Workforce Development Insights

RECENT ARTICLES

From Accenture: In a grow-or-lose-relevance environment, the most successful banks will be those that identify their right to win in the market and can successfully execute against this strategy. By progressing on the five commitments we’ve outlined, within the context of the business strategy, banks can strengthen their readiness and earn their license to grow—and thrive—in an increasingly dynamic landscape. Click here to read more.
From The Annie E. Casey Foundation: By eliminating layers of local requirements for the caregivers and their homes — all while maintaining federally mandated background and safety checks — child welfare agencies aim to make it easier and faster to place children in secure, loving homes with relatives and other adults who know them. Children benefit when placed with their extended families or adult friends in their communities where they feel a sense of belonging, research shows. These children are more likely to feel loved and accepted compared to children placed in foster homes with unfamiliar caregivers or in institutional settings. Click here to read more.
From The Aspen Institute: The ASU+GSV Summit provided a valuable snapshot of the current state of the skills ecosystem, highlighting both the challenges and the potential for collaboration. By prioritizing risk mitigation, emphasizing clarity of purpose, and pursuing more effective methods for determining ROI, stakeholders can work collectively to build a future where all learning is valued, individuals can effectively navigate their career paths, and businesses can achieve sustainable growth. Click here to read more.
From Brookings: The evidence of the cases, together with the evidence presented in our forthcoming paper, strongly support the idea that new developments in AI make it a GPT (general-purpose technology) that will raise productivity over time. We also find that AI will help reduce the cost and increase the productivity of research, making it an invention in the method of invention, leading to faster productivity growth in the future. We are optimistic about the productivity benefits of AI. However, we are also cautious and do not yet know how fast change will take place. Click here to read more.
From Center for American Progress: For six decades, Head Start has provided critical, comprehensive early childhood development services to communities across the nation, creating long-lasting and multigenerational positive impacts that strengthen children’s health, learning, and overall well-being. Disruptions and cuts to program funding and service delivery have wide-reaching effects, threatening some of the most vulnerable children across the United States. Protecting Head Start is therefore critical for the families who depend on its services and the American economy overall. Click here to read more.
From Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: Funding for local governments relies heavily on property taxes, which are the primary revenue source for over 90 percent of local governments and account for nearly three-quarters of local government tax revenue nationwide. But this critical source of revenue is under threat as state legislatures across the country restrict the ability of local officials to raise the revenue they need to support their communities. Legislators in at least 23 states have introduced bills this year that would cut or limit property taxes in some way. Click here to read more.
From Economic Policy Institute: Dropping “wage stagnation” as a descriptive term for the full post-1979 period doesn’t mean we think the wage problem for American workers has been solved. Wage growth in the post-1979 period has been slow and unequal, largely as a result of intentional policy decisions. This policy-induced wage suppression has stifled growth in living standards and generated inequality. The last five years saw rapid and welcome progress reversing some of these trends—but it will take a long time to heal the previous damage, even if the post-2019 momentum can be sustained, which looks very unlikely at the moment. Click here to read more.
From FedCommunities: Community development financial institutions (CDFIs) play a critical role in providing financial products and services to socially and economically underserved consumers, businesses, and communities. In addition to addressing gaps in credit and capital access directly, they are conduits of funds provided by other community and economic development programs. That’s why the Federal Reserve seeks to better understand this industry through its biennial CDFI Survey. When combined with insights from the Fed’s community outreach efforts, survey data paints a more complete picture of access to capital and CDFI trends in the United States. Click here to read more.
From the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta: At 6.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2024, loan growth in the Sixth District was less than half its recent peak of 13.9 percent, which occurred in the first quarter of 2023. Although loan growth in the District tracks with national trends, it remains consistently above the national growth rate. However, it is important to note that lending growth varies from bank to bank, depending on specific circumstances. Although overall loan growth was 6.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2024, one-third of Sixth District commercial banks saw loan growth above 10 percent while 16 percent experienced a contraction in total loans. Click here to read more.
From Gallup Workplace Insights: The percentage of U.S. adults evaluating their lives well enough to be considered “thriving” on Gallup’s Life Evaluation Index stood at 48.9% in Quarter 1, 2025, matching the previous estimate from Quarter 4, 2024, which was fielded in late November. These two levels mark the first time since spring 2020 that the thriving rate has been under 50% for two consecutive measurement periods and are two of just three sub-50% estimates ever to be measured outside of the Great Recession and COVID-19 eras. Click here to read more.
From the International Association of Workforce Professionals (IAWP): The 2025 Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends report offers a clear message: Workforce development must evolve—or risk falling behind. As trusted professionals in this field, we are in a unique position to turn today’s workplace tensions into tomorrow’s workforce triumphs. Whether you’re designing a local workforce program, running a statewide training initiative, or advising employers on talent strategy, the key trends in this report are not just relevant—they’re urgent. Now is the time to rethink how we prepare people for work, support their growth, and align human potential with the demands of a fast-changing world. Click here to read more.
From Jobs for the Future: If corrections departments truly aim to support rehabilitation, they must shift their focus away from discipline-as-punishment and toward discipline-as-mastery—as in mastery of the knowledge and skills that can empower individuals to build better futures for themselves, their families, and their communities. To get there, we’ll need more programs like TREC. We need more programs that keep students engaged even when they fall from grace and make mistakes. We need more programs that maintain that commitment to students after their release. Click here to read more.
From JPMorganChase: Greater market participation by lower-income households means that future rises in asset prices will benefit more people, but it does not per se substantially erode existing disparities in wealth levels. The scale of wealth matters, as does the degree of inequality. According to Federal Reserve data, the total amount of wealth held by U.S. households is over $150 trillion, which is over ten times larger than annual wages and salaries. The growth of savings in financial assets for lower-income individuals is a positive signal for their financial health, but these savings rates represent a fraction of income. Click here to learn more.
From Manpower: The global economy is entering a period of slower growth, compounded by trade tensions, inflationary pressures, and geopolitical instability. However, resilient labor markets and strategic business adaptations underscore the ability of industries to weather uncertainty while positioning for long-term stability. Global GDP growth is projected to moderate from 3.2% in 2024 to 3.1% in 2025, and inflationary pressures persist across many economies, adding complexity to economic recovery efforts. Despite slowing employment growth, the labor market remains resilient, with unemployment rates generally low compared to pre-pandemic levels. Click here to read more.
From McKinsey & Company: Software can play an increasingly central role for industrial companies as a source of competitive differentiation and new revenues. As industrial companies continue to invest in software, unlocking the true value of their investments will become increasingly important. The bar on ROI will only continue to rise. To meet this rising bar and deliver significant growth, the majority of industrial companies will need to transform how they go to market with software. Click here to read more.
From the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE): Today’s students are not simply preparing for jobs. Instead, they are curating integrated personal, career, and professional development journeys that reflect their evolving identities, aspirations, and values. Therefore, the primary challenge in front of them is not finding a job but learning the ability to better understand themselves. Click here to read more.
From the National Association of Counties (NACO): Counties operate 2,875 of our nation’s 3,160 local jails, admitting approximately 7.6 million individuals across the United States each year. Under the current policy, we must shoulder the full cost of care for incarcerated individuals who would otherwise be eligible for federal benefits, disproportionately burdening county governments and leaving a significant gap in care for individuals with complex health needs. These bipartisan bills would greatly improve care coordination in local jails and would reduce the healthcare costs pushed onto counties. Click here to read more.
From the National Association of Workforce Boards (NAWB): The House Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development hearing held on Wednesday, March 5, Strengthening WIOA: Improving Outcomes for America’s Workforce, addressed such things as the economic costs of not connecting young people to education and/or work, the important role community colleges play in preparing workers for today’s economy, and the critical need for better data to support workforce development efforts. While these are all good aspects of the discussion to reauthorize the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), the hearing did not explore all that workforce boards do to meet the needs of business and those trying to enter the labor market. Click here to read more.
From the National Conference of State Legislatures: Respondents serving in hybrid legislatures reported spending 80% of a full-time job on legislative business, a 14% increase from the initial typography definition. Legislators serving in part-time institutions spent less time on legislative work than their full-time or hybrid counterparts, but they still indicated legislative work was more than 50% of a full-time job. The increasing workload means legislators not only spend more time legislating, but also have less time for non-legislative jobs, particularly for those in part-time and hybrid legislatures. Click here to read more.
From the National League of Cities (NLC): Research shows that high-quality summer youth programs help prevent learning loss and keep kids engaged during their break from school. And a new study from the National Summer Learning Association and AASA, The School Superintendents Association, indicates that superintendents overwhelmingly support summer learning programs and say they help to reach their districts’ goals. Cities have a big role to play in making these programs successful. Click here to read more.
From the National Fund for Workforce Solutions: Human-centered design or “HCD,” is a problem-solving approach rooted in empathy, rationality, and creativity. HCD is anchored on the principle that people who are closest to a problem have unique, indispensable insights in how to solve it. In the workforce, this means it is anchored in the importance of worker voice. The National Fund and our Network Partners continue to grow our expertise in utilizing HCD, having led multiple initiatives over the last few years utilizing the approach to improve job quality, career navigation, and workforce systems. Centering Workers in Job Design is our first initiative that aims to bring these separate threads together while engaging employers and frontline workers in the process. Click here to read more.
From the National Skills Coalition: Industry sector partnerships (ISP) are a proven way to build strong talent pipelines that train workers for quality, in-demand jobs and help businesses address labor shortages. They succeed by bringing together key stakeholders such as businesses, training providers, higher education, community-based organizations, and labor organizations to create training strategies collaboratively. The Michigan Energy Workforce Development Consortium (MEWDC) shows what’s possible when states and business leaders work together to create and advocate for the growth of ISPs. Click here to read more.
From Prosperity Now: Yesterday’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) report shows inflation slowing for the second month in a row. The year-over-year rate eased to 2.4 percent in March, down from 2.8 percent in February, and below the 12-month average of 2.9 percent. While this may signal stabilization on paper, the broader story points to widening gaps in who benefits from economic recovery, and who does not. Click here to read more.
From the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM): The positive outcomes of purposeful leadership are backed by research. Compared to U.S. workers with less effective managers, those with highly effective managers are twice as likely to feel satisfied and fulfilled by their jobs — and more than twice as likely to feel a deep sense of commitment, belonging, and value within their organization, according to SHRM’s Effective People Managers report. When employees have purpose, organizations thrive. Customer satisfaction improves, turnover decreases, and profits increase. Click here to read more.
From the U.S. Chamber of Commerce: When taking a look at the labor shortage across different industries, the education and health services sector, and the professional and business services sector, consistently exhibit the highest number of job openings. It’s worth noting that professional and business services span a broad spectrum of occupations including legal services, scientific research, as well as roles like landscaping workers, cleaners, and waste disposal workers. Click here to read more.
From Workforce Monitor: Headline numbers suggest the labor market overachieved expectations in March, with more than 200,000 jobs added. However, notable downward revisions for previous months show job gains were not as solid as initially estimated. Job growth remains concentrated within just a few sectors, most notably health care, due to structural increases in demand for health care services over the long run. Click here to read more.

From Workday: Every business leader knows that team quality matters. But few talk about it in the clearest, most strategic terms: talent density—the concentration of high-performing, high-impact people on a team. Talent density isn’t just about hiring great individuals. It’s about raising the collective standard so that your team isn’t just functional, it’s formidable. High-talent density creates a culture where smart people push each other, raise expectations, and get more done with fewer blockers. Click here to read more.

From WorkingNation: There are so many reasons to support postsecondary education in prison. There’s no wrong reason to do it. What we see is that widespread access to postsecondary education makes corrections facilities safer for the people who live and work in prisons. It also improves students’ sense of self-worth and communication skills. It reduces the odds of recidivism. It increases graduates’ employment and earning potential, and it ultimately advances racial equity while saving taxpayers money. 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.

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 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.

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