Rebuild with Purpose: An Affirmative Vision for 21st Century American Infrastructure

Rebuild with Purpose: An Affirmative Vision for 21st Century American Infrastructure. Brookings Institution. Adie Tomer, Joseph W. Kane, and Caroline George. April 13, 2021.

Policymakers, practitioners, and the general public increasingly agree that our infrastructure systems are under pressure. Storm surges and coastal flooding continue to wreak havoc on our cities and towns. A lack of world-leading digital infrastructure has made it harder for businesses and people to compete in the global information economy. Outdated pipes and streets impact the health and safety of too many people.

Simply repairing our outmoded infrastructure systems with the same traditional policies, technologies, and designs is not enough. Americans are ready for a grand reimagining of and reinvestment in our infrastructure to revitalize the transportation, water, energy, and broadband systems that power our economy.

Brookings new report, Rebuild with purpose: An affirmative vision for 21st century American infrastructure, serves as the foundation for a new federal vision for American infrastructure. The report crafts an integrated plan to address four cross-cutting forces of change, and recommends a three-part framework to guide Congress and federal agencies’ strategic direction. [Note: contains copyrighted material].

[PDF format, 110 pages].

Technology, Growth, and Inequality: Changing Dynamics in the Digital Era

Technology, Growth, and Inequality: Changing Dynamics in the Digital Era. Brookings Institution. Zia Qureshi. February 12, 2021

Ours is a time of exciting technological change. The era of smart machines holds the promise of a more prosperous future for all. But it demands smarter policies to realize that promise. To capture potential gains in productivity and economic growth and to address rising inequality, policies will need to be more responsive to change as technology reshapes markets. And change will only intensify as artificial intelligence and other new advances drive digital transformation further—and at an accelerated pace in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As technology shifts market dynamics, policies must ensure that markets remain inclusive and support broad access to the new opportunities for firms and workers. New thinking and policy adaptations are needed in areas such as competition policy, the innovation ecosystem, digital infrastructure development, upskilling and reskilling of workers, and social protection regimes. Fostering wider diffusion of new technologies among firms and building complementary capabilities in the workforce can deliver both stronger and more inclusive economic growth. [Note: contains copyrighted material].

[PDF format, 26 pages].

Supporting the Child Care and Early Education Workforce: A Menu of Policy Options for the COVID-19 Pandemic and Recovery

Supporting the Child Care and Early Education Workforce: A Menu of Policy Options for the COVID-19 Pandemic and Recovery. Urban Institute.  Gina Adams, Danielle Ewen, Grace Luetmer. February 11, 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented, urgent challenges for the child care and early education workforce. Though the workforce has always been fragile, new stressors presented over the past year have highlighted fundamental structural problems in the system, including the inequities facing Black, Latina, and Native American child care and early education staff and providers. Based on interviews with 20 experts about strategies to support the child care workforce, this report presents a set of 19 diverse state and local policy strategies that policymakers, philanthropists, and key stakeholders could implement to address these structural inequities and build a stronger and more equitable workforce in the future. [Note: contains copyrighted material].

[PDF format, 49 pages].

The Future of Jobs Report 2020

The Future of Jobs Report 2020. World Economic Forum. October 20, 2020.

The COVID-19 pandemic-induced lockdowns and related global recession of 2020 have created a highly uncertain outlook for the labour market and accelerated the arrival of the future of work. The Future of Jobs Report 2020 aims to shed light on: 1) the pandemic-related disruptions thus far in 2020, contextualized within a longer history of economic cycles, and 2) the expected outlook for technology adoption jobs and skills in the next five years.

Despite the currently high degree of uncertainty, the report uses a unique combination of qualitative and quantitative intelligence to expand the knowledge base about the future of jobs and skills. It aggregates the views of business leaders—chief executives, chief strategy officers and chief human resources officers–on the frontlines of decision-making regarding human capital with the latest data from public and private sources to create a clearer picture of both the current situation and the future outlook for jobs and skills. The report also provides in-depth information for 15 industry sectors and 26 advanced and emerging countries. [Note: contains copyrighted material].

[PDF format, 163 pages].

Key Trends in the Global Economy through 2030

Key Trends in the Global Economy through 2030. Center for Strategic & International Studies. William Alan Reinsch et al. September 16, 2020

The CSIS Trade Commission on Affirming American Leadership was created in the summer of 2019 to develop a series of recommendations to cement U.S. global leadership in light of a multitude of twenty-first-century challenges, both at home and abroad. In a series of reports, the Commission lays out recommendations for the U.S. workforce, U.S. innovation policy, and U.S. engagement in the international trading system. This report, which is the first of four reports to be released from the Commission, sets the backdrop for those recommendations. For the U.S. to successfully lead in the next decade, we must first acknowledge the changes that are happening in the global economy and use that information to plan for U.S. leadership in a changing economic environment. This report outlines key trends in the global economy from now until 2030, including the rising importance of services and digital commerce, increased use of automation and AI in the workforce, a shift towards regional supply chains, and an aging workforce.   [Note: contains copyrighted material].

[PDF format, 36 pages].

Preparing the Workforce for 2030: A Pillar of Trade Leadership

Preparing the Workforce for 2030: A Pillar of Trade Leadership. Center for Strategic & International Studies. William Alan Reinsch et al. October 2, 2020

The CSIS Trade Commission on Affirming American Leadership was created in the summer of 2019 to develop a series of recommendations to cement U.S. global leadership in light of a multitude of twenty-first-century challenges, both at home and abroad. In a series of reports, the Commission lays out recommendations for the U.S. workforce, U.S. innovation policy, and U.S. engagement in the international trading system. This report, which is the second of four reports to be released from the commission, focuses on the U.S. workforce. This report recommends nine elements of a new approach to workforce development in the United States. Together, these recommendations would make the U.S. workforce more agile, adaptable, and competitive and put the United States in a position to pursue an am­bitious trade agenda. [Note: contains copyrighted material].

[PDF format, 50 pages].

Perfect Match: How Workers Can Find Jobs That Fit Them Best

Perfect Match: How Workers Can Find Jobs That Fit Them Best. Center for Strategic & International Studies.Kati Suominen et al. October 4, 2019

The purpose of this report is to focus on mismatch problems in manufacturing labor markets. This report lays out several frictions that keep qualified and available American workers from becoming hired by American manufacturers and puts forth ideas for both manufacturers and the public sector to make the marriages between qualified workers and best-fit jobs happen and work. As such, this report is not focused on measuring or analyzing skills shortages or proposing new ways to build a workforce skilled for twenty-first century manufacturing jobs. Thus, “mismatches” in this report do not refer to “skills mismatches” where workers do not have skills employers want, as they do in some studies; rather, mismatches in this report mean settings where available workers are not being easily and optimally sorted into best-fit jobs. [Note: contains copyrighted material].

[PDF format, 57 pages].

Preparing the Future Workforce: Early Care and Education Participation among Children of Immigrants

Preparing the Future Workforce: Early Care and Education Participation among Children of Immigrants. Urban Institute. Erica Greenberg, Victoria Rosenboom, Gina Adams. March 22, 2019

Children of immigrants will make up a critical share of our nation’s future workforce, but they are less likely than other children to participate in early education programs known to support school readiness and long-term productivity. This study describes the characteristics and enrollment of children of immigrants using the most current and comprehensive dataset available: the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010–11. We find that children of immigrants tend to have fewer resources and greater need than children of US-born parents but lower rates of enrollment in center-based preschool. However, programs such as Head Start and state prekindergarten, as well as public kindergarten programs, are making progress in closing gaps in access. These findings suggest that current investments in early education are helping prepare the future workforce for success in 2050 and that expanded investments are warranted. [Note: contains copyrighted material].

[PDF format, 38 pages].

Proposals to Keep Older People in the Labor Force

Proposals to Keep Older People in the Labor Force. Brookings Institution. Alicia H. Munnell and Abigail N. Walters. January 24, 2019

Older people need to work longer in order to ensure a secure retirement. Social Security, the backbone of the retirement system, will not replace as much preretirement income in the future as it does today. Employer-sponsored retirement plans also involve considerably more uncertainty, given the shift from defined benefit plans to 401(k) plans. With these institutional saving arrangements on the decline, people could decide to save more on their own. But personal saving outside employer plans is virtually nonexistent, with the exception of home equity—an asset that retirees are reluctant to tap. Combine the retirement income crunch with the dramatic increase in life expectancy and growing health care costs, and continued employment in later life is the best option for ensuring financial security. The challenge is to ensure that older Americans plan to keep working and that employers retain and hire them. [Note: contains copyrighted material].

[PDF format, 25 pages].

Automation and Artificial Intelligence: How Machines are Affecting People and Places

Automation and Artificial Intelligence: How Machines are Affecting People and Places. Brookings Institution. Mark Muro, Robert Maxim, and Jacob Whiton. January 24, 2019

At first, technologists issued dystopian alarms about the power of automation and artificial intelligence (AI) to destroy jobs. Then came a correction, with a wave of reassurances. Now, the discourse appears to be arriving at a more complicated understanding, suggesting that automation will bring neither apocalypse nor utopia, but instead both benefits and stress alike. Such is the ambiguous and sometimes disembodied nature of the “future of work” discussion.
Hence the analysis presented here. Intended to bring often-inscrutable trends down to earth, the following report develops both backward and forward-looking analyses of the impacts of automation over the years 1980 to 2016 and 2016 to 2030 to assess past and upcoming trends as they affect both people and communities in the United States. [Note: contains copyrighted material].

[PDF format, 108 pages].