The COVID-19 pandemic brought about unprecedented challenges for families, impacting the economic, psychological, and social well-being of parents and their children since the first cases of the virus were reported in the United States in March 2020. The brunt of these effects has been felt by the nation's working parents, who were tasked with…

The project, Seeking Work in Southern New Jersey, set out to explore the economic landscape, identify barriers and opportunities to finding and securing a job, and outline challenges to connections between job seekers and employers in Southern New Jersey and the City of Camden. The project's goal was to illuminate the story behind traditional…

The Newark Opportunity Youth Network (NOYN) contracted with the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the youth workforce development system within the state. The study documents how the youth workforce system developed in New Jersey since the federal…

To mitigate the spread of COVID-19, many colleges and universities in the United States adopted remote policies, shifting campus operations and instruction from in-person to virtual in 2020. Since many students were not physically required to be present on college campuses, one would expect a large shift in national enrollment and a disruption of…

As COVID-19 continues to affect the economy and labor market and the pathways to recovery remain unclear, state and local workforce agencies continue to adapt to new conditions and challenges to adequately support the millions of unemployed Americans at this time. Over the course of the past year, the demands placed on the public workforce system…

Public libraries serve an important role in the U.S. workforce development system by offering a wide range of free career services and job-seeking activities for job seekers and the general public (U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, 2017). During the Great Recession, over 30 million people, roughly 10% of the total…

Advanced software, smartphones, the Internet, and cognitive computing have already disrupted the retail, media, transportation, education, and health care industries. Widely different predictions have been offered about the scope of future workforce disruptions. Recent assessments about the impact of artificial intelligence on worker dislocation…

The Great Recession and several other factors have heightened concerns among policymakers and the public at large about higher education's role in employment, leading to a renewed wave of pressures, policies, and incentives to create job-driven strategies at all levels. Policymakers and the public often assume that aligning higher education with…

The rising cost of college and demands for accountability have increased interest in providing students with information about the earnings of college graduates by school and major. However, no consensus exists over how to display that information in a way that is most beneficial for students. Some researchers advocate displaying median earnings…

This report describes the findings of a nationally representative sample of 444 recent college graduates from the class of 2006 through 2011. The purpose of this study is to understand how recent college graduates are faring in the workforce, specifically looking at those individuals who graduated before and during the difficult labor market…

This report describes the findings of a nationally representative sample of 544 recent high school graduates from the classes of 2006 through 2011. The purpose of this study is to understand how recent high school graduates who are not attending college full time are faring in the workforce, specifically looking at those individuals who graduated…

This report presents the findings of a nationally representative sample of 571 U.S. residents who graduated from a four-year college between 2006 and 2010. The authors' overall goal was to better understand the articulation between their formal education and their initial positions in the workforce. They examine how students financed their college…

Quality labor market data and analysis is critical to developing effective market-driven workforce and economic strategies in states, regions, and localities. Such information can be complex, intimidating, and overwhelming to many users, however. This issue brief offers a framework for understanding workforce information, including a summary of…

State governments across the nation are engaging community colleges as cornerstones of their comprehensive economic development strategies. This executive summary summarizes the efforts of 10 states, recommended by national experts, to deploy community colleges in support of state economic development priorities. The 10 states are: Florida,…

State governments across the nation are engaging community colleges as cornerstones of their comprehensive economic development strategies. This report summarizes the efforts of 10 states, recommended by national experts, to deploy community colleges in support of state economic development priorities. The 10 states are: Florida, Mississippi,…