We believe a job is more than a means to survival or prosperity, in large part because it has always been the primary means to those ends: to survival, our shared imperative, and prosperity, our shared aspiration. The implications of work have always been broad, and today, a job’s implications remain educational, intellectual, moral, and intensely personal and emotional.
Labor is the backbone and pride of America’s economy. It’s the wellspring of our prosperity. Without zeal for work, would the United States look the same today? Without dignity at one’s work, and sustenance from one’s work, can a person possess that zeal?
No.
America’s economic foundations have been cracking. This is the product of varied pressures. But chief among them has been divestment–– financial divestment, political divestment, cultural divestment–– from labor and labor development. In a competitive global economy characterized by unending churn, this spells doom in ways big and small, fast and slow, quiet and (increasingly) conspicuous.
This nation’s Workforce Development Boards continue to reskill and upskill workers, match job seekers with employers, and open doors to rewarding careers. They've always done this work, and done it passionately, innovatively, and with remarkable success. It’s a source of deep pride for every one of NAWB’s staff to serve them in pursuit of their own service.
We like to rhapsodize about how great Workforce Development Boards are, and about how great the workforce system is. Because they are, and it is. But we cannot always strike such a tone of unqualified positivity and optimism.
Workforce development funding is at historic lows. Adjusted for inflation, funding levels are $3 billion less today than in 2000. The allocations contained in Build Back Better are in serious jeopardy. The time has come for investments in workforce development. It came long ago.
Backdrop to the Present
For years, the United States has suffered from a “barbell-shaped” job market. That means there has been a disproportionate supply of high- and low-paying jobs, but insufficient middle-wage jobs; there has been disproportionate demand for highly-trained and little-trained workers, but an extreme hollowing of demand, and thus opportunity, within that middle space.
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, 70% of businesses reported a talent shortage, aligning with a steady decrease in America’s labor force participation rate over the past 20 years. Birth rates have fallen below replacement rates and continue to decline, while Baby Boomers are retiring at record levels.
The COVID-19 pandemic has only accelerated these trends. In 2019, when the unemployment rate averaged 3.7%–– the lowest rate in decades–– there were an average of 7.2 million job vacancies per month. This past year, we've seen an average of 9.2 million job vacancies per month.
COVID has precipitated a nationwide, ongoing reevaluation of work. People have been empowered to critically assess their jobs, and to consider returns beyond wages, from the fulfillment a job provides to the balance of priorities it allows within an individual’s life.
That’s why resignation rates have ballooned to almost 3% of the total workforce every month. These are not temporary trends. There will be a mass labor shortage for the foreseeable future.
The Workforce System
The system owns an undeniable track record, and the results it produces benefit every American.
In large part, that’s because WDBs don’t just provide education, training, and skill development: they provide the stable, individualized supports one must possess to become and remain employed, including services ranging from childcare and housing to food and transportation. WDBs and AJCs prepare clients for long-term success, giving them the tools to adapt to challenges long after their contact with the workforce system ends.
In the past year, over 22 million Americans have interacted with WDBs, with more than 2.8 million receiving direct career services, and over 235,000 receiving training or credentialing. Even during a global emergency, entered-employment rates have been over 72%.
Training recipients saw an average increase in annual income of more than $10,000 post-exit. WDBs have trained more than 36,000 people in the Transportation/Material Moving industries amid a supply chain crisis, and more than 67,000 people in the healthcare industry amid a public health crisis.
These results are incredible.
The Bottom Line, No Sugarcoating
WDBs have been able to accomplish these feats with funding at historic lows. The structures to address the worsening ills of the labor market exist, but they aren’t funded anywhere near the level necessitated by the moment, near the level required to reach everyone needed.
NAWB is exasperated by the environment that has stalled lawmaking. Whether funding for WDBs materializes through the Build Back Better Act, separate legislation, the appropriations process, or WIOA reauthorization, it must materialize.
Without investing in our people, America will not prosper. Without investing in WDBs, employers will continue to report talent shortages. Without investing in labor, America will not be able to compete on a global scale.
Government must invest in workforce. It’s a system yielding outcomes as collectively incontrovertible as they are individually life-changing. Quite a few millennia ago, Sophocles said, “without labor, nothing prospers.” We endorse the sentiment, and offer a tweak for our place and time: without appreciation for labor and investment in it, everything suffers.
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