Workforce Development Insights

RECENT ARTICLES

From Accenture: Workbench is transforming clinical trial operations at Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) by providing complete visibility into key metrics and insights. It simplifies workflows, improves access to trial information, and generates actionable items with tracking capabilities – helping BMS’ teams shift from reactive to proactive trial management. By using AI- and data-driven technologies to accelerate drug development and reduce costly inefficiencies, BMS is opening the door to breakthrough therapies, as part of its commitment to discovering, developing, and delivering transformative medicines to patients everywhere. Click here to read more.

From The Annie E. Casey Foundation: Young adulthood is a pivotal time to gain the education and work experience needed for well-paying careers. But for many young people living in low-income households, meeting basic needs — such as food, health care, housing, transportation and child care — can make it hard to stay enrolled in school or hold steady employment. To address this, the Annie E. Casey Foundation is advancing Wraparound Supports for Economic Success, a strategy designed to strengthen state and local systems and help young adults ages 18 to 24 access public benefits that meet their needs and build paths to economic stability. Click here to read more.
From The Aspen Institute: While technical skills, especially AI-specific capacities, are capturing a lot of headlines right now, durable skills and attitudes, distinctly human skills and attitudes, have always been in high demand, appearing on annual top skills lists produced by LinkedIn, World Economic Forum, and other leading organizations. From communication to adaptability, resilience to teamwork, employers and educators alike acknowledge the importance of these durable skills and attitudes to success in early-career roles. Click here to read more.
From Brookings: Cities in the U.S. and globally face a severe, system-wide housing shortfall—exacerbated by siloed, proprietary, and fragile data practices that impede coordinated action. Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) promise to increase the speed and effectiveness of data integration and decisionmaking for optimizing housing supply. But unlocking the value of these tools requires a common infrastructure of shared computational assets required to develop AI systems and institutional capabilities to deploy these systems to unlock housing supply. Click here to read more.
From Center for American Progress: rand new Center for American Progress and Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) analysis finds that upward of 107 million electricity customers and more than 46 million natural gas customers across 49 states and Washington, D.C., will face increased—or proposals for increased—utility rates by 2027. At least 210 U.S. gas and electric utilities have either already raised rates or proposed higher rates to go into effect within the next two years. Click here to read more.
From Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: Poverty and adversity during early childhood can have lifelong consequences for physical, mental, and economic well-being. WIC supports sound nutrition and health at critical points in a child’s development. An extensive body of research showing that WIC participation improves children’s health and development highlights the importance of ensuring that all eligible parents and young children can get WIC benefits. Click here to read more.
From Economic Policy Institute: As the government shutdown nears the end of its third full week, nearly a quarter of the federal workforce is furloughed. That means that more than 600,000 workers are not performing important federal service jobs—and are not receiving a paycheck. Still, while some federal agencies are working in limited capacity, many worker protection agencies have ceased the enforcement of our nation’s labor laws. Click here to read more.
From FedCommunities: Data on their own get us only part of the way. Official statistics don’t always tell the full story. Listening to community members is the other crucial element for policymakers. Conversations with workers, employers, and nonprofit professionals help to better understand economic barriers that low- to moderate-income communities face. The Fed brings together leaders from community-based organizations, nonprofits, foundations, academia, and other institutions to learn in real-time about economic conditions in low- to moderate-income communities. Click here to read more.
From the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta: The SBCS data reveals that small businesses in the Sixth District continue to navigate a challenging environment, with 60 percent of firms reporting poor or fair financial conditions. Compared to US firms, Sixth District firms were more likely to apply for financing in the 12 months prior to the survey, but less likely to receive partial or full financing approval. Common financial challenges include increased costs of goods, paying operating expenses, and uneven cash flows. These profiles provide valuable insights that can inform the efforts of service providers, lenders, and policymakers to support the small business community and foster an economy that works for all. Click here to read more.
From Gallup Workplace Insights: While Americans haven’t increased their estimate of what they’ll spend on holiday gifts this year compared to last, continuity on this metric has historically been a sign that holiday sales will be better than average. This finding is reinforced by a slightly larger proportion of Americans than usual saying they’ll be spending more than they did last year. This comes as inflation has crept back up to 3%, wage growth has dipped and economic uncertainty stemming from the government shutdown could be mounting. Click here to read more.
From the International Association of Workforce Professionals (IAWP): The monthly U.S. jobs report is often our North Star — the snapshot that helps workforce professionals, policymakers, and employers see where the economy is headed. But this month, the data we count on isn’t there. The government shutdown that began October 1 has furloughed the analysts who prepare the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports. When federal data stops flowing, workforce professionals lose one of their most valuable planning tools. Economic development partnerships, employer outreach strategies, and even training investments often depend on current employment trends. Click here to read more.
From Jobs for the Future: A new nationally representative survey reveals that four in 10 U.S. workers are in jobs that meet the basic elements of job quality, such as providing fair pay, having predictable schedules, and offering opportunities to grow and advance – contributing to higher turnover, negative impacts to businesses’ bottom lines, and economic instability in communities. This study offers an initial look at how many Americans have quality jobs and who holds them. Click here to read more.
From JPMorganChase: The labor market has softened. The official unemployment rate has risen about a percentage point from its low in 2023, and the pace of jobs growth has fallen. Indicators of labor market dynamism—captured via gross hiring or quits rates—have fallen to levels not seen in a decade, outside of the pandemic disruption. Amid uncertainty, measures of the intensive margin of the labor market—how incomes are changing—provide a complementary perspective to headline payroll gains, helping assess balance in the labor market. Click here to learn more.
From Manpower: As we navigate the next great transition to a world of work that is more connected and technology-driven, we have a responsibility to ensure no one gets left behind. Advances in AI and the innovations that will power the low-carbon economy have the potential to generate massive new opportunities. Still, change of this scale can only happen if companies investing in these innovations have the skilled talent they need to support, implement and improve them. Click here to read more.
From McKinsey & Company: Building a more stable and resilient insurance market, which supports economic growth and social balance, will likely require a combination of sustained, large-scale investment in risk reduction and updated mechanisms for financing and catastrophic risk sharing. Together, the considerations outlined here could better protect communities, stabilize the market, and position California as a global leader in climate adaptation for wildfire-prone regions. Given the pace and scale of recent wildfire events, the urgency to act has never been greater. Click here to read more.
From the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE): Launched in 2024, V Teamer for a Day is an in-person experience at several key Verizon hub locations designed to immerse potential interns in the company’s culture and develop a sense of belonging at Verizon. V Teamer for a Day is designed to be much more than an office tour. It’s an immersive cultural experience designed to build excitement among students, broaden their professional networks, and build connections between classroom and industry experience. Click here to read more.
From the National Association of Counties (NACO): The HOME Reform Act includes several provisions designed to reduce administrative barriers and streamline the development of affordable housing. Together, these reforms are designed to help local governments and their partners deliver affordable housing more efficiently while maintaining strong accountability standards. NACo will continue working with congressional leaders to ensure counties have the flexibility and resources necessary to maximize the impact of HOME funds and strengthen communities nationwide. Click here to read more.
From the National Association of Workforce Boards (NAWB): Every working family understands this reality: access to safe, affordable, and high-quality childcare is not a luxury, it is a necessity. It is often the single most critical factor in completing a training program, securing employment, and staying on the job. Workforce development professionals have long recognized the foundational pillars of job placement and retention: reliable transportation, stable housing, and robust family support. But childcare is the linchpin that holds it all together. Click here to read more.
From the National Conference of State Legislatures: AI can streamline workflows and improve decision-making—but first, make sure it’s the right tool for the job, a research scientist says. Kasun Amarasinghe, senior research scientist at Carnegie Mellon University’s Center for Data Science and Public Policy, told the more than 40 legislative and executive program evaluators and auditors at NCSL’s recent Roundtable on Evaluating Economic Development Tax Incentives to first consider the bottlenecks in their workflow. Evaluators should clearly define the problems they aim to solve and the metrics they intend to improve. Click here to read more.
From the National League of Cities (NLC): Recently, several notable studies examined how we use and view AI. Taken together, these studies offer a clearer picture of AI adoption and use. AI is surging, with 98 percent of US adults saying they have seen or heard something about AI in the last year, according to a recent Gallup survey. One in ten people use ChatGPT at least weekly, according to a National Bureau of Economic Research paper, and message volume is doubling every eight months. Click here to read more.
From the National Fund for Workforce Solutions: For both national and regional funders, the Pondi’s story validated a theory of change. Coaching-based transparency models, like GGOB, offer a scalable way to enhance job quality in industries often overlooked by traditional workforce strategies. The National Fund, Fund for Our Economic Future, and several other members of their network now aim to replicate this success across other small businesses, in hospitality, manufacturing, construction and other industries. Click here to read more.
From the National Skills Coalition: Decades of research have shown that work requirements don’t improve employment outcomes. As National Skills Coalition has written before, these policies do little to help workers get ahead and instead punish them for systemic barriers outside their control. When SNAP participants lose food assistance, they’re not suddenly more employable, they’re simply hungrier. Losing SNAP can make it harder to focus on training, show up for work, or care for one’s family. In states that have implemented strict work rules, thousands of adults have been cut off from benefits, yet employment rates remain flat. Click here to read more.
From Prosperity Now: The final day of the 2025 Prosperity Summit convened leaders from finance, policy, housing, and the arts to explore practical ways to strengthen financial stability for families and communities. From rethinking how households save and own homes to celebrating creativity and connection, the day reflected the Summit’s theme: Together, We Thrive. The morning plenary: Building Prosperity by Design: Rethinking Taxes for Future Generations, invited attendees to consider how modern tax tools can help families save earlier and more consistently. Click here to read more.
From the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM): According to SHRM’s 2025 CHRO Priorities and Perspectives report, over one-third of CHROs (37%) say that developing succession plans is a significant challenge across their organization. This challenge often stems from a deeper issue: 42% of managers believe that internal talent development is neglected at their organizations, according to TalentLMS. When companies overlook the growth of their own people, they limit their leadership pipeline and make effective succession planning even harder. Click here to read more.
From the Urban Institute: Everyday Americans are worried about the cost of living, and more than 60 percent feel prices are heading in the wrong direction. American life has become more expensive in recent years, including daily necessities like groceries, child care, rent, and gas, and wealth-building opportunities like homeownership and college degrees. Urban research shows that more than half of people in the country live in families that do not have the resources to cover what it costs to live securely in their communities. Click here to read more.
From the U.S. Chamber of Commerce: Every day, American pharmaceutical companies are hard at work on the next big breakthrough that will help cure disease and illness. We take this research and development that leads to regular advances for granted, but imagine a world in which this isn’t happening, and new cures are no longer being found. This is the risk posed by Most-Favored Nation (MFN) pricing for medicine, which imposes the same price controls in America that some other countries have in place. Click here to read more.
From Workday: If you look around the world of work today, the ground beneath our feet is moving faster than ever. For HR, this is a critical turning point in our careers, where leaders are shepherding their workforces into a future they’re actively shaping. HR leaders have never held a more challenging, yet more vital, seat at the executive table. The decisions made today about people, skills, and technology will define our companies, our cultures, and our future success. Click here to read more.
From Workforce Monitor: Staffing employment increased during the week of Oct. 13–19, with the ASA Staffing Index growing by 1.1% to a rounded value of 92. Staffing companies cited no one primary factor that hindered growth. Staffing jobs were 2.2% higher compared with the same period last year, up slightly from 2.0% recorded the previous week. New starts also increased in the 42nd week of the year, up by 1.0% from the prior week. Almost four in 10 staffing companies (38%) reported gains in new assignments week to week, a little below the average of 42% so far in 2025. Click here to read more.

From WorkingNation: There’s no single definition of rural America. Some rural communities are a small, but bustling, town center surrounded by vast swatches of farm land. Other communities are mountainous with a few homes and businesses scattered about the region. What they have in common is a population that wants to live and work in a community that offers a slower pace of life, one with financial stability. Providing quality jobs is key to making that happen. It takes a coalition of partners to make it work. While the number of U.S. farms continues a slow decline, and with tech playing an expanding role in all industries, the rural American job market is diversifying. The shift from traditional agricultural jobs towards manufacturing, clean energy, and health care is creating new opportunities that can provide that economic mobility and security. Click here to read more.

From WorkRise: Workers, businesses, federal and local governments, and the US economy are paying a high price for a solvable problem: the lack of paid family leave. When workers lack paid leave to care for family and medical needs, it leads to real costs, including financial hardships, employee turnover, lower productivity, and fewer people in the workforce. These costs hit women the hardest, who bear a disproportionate share of caregiving responsibilities, including after giving birth and while caring for sick loved ones. Studies show that paid family leave benefits both families and businesses, including small companies. 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 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 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.