced. Instead, BLS is asking a more practical question: How much of the work performed in an occupation could potentially be assisted or performed by today’s AI technologies? Click here to read more. 

• From Jobs for the Future: Employers were clear that they value work-based learning (WBL), but they also named practical barriers to participation, including liability, age restrictions, safety requirements, scheduling, and the difficulty of making traditional models work in some sectors. Pathways partners have also identified the need for more flexible WBL designs, more paid opportunities where possible, and intermediary functions that can reduce friction for employers. The desire to work through these challenges is important: employers are not signaling low interest. They are signaling that partnership models must reflect workplace realities. Click here to read more. 

• From JPMorganChase: Household stock holdings hit all-time highs in late 2025, making up about a third of all household assets as investment accounts have become a more active part of everyday financial life rather than a place where wealth just sits. JPMC Institute analysis tracks the money people are moving from investment accounts into checking, where it becomes available to spend. Since 2019, individuals are twice as likely to move money from investment to checking accounts. These investment withdrawals now fund roughly 7 percent of total spending, nearly double their 2019 share, with growth across every income and age group. Click here to learn more. 

• From Manpower: More than 4,000 Tech & IT Services employers across 42 countries were asked about their fourth quarter hiring intentions in the latest edition of the Experis Tech Talent Outlook. Used internationally as a bellwether of labor market trends, the Net Employment Outlook – calculated by subtracting the percentage of employers who anticipate reductions to staffing levels from those who plan to hire – now stands at 37%. Click here to read more.

• From McKinsey & Company: Agentic AI has the potential to reshape public sector cybersecurity, but the path to value begins with readiness: understanding the current baseline, identifying where agents can safely help, testing the highest-value domains, and building a road map that sequences investments in data, platforms, governance, talent, and change management. Organizations acting with discipline today have an opportunity to build cybersecurity programs that are more resilient, more adaptive, and better able to protect the trust citizens place in digital government. Click here to read more. 

• From the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE): Graduates from the college Class of 2025 are earning an average of 3.5% more than their Class of 2024 counterparts, according to results of NACE’s Summer 2026 Salary Survey. The increase brings the final overall average starting salary for Class of 2025 graduates earning bachelor’s degrees to $67,983, up from the average starting salary of $65,677 for the Class of 2024. Click here to read more. 

• From the National Association of Counties (NACO): Historically, when behavioral health care has been inaccessible, counties have often served as the provider of last resort and absorb heavy financial burdens across local emergency departments, housing programs, and the justice system. In response, more and more counties are building mobile crisis response teams, which are composed of multidisciplinary mental health professionals that rapidly respond to off-site mental health crisis calls and connect individuals to care. Click here to read more. 

• From the National Association of Workforce Boards (NAWB): For most of the twentieth century, the American summer job was more than a way for teenagers to earn spending money. In many respects, it was one of the largest workforce development programs in the country. No legislation created it. No grant funded it. No performance measures tracked it. Every summer, millions of young people learned how to show up on time, deal with customers, work alongside people they didn’t choose, take feedback, solve small problems and earn the trust of an employer. We didn’t call it work-based learning. It was simply work. That distinction matters because we spend a great deal of time today talking about talent shortages, career pathways and work-based learning. Click here to read more.

• From the National Conference of State Legislatures: NCSL convened alumni from three cohorts of the Youth Homelessness Fellows program in June for an innovative peer-learning and action-planning workshop in Milwaukee. The fellows program focuses on the causes and consequences of youth and young adult homelessness and potential policy solutions. The workshop aimed to reconnect fellows and build on the six-year momentum of the fellowship. It gave participants space to reflect on progress since completing the program, share expertise from their states, revisit policy priorities and identify opportunities for continued and new action. Click here to read more. 

• From the National League of Cities (NLC): According to the National League of Cities’ 2026 State of the Cities report, infrastructure remains a top priority for local leaders. Recent federal investment helped communities repair, replace and improve aging systems and build resilience, but as American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) programs wind down, cities may face a funding cliff. In NLC’s nationwide State of the Cities survey, 81 percent of mayors said the end of these programs would negatively affect infrastructure spending. Click here to read more.

• From the National Fund for Workforce Solutions: Workers leave jobs and job seekers stop searching when the cost of having a job outweighs the benefit. Why apply for jobs that don’t offer the pay or flexibility you need? How do you show up for work when you can’t afford the cost of childcare? Lower-wage work can feel like a dead end, even when you find meaning in what you are doing. The good news is that this challenge is solvable. Click here to read more.

• From the National Skills Coalition: Across the conversations, workers and learners described something bigger than just better access to the workforce system we already have. They talked about a workforce and education vision that feels less fragmented and does not expect people to navigate every decision and challenge on their own. They envisioned lifelong, navigable pathways where people could explore careers, learn without taking on unsustainable risk, translate their skills into good work, continue learning, advance or change directions when they want or need to, and have enough stability to make real choices about their lives. Click here to read more.

• From Prosperity Now: Prosperity Now announced the first implementation cohort of the ABC Initiative (Asset Building for Children), a national effort supported by $5 million from Citi Foundation to help families navigate existing and emerging child savings opportunities through trusted tax-time services. The ABC Initiative recognizes that assets are more than money in an account. They are a foundation for opportunity, ownership and a path to the middle class. Click here to read more. 

• From the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM): Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming the workplace, and HR is at the center of that transformation. From recruiting and onboarding to workforce planning, employee self-service, and talent development, AI is helping organizations streamline processes, improve decision-making, and enhance the employee experience. Yet AI’s value extends far beyond efficiency. Used thoughtfully, AI can help HR leaders identify workforce trends, improve service delivery, support better talent decisions, and free HR teams to focus on strategic priorities. Click here to read more. 

• From the Urban Institute: Even with some challenges, educators had positive experiences with the compensation program, often using payments to pay for basic needs. Many reported improved financial well-being, a greater ability to focus on children’s needs, and a greater likelihood of remaining in their jobs. Child care directors, though not eligible for the payments under the direct payment model, also reported greater educator retention in their facilities but noted the payments did not support essential non-teaching staff, who also receive low wages. Click here to read more.

• From the U.S. Chamber of Commerce: For nearly a decade, the Small Business Index has helped business owners, policymakers, economists, and journalists understand the health and outlook of America’s small business community. This quarter, a new chapter begins. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Justworks are partnering on the Justworks and U.S. Chamber Small Business Index, bringing together trusted research, deep small business expertise, and real-world perspectives to better understand the challenges and opportunities shaping the small business economy. Click here to read more. 

• From Workday: The release of Contingent Sourcing Agent marks an exciting milestone in Workday’s vision for an agentic workforce platform. As we expand this solution, our focus for the future remains on deepening capabilities, such as enabling multi-modal talent sourcing across broader enterprise ecosystems, introducing interactive conversational AI for real-time collaboration, and offering customizable query workflows. Click here to read more.

• From Workforce Monitor: Total staffing employment increased by 0.6% year-over-year in the second quarter of 2026, adding approximately 12,000 jobs, according to data released today by the American Staffing Association. On a quarter-to-quarter basis, total weekly staffing employment grew by 5.0%, or approximately 94,000 jobs, compared to the first quarter of 2026. Total staffing revenue increased by 3.3% compared to the second quarter of 2025. Click here to read more. 

• From WorkRise: Roughly two-thirds of hourly workers in the US are affected by frequent or substantial changes in month-to-month work hours. The study finds that US hourly workers who experience high levels of hours volatility over a three-month period are more likely to have 7 percent lower earnings in the following month if they stay in the same job over that period compared with workers with lower volatility, and 18 percent lower earnings if they change jobs. Click here to read more.

Data Tools

• From Atlanta Regional Commission: Each week ARC, in partnership with Neighborhood Nexus, provides updated research and analytics through the 33^on blog. From a look at dhousing, 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 Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA): BEA is part of the United States Department of Commerce is a U.S. government agency that provides official macroeconomic and industry statistics, most notably reports about the gross domestic product (GDP) of the United States and its jurisdictions. Click here to access the data.

• From Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS): BLS is a unit of the United States Department of Labor and the principal fact-finding agency for the U.S. government with detailed labor economics and statistics. Click here to access the data.

• Career Ladder Identifier and Financial Forecaster (CLIFF): Career Ladder Identifier and Financial Forecaster, or CLIFF, is an umbrella for interactive financial planning tools designed by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta to provide information about benefits loss along a career path. Click here to access CLIFF.

• From Eviction Lab: TheEviction Lab Tracker shows the past year’s eviction statistics for five Atlanta counties and area census tracks. Click here to learn more.

• 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 Atlanta Fed maintains a variety of data intelligence tools for informing workforce partners. Click here to learn more.
  • The Atlanta Fed’s Job Calculator determines the net employment change needed to achieve a target unemployment rate after a specified number of months. The user can adjust the target unemployment rate, the number of months, and the assumed labor force growth.
  • Labor Force Participation Dynamics provides data on the behavioral, demographic, and cyclical factors associated with labor force participation.
  • The Labor Market Distributions Spider Chart allows monitoring of broad labor market developments by comparing current conditions to those in up to two earlier time periods that the user selects.
  • Labor Report First Look provides a concise view of the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Employment Situation Summary. The tables and charts in the First Look offer a quick look at current and historical data along with data constructed from the summary. Data in the First Look will be updated with each release of the summary, which usually occurs on the first Friday of each month.
  • 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.
  • Wage Growth Tracker measures the wage growth of individuals. It is constructed using microdata from the Current Population Survey (CPS) and is the median percent change in the hourly wage of individuals observed 12 months apart.         

• From Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis: The Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) is an online database consisting of hundreds of thousands of economic data time series from scores of national, international, public, and private sources. FRED, created and maintained by the Research Department at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, goes far beyond simply providing data. It combines data with a powerful mix of tools that help the user understand, interact with, display, and disseminate the data. Click here to access FRED.

• From the Georgia Department of Education (GaDOE): Georgia Insights is an initiative of GaDOE focused on improving and increasing the role of data-informed decision making among education decision makers in the state. Georgia Insights is the go-to location for GaDOE’s dashboards, data files, and data resources. By providing data in a streamlined, usable, and useful manner, Georgia Insights equips educators, parents, and communities with the tools and information needed to enact positive change in Georgia’s schools. 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 Municipal Association (GMA): GMA’s Dashboard includes indicators for each city in Georgia along with city and statewide averages for comparisons. Users can choose economic, education, household, population, demographic, and labor data. 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. This includes Georgia’s Top Industries. Click here to learn more.

• From the Governor’s Office of Education and Workforce Strategy (GOEWS): GOEWS supports accountability and transparency through strategic data use and collaboration with education stakeholders to advance student success. 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 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 cannot 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.

Click here to return to the MAX Mondays main page.