- From Accenture: New global research from Accenture (NYSE: ACN) shows that 61% of owner-operators of factories, mines, refineries and public, telecommunications and utility infrastructure organizations expect new projects to be delayed or put indefinitely on hold because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, 35% of engineering, procurement and construction service providers (EPCs) surveyed indicated that the scope of ongoing projects will likely be adjusted. Click here to read more.
- From The Aspen Institute: Long before COVID-19, lifelong learning was a critical component of building a competitive workforce. But particularly during this unprecedented and uncertain period of change, providing workers with the tools they need to successfully navigate a changing labor market over the course of their careers is an urgent national economic imperative. Click here to read more.
- From Brookings: Across the U.S., economic mobility is frequently linked with geography. Some places afford poor children the opportunity to do better economically than their parents did, and other places do not. Social networks, providing access to support, information, power, and resources, are a critical and often neglected element of opportunity structures. Social capital matters for mobility. Click here to read more.
- From Chmura: Forecasting is never easy, but throw a pandemic in the mix and it becomes even more difficult. As usual, the assumptions behind a forecast are critical to its accuracy. Click here to read more.
- From Emsi: Picture 2020 as a 100-foot wave. Some industries (online shopping) surfed like a pro, a few (grocery stores) rode it out, but many (travel and accommodation) got rolled. These real-world impacts match the trends we’ve observed in US job postings since last April. In other words, job postings are more than just online advertisements. They are a powerful early indicator of actual labor market change, industry performance, and shifts in demand. Click here to read more.
- From the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta: The COVID-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented economic crisis, with tens of millions of American workers losing their jobs since March. The disproportionate impact of this crisis on women, communities of color, and particularly those in lower-wage occupations, highlights the need to address intergenerational racial inequity with programs and policies that connect workers to quality jobs. But understanding which jobs are available in a local labor market is often a challenge. Click here to read more.
- From Federal Reserve System: Delay in the provision of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans due to insufficient initial funding under the CARES Act substantially and persistently reduced employment. Delayed loans increased job losses in May and persistently reduced recalls throughout the summer. Click here to read more.
- From Gallup: The most recent update to Gallup’s COVID-19 tracking poll was conducted Nov. 16-29 as cases of the disease and deaths from the virus continued to mount. In line with this, the public’s perceptions that the coronavirus situation is worsening rose by 12 percentage points from the prior month, to 73% — matching the previous high in July. Click here to read more.
- From Jobs for the Future: In the face of the unprecedented, widespread demand for career navigation support, the workforce system has an opportunity to radically transform the way it does business to meet the shifting expectations of workers, learners, and businesses alike.
Workforce development boards have an opportunity to reinvent the career navigation experience by putting powerful new tools and platforms to use as part of a foundational strategy for the wide-scale digital transformation that we imagine. Click here to read more.
- From McKinsey & Company: Businesses have spent much of the past nine months scrambling to adapt to extraordinary circumstances. While the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic is not yet won, with a vaccine in sight, there is at least a faint light at the end of the tunnel—along with the hope that another train isn’t heading our way. 2021 will be the year of transition. Barring any unexpected catastrophes, individuals, businesses, and society can start to look forward to shaping their futures rather than just grinding through the present. The next normal is going to be different. It will not mean going back to the conditions that prevailed in 2019. Click here to read more.
- From MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future: The notion of studying people in jobs as a science—in fields such as human resource management, people analytics, and industrial-organizational psychology—dates back to at least the early 20th century. Click here to read more.
- From the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE): Employers adjusting their college recruiting efforts in response to the COVID-19 pandemic for the 2020-21 academic year were more likely to make changes to their recruiting methods than they were to their recruiting schedules, according to NACE’s Job Outlook 2021 report. When employers were asked if they would make changes to their Class of 2021 recruiting schedule, almost two-thirds of respondents stated that they would maintain their standard schedule. Furthermore, just 11.4% planned to move the bulk of their fall 2020 recruiting to winter/spring 2021. Click here to read more.
- From the National Association of Workforce Boards (NAWB): In a typical year, about four million job seekers of all ages receive career services assistance from the nation’s 550 local workforce boards and 2,500 American Job Centers. As millions of Americans file for unemployment due to economic and public health crises, these organizations continue to experience historic volumes of requests for assistance from jobseekers. In the face of this unprecedented, widespread demand, the workforce system has an opportunity to radically transform the way it does business to meet the shifting expectations of workers, learners, and businesses alike. Reinventing the career navigation experience by putting powerful new tools and platforms to use will be a foundational strategy for the wide-scale digital transformation that we imagine. Click here to read more.
- From the National Fund for Workforce Solutions: If there is one lesson that we learned in 2020, it is that we need one another. We depend on essential workers who pick, process, and sell our food, who treat our illnesses, who provide public transportation and safety. We depend on our families and friends for comfort and human interaction — a need made all the more palpable when we can’t be with them in the usual ways. And we depend on strangers in all aspects of our lives. The simple act of wearing a mask has become a powerful symbol of how much we rely on each other. Click here to read more.
- From the National Skills Coalition: In the workforce development field, rapid prototyping is used to quickly develop a rough program model that is implemented even as it’s being refined. In this respect, it’s a faster and more iterative process compared to the linear approach more common in higher education’s credit-bearing classes and in some other workforce development settings. Rapid prototyping is especially suited to programs that incorporate digital literacy skills and other aspects of workforce preparation that are quickly evolving. Click here to read more.
- From Prosperity Now: The COVID-19 pandemic has upended the American economy, and in doing so, has underscored the critical role that savings play in ensuring financial stability and security. Before the pandemic, more than 45 million households were liquid asset poor and lacked the financial security to weather a sustained crisis. Further, households including low- and hourly-wage earners, racial and ethnic minorities, immigrants, and women were more likely to have less in savings and therefore were more vulnerable. Click here to read more.
- From the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM): Bias, inequity, toxic workplaces…these are all experiences and behaviors we’ve lived and died with for thousands of years – ever since we became “civilized” and lived in larger communities with other humans and began fighting with other “tribes” for resources of one kind or another. These are global challenges and ever-present in all cultures. The truth: these and other dehumanizing, dysfunctional, unproductive ways of being human together are not going to disappear anytime soon in our families, communities, or workplaces. Click here to read more.
- From Strada Education Network: Looking forward as a year of unprecedented challenges comes to a close, critical questions remain for educational institutions, learners, employers, and workers. Are the individuals interested in education going to enroll? In the new economy that emerges from the old, will skills translate into employment? And as the economy improves, will Americans’ confidence in the value of education rebound with it? Major findings from the past nine months serve as a guide to key challenges that lie ahead. Click here to read more.
- From WorkingNation: The economy experienced a loss of 140,000 jobs in December, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). This is the first payrolls decline since April. The jobless rate held steady at 6.7% last month. The jobs decrease reflects the rise in COVID-19 cases, notes the BLS. Click here to read more.
Data Tools
- From the Atlanta Regional Commission: Using data from the Georgia Department of Public Health and other sources, ARC has created a regional data dashboard to see the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the Atlanta region. Click here to learn more.
- From the Atlanta Regional Commission: ARC’s COVID-19 Weekly Report provides the latest data about the state of the novel coronavirus in the Atlanta area. Information comes from the Georgia Department of Public Health, Georgia Labor Market Explorer, and Google COVID-19 Mobility Reports, among others. Click here to learn more.
- From Atlanta Regional Commission: Each week ARC provides an updated research and analytics through the 33on blog. Click here to see data on impacts to low-income workers and people of color. Click here to see a zip code map of vulnerable jobs. Click here to see data on social distancing. Click here to see data on mobility changes. Click here to see data on mobility patterns by industry. Click here to see a compendium of other data.
- From Brookings: The COVID-19 Metro Recovery Watch is aimed at informing local and state recovery strategies from COVID-19’s historic economic impacts in ways that link near-term resilience to longer-term economic transformation, racial equity, and economic inclusion. Click here to review the Metro Recovery Index.
- From Chmura:The COVID-19 Vulnerability Index describes communities most economically at-risk based solely on how a region’s mix of industries is impacted by shutdowns. This information can inform policy decisions about where state and federal aid should be directed to provide maximum support for the broader economy and to protect our most economically vulnerable citizens. Click here to see the index.
- From Chmura: Knowing which occupations can be performed remotely—that is, by working from home—is valuable for understanding the future of labor force supply in the post-COVID economy. The Remote Work Index compares the mix of remote-work employment in the region versus the average in the nation. Click here to learn more.
- From Emsi: To better understand where and why COVID-19 has spread within the United States, Emsi has developed a Health Risk Index. This index accounts for the key factors that have given the virus a stronger foothold in some regions, while others have been largely spared. Click here to see the index. Click here for information on other COVID-19 data tools.
- From Emsi: Track job posting trends by month and compare to 2019 averages through the Job Postings Dashboard. You can also filter by region, industry, company, job, and skill. Click here to see the dashboard. Click here for information on other COVID-19 data tools.
- 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. Click here to learn more.
- From Georgia Power: Georgia Power has created a web page to track Community Key Performance Indicators, a compilation of relevant data from some of the most reliable sources to help track key indicators of COVID-19 and how it is impacting Georgia communities. Click here for data on workforce impacts. Click here to learn more.
- From the National Conference of State Legislatures: The State Action on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Database includes up-to-date, real-time information about bills related to and responding to the pandemic that have been introduced in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Click here to access.
- From Neighborhood Nexus: Neighborhood Nexus, a data partner of ARC, has developed interactive maps that show the location of Georgia’s most vulnerable people – whether they are vulnerable medically or economically. Click here to learn more.
- From Surgo Foundation: Every community in the U.S. will be affected by COVID-19 but the impacts will not be the same in each. The COVID-19 Community Vulnerability Index identifies which communities may need the most support as coronavirus takes hold. Click here to see the index.
- From the University of Georgia, Carl Vinson Institute of Government (CVIOG): CVIOG has created a web page to access COVID-19 Economic Data through its Georgiadata.org portal. Click here to learn more.
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