Re-Valuing Labor: Ousting Obsolescence

Pam Sornson, JD on January 30, 2024

Throughout 2023, The Pulse explored how society values’ labor’ – how it recognizes and compensates the effort provided by workers for their employers. The research revealed that, in many cases, that value is set not by the actual work done but instead by the relative value of the person who performed it:

In too many cases, women and people of color are deemed to offer less value than caucasian men, even when they do the exact same work.

A significant percentage of global labor efforts are completely uncompensated, which suggests those ‘workers’ offer no value. Contrary to that thought, however, is the reality that their effort contributes significant value to the community by providing social and altruistic benefits while alleviating the burden on public funds

Sometimes, the workers exposed to the highest risks while on the job were also the lowest-paid. The COVID-19 pandemic clarified the exceptional value of the “essential worker,” whose ‘menial’ labor was determined to be vital to protect the health and safety of their community.

The advent of digital automation as a labor provider has also upended many work-world norms. In some cases, human workers were eliminated altogether in favor of a more accurate and speedier machine. (In other cases, however, the technology augmented the human effort, creating more value for the company.)

These realities reflect an entrenched perspective of the ‘value of labor’ as that has been defined by centuries of human development and evolution. Effort was assigned ‘value’ based on the time it took to complete, its relative simplicity, the personal characteristics of who was providing it, or the volume of product rendered within a specified period. That long-standing but haphazard ‘labor valuation’ practice has caused a wide and growing gap between the compensation paid for services and the actual value they provide to the community.

 

Outputs vs. Outcomes: A Critical Difference

However, the calamities of the past few years appear to have triggered a shift away from the norm of ‘work value’ being appraised based on who is doing it, not on the benefit it confers. The opportunities that have emerged through the COVID years – digitization, remote work, Artificial Intelligence – and the pressures generated by those phenomena are driving a re-imagination of how ‘labor’ is valued. Instead of using piecemeal time measurements or a rote count of widgets produced, industry leaders are now contemplating how to engage with all the assets offered by their employees to improve the company’s fortunes as a whole. Organizations of all types are now reviewing their current workforce deployment strategies to determine if they would fare better if they altered their traditional worker and occupational expectations.

Shifting Focus …

What’s becoming more apparent is that emerging workforce options can offer significant benefits to those entities willing to embrace them. Enterprises are taking a broader look at their workforce to determine if unexplored potential within that resource might serve the organization better. In many cases, jobs can be automated with technology, which frees the human worker to provide a more intentional service. In other cases, a re-analysis of the full spectrum of advantages offered by a particular occupation or worker can attain significantly more value when viewed through a ‘corporate benefit’ lens instead of a ‘payroll expense’ lens:

How would the company function if workflows were designed to expand on or augment employee talents and skills beyond their rote mechanics?

How can workers contribute more to achieving corporate goals rather than just adding numbers to corporate outputs?

How can the company leverage the outputs of its human resource  assets to improve overall productivity and profitability?

One possible response to each of these questions is to shift the corporate mindset away from bean-counting and toward value creation.

 

… to a New Corporate Reality …

As is usually the case, shifting corporate culture to embrace new opportunities requires a dedicated strategy that addresses both the old elements that need changing and the new elements that introduce revised expectations.

From an overarching perspective, the entire organization can focus beyond earlier metrics (cost savings or efficiency levels, as examples) and toward ‘value creation’ in general. What are the company’s most significant barriers to growth, and how can revising the effort of its workforce address those challenges better?

The company can also determine which elements are best suited for automated labor and identify where human effort may be wasted. In these instances, adding technology to do rote work frees the employee to contribute other value to the company. New technology might also augment that worker’s effort, increasing its value while reducing the cost to attain that enhanced benefit.

Enterprise leaders might also review each job description and activity to discover the highly valuable but often hidden ‘soft skills’ embedded within it. Most employees can be taught the manual skills needed to perform specific tasks, but their intellectual capacity to analyze and make changes on the fly is what makes them more valuable as contributing employees.

Organizations are embracing this ‘changed mind’ and creating jobs and occupations that facilitate both more flexibility and respect for the worker and also improved productivity for the business.

 

… That Embraces ALL Possibilities.

But they can’t stop there. Recent data reveals that the inequities that were so deeply entrenched in the workplace habits of the past have not been fully alleviated post-pandemic:

Women still need to catch up to men in their economic recovery after the pandemic. One reason they lag behind is that they frequently held those jobs that were most impacted by COVID-induced closures, including any job that required face-to-face exposure. Women also perform most of the community’s caregiving services (frequently unpaid work), and that burden increased during the coronavirus era.

Those without post-high school education credits are also still suffering economic depression caused by the pandemic. The workforce population with bachelor’s or higher degrees has grown by 6.9% over numbers posted in April 2020, while the group without that educational achievement is 3.2% smaller than it was at that time.

Color and ethnicity also remain factors in the employment sector. Unemployment for Blacks and Latinos stands at 5.1% now, while the white unemployment level is only 3.5%.

Both companies and their workforces are aware of the evolutions now occurring in today’s labor markets. New occupations are developing to replace those now deemed obsolete, while emerging technology and workforce philosophies are driving innovation in hiring and retension strategies for high-quality workers. The situation offers hope that, despite the losses and destruction caused by COVID-19, it did open doors – and eyes – to new ways to engage with and reward the human resources that truly manage the global economy.

 

Re-Valuing Labor: Reforms for Workers

Pam Sornson, JD on January 30, 2024

Corporations aren’t the only entities that are questioning how ‘work’ should be valued in the post-COVID environment. Workers are also revising their relative merit within their employers’ organizations and realizing that they want and need more than just a paycheck from their jobs. Over 48 million Americans left their jobs in 2021, and over 50 million did the same thing in 2022, a development now known as the Great Resignation. Gartner labels the phenomenon driving the exiting workers the ‘Great Reflection,’ as they seek more meaning in how they spend their time; old-style occupational valuation makes them wonder if the ‘nine-to-five’ obligation is still worth their effort. Companies looking to retain their experienced workforce and slow the talent and human resource drain are now also seeking ways to respond to the increasing demand that ‘working’ should also afford ‘meaning.’

 

The Pandemic’s Short-term Impact on Workforce

The COVID-19 pandemic caused unprecedented changes in how the world works. That global health crisis triggered an equally global re-evaluation of what is truly important in life, as millions of people succumbed to the virus and millions more were compelled to move on in the face of those losses. In response to those revelations, thousands elected to change their work circumstances to better reflect what is truly meaningful to them. Many people are no longer willing to spend precious time working in occupations that provide a paycheck but little more.

Recent research reveals several reasons why there was a mass exodus of workers from every kind of occupation throughout the course of and after the pandemic:

Many felt unappreciated by their employers, who paid them less than they knew they were worth. In a Pew Research survey, 63% of respondents said low pay was a top contributor to their decision to leave.

Many respondents (also 63%) quit because their occupations offered no opportunity to advance their careers. They cited a stagnant job placement with little or no control over when or how they performed their work. That lack of control over work hours was particularly aggravating, especially in cases when the work itself was not time-sensitive. They determined that maintaining that unfulfilling and limiting employment status quo was no longer an option.

Coupled with the low pay was the lack of respect many workers felt while on the job. More than half (57%) of the survey group stated that their employers did not notice or recognize their full slate of talents and skills.

Others left because they felt overworked or underworked by their organization, had challenges obtaining child or family care, or needed benefits that weren’t offered (paid time off or healthcare insurance, for example). Still others decided it was as good a time as any to relocate to a new community better suited to their needs and tastes.

In all cases, workers determined they wanted a better life than their current job could give them and elected to move on despite the risks entailed in that process.

 

Impact on Industry

The mass resignation phenomenon obviously impacted employers and industries, too. Typically, companies don’t consider the potential problems that might arise if their workforce suddenly shrinks or if key workers elect to go elsewhere. Those that were unprepared often found that they could not respond appropriately to their customer’s needs without an adequate staff, which caused many businesses to fail.

Also, some industries were more affected by the phenomenon than others. Throughout the pandemic, the education, healthcare, retail, hospitality, and transportation industries experienced significant workforce shrinkage. In some cases, jobs just disappeared as public health overseers implemented ‘social distancing’ and other coronavirus safety measures. In other instances, occupations were permanently ‘retired’ as machines took over the labor. And in many circumstances, job openings were left unfilled because no one wanted to do the work. Certainly, today’s current workforce and employment trends are decidedly different than they were just three years ago.

Impact on Workers

Fortunately, the mass resignation episode did not also result in higher unemployment. Instead, many job seekers were able to leverage their skills and talents into positions that better matched their capacities and their preferences. Savvy potential employers, also very aware of the ongoing employment migration, had modified their open positions to facilitate ‘sustainable careers‘ for these new hires. They added benefits and other employee-facing resources that met the candidate’s newly elevated expectations. Additionally, many organizations adjusted the expectations of unfilled job openings to emphasize the ‘soft skills’ that enhance daily activities. This skill set includes analysis, reasoning, and decision-making abilities that extend beyond typical day-to-day duties. Workers who take these hard- and soft-skilled jobs often make better money, have more flexibility in their work conditions, and can actually have an influence on the fortunes of the enterprise. Not surprisingly, these ‘enhanced’ occupations are very attractive to workers who have been asking for what they offer.

 

The Pandemic’s Long-term Impact on Workforce

New data suggest that the Great Resignation is receding or is over, as the ‘quit rate’ returned to the average rate experienced in 2019. But that doesn’t mean the work world has returned to its former self. Instead, many organizations have embraced the expectations of their workers as the ‘new normal’ and are taking steps to provide a truly ’employee-friendly’ work environment. They are adding to every employee’s hiring package benefits and perks that were previously reserved only for the upper echelon of leadership. And, as workers return to work (both in the office and remotely), they gain substantially better occupational situations than those they left behind. Many companies now offer, as a matter of course:

mental heath support (often in conjunction with better physical health benefits, too),

financial support in the form of enhanced 401(K) plans, coaching, and even tuition reimbursements for upskilling workers and

additional resources for child and family care.

Companies are also reviewing how their work gets done. Hybrid positions where the employee works remotely some of the time are becoming more familiar in occupations where location isn’t important. The candidate pools are changing, too, as leaders look for talent in the diverse communities that had been overlooked in the past. And everyone is adding technology to perform rote and routine tasks and to augment intellectual inputs made by human workers.

 

From all perspectives, it appears that the COVID-19 pandemic and its fallout forever changed how the world works. Looking forward, the businesses that will achieve the greatest success will also be the ones that give their employees the attention and consideration they seek.

 

IIJA Infrastructure Investments and Projects

Pam Sornson, JD on January 15, 2024

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) went into effect in 2022 and has been stimulating projects and proposals across industries ever since. Its intent is twofold:

To repair the aging infrastructure that is failing after decades of excessive wear and erosion, and

To build a national workforce capable of maintaining the new foundation while also building capacity for continuing evolution and growth.

The Bipartisan law intends to address several pressing national needs through these investments:

Ensure a safe and functional physical infrastructure and a robust economic foundation for future growth;

Provide all communities with new resources for building their specific economies;

Reduce the inequities that remain so solidly in place in many long-entrenched social systems and

Provide training and employment for millions in both traditional and newly emerging occupations and careers.

The scope of the law is immense. The opportunities it promises for further expansion and advances across all industries are unlimited.

 

One Broad Approach. Many Narrow Targets.

Repairing What’s Broken

In addition to repair costs, the law allocates over $550 billion over eight years toward new developments in digital connectivity, energy systems, and transportation networks to accommodate today’s burgeoning demand for these services.

Projects to expand internet assets through new ‘middle-mile’ infrastructure (the digital bridge that connects data to the users that seek it) will receive some of the $65 billion allowed for that purpose through the Broadband Equity, Access, and Development (BEAD) Program.

A cleaner, more efficient energy industry is also a target of the IIJA. It will invest $65 billion in energy innovation, carbon management, farming and forestry developments, and cleaner transportation systems. Just one goal for this aspect of the bill is to reduce the country’s reliance on fossil fuels and its second-highest-in-the-world CO2 emissions. The United States currently emits 14% of the global CO2 exhaust each year, behind only China (39%).

It’s also spending over $100 billion on climate change initiatives and electric grid restructuring in response to the regional flooding, storms, and power outage catastrophes that have occurred in recent years.

These ‘repair and rebuild’ investments are responsive to decades of spending cuts that have left much of the nation’s foundation in tatters.

 

Building What’s Needed

Not insignificantly, the IIJA is also looking to develop ‘best practices’ within systems that impact everyone. The law sets aside funding to establish ten Centers of Excellence affiliated with a planned ‘National Center of Excellence for Resilience and Adaptation.’ This network of government agencies, industry experts, and higher education think tanks will focus its efforts on improving the nation’s transportation and logistics resiliency in the face of worsening weather and climate events. Each Center will receive funding for research and development of resilient transportation, energy, and climate change projects that respond to circumstances within its region. The goal is to prevent the damage and loss experienced in the past by communities living in underdeveloped areas that lack these resources.

Notably, the law’s originators see the administration of each Center of Excellence to be managed (potentially) by a local higher education institution. As coordinators, the schools will administer the $500 billion in new money for ‘surface transportation’ projects, and the schools themselves could also be ‘centers of excellence’ within their region, which would make them eligible for IIJA project funding, as well.

That administrative role is crucial, too, to the success of the overall IIJA project. Within the transportation sector alone, there are 11 key programs established to launch technology deployments and perform advanced research. The work is designed to result in a “future-proofed transportation system that is data-driven and evidence-based”:

Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation (SMART) Grants ($1B, new) to advance smart urban technologies and systems to improve transportation efficiency and safety.

University Transportation Centers (UTCs) ($500M, expanded) – to advance transportation expertise at two- and four-year colleges and universities.

Advanced Transportation Technologies and Innovative Mobility Deployment (ATTIMD) ($300M) – for developing advanced transportation technologies and innovative mobility deployments.

Advanced Research Projects Agency-Infrastructure (ARPA-I) (new) – A new agency focused on leveraging science and technology to address efficiency, safety, and climate goals for transportation infrastructure.

Open Research Initiative (authorized at $250M, new) – to manage unsolicited research pitches that address unmet DOT research needs.

Nontraditional and Emerging Transportation Technology Council (institutionalized) – the now legally entrenched NETT Council will identify and resolve gaps associated with nontraditional or emerging transportation technologies.

Transportation Research and Development Five-year Strategic Plan (renewed) – The USDOT Research, Development, and Technology Strategic Plan guides Federal transportation research and development activities.

Smart Community Resource Center (new) – incorporating resources from the USDOT, Operating Administrations, and other Federal Agencies to develop intelligent transportation systems

Joint Office of Energy and Transportation (new) – A DOT and DOE (energy) partnership to study, plan, coordinate, and implement issues of joint concern.

Transportation Resilience and Adaptation Centers of Excellence (TRACE) Grant Program (Authorized at $550M, new) – See above.

In the DOT, more than $4.5 Billion in Research Activities are now and will continue to be focused on a range of critical priorities, including vulnerable road users, the impacts on roads from self-driving vehicles, reduction of driver distractions, and emerging alternative fuel vehicles and infrastructure.

 

With new funding available for almost countless projects that embrace thousands of neighborhoods and millions of people, the IIJA promises to add significant value and better living opportunities for all its communities. To achieve the law’s fullest fruition, however, the effort will also need a workforce development pipeline that delivers precisely trained labor to build and maintain both existing and new resources. For that purpose, the IIJA is looking at the country’s network of community colleges as its training and credentialling foundation. And for that to become a reality, those schools – all 1,038 of them – will have to reidentify themselves as workforce development hubs. That project, too, is in progress. Read on.

The IIJA, WFD, and the CCCs

Pam Sornson, JD on January 15, 2024

How and where to allocate available funding is a critical element of any infrastructure project, especially if there is more than $1 trillion to be distributed. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 (IIJA) was specific in its focus when determining how to best use its $1T asset value. Four central U.S. government departments – the Departments of Energy, Commerce, Transportation, and Labor – are the primary beneficiaries of the funds, which are to be used to improve and innovate foundational community resources as well as develop the workforce that will keep those services working and in good condition. The ‘workforce development’ aspect encompasses more than just providing funding to pay workers. It also covers the costs of the incremental steps needed to get those workers ready to go: policy development, implementation strategies, and educational reorganization are all necessary to ensure the resulting labor force is well-trained for the work it is expected to perform. Consequently, the IIJA is facilitating an overhaul of the higher education sector to build the country’s future workforce training programs.

 

 

Demand Drives Distribution

The IIJA doesn’t specify how training should occur or who should be doing it. However, one logical choice to provide those services would be training institutions already embedded in the community: the nation’s community colleges. These local academic and technical schools are already on the front line of the labor development initiative. With IIJA funding, they can adapt existing programs and build new ones to train students for both current and future occupations. And a vast array of new jobs will emerge as the economy absorbs modern labor innovations, such as artificial intelligence and automation. Across three federal agencies, almost $500 M is allocated for training purposes:

The Department of Energy (DOE) has $160 M available for both career skills training and to expand its network of energy engineers through the development of more Industrial Assessment Centers.

The Department of Labor (DOL) has $50 M in grant funding through its Strengthening Community Colleges Training program.

The Department of Transportation (DOT), tasked with perhaps the most significant aspect of the bill, will share up to $280 M over five years for training the workforce needed for its Low and No Emissions Bus Program. Additionally, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), passed in November ’23, continues existing DOT funding for ‘surface’ transportation projects and advances funding appropriations for supporting services through 2026. These funds will add resources – and workforce – to ensure the nation’s air space, highways, railroads, and commercial waterways are safe for use (especially in light of climate change), modernized to optimize digital resources, and equitable.

Each state is empowered to spend its share of the federal opportunity as it sees fit, according to its unique industrial, social, and educational challenges. However, the national legislation does have some caveats about how at least some of the money must be spent. Eligible workforce development projects funded by the BIL, for example, must meet four primary criteria:

Increase women and minority participation in the workforce;

Fill workforce gaps – provide workers for jobs that are currently unfilled;

Add digital and related training elements to support emerging transport realities and

Attract new investment opportunities to incorporate new revenue sources into the economy.

With these parameters in place, Governors and other workforce development leaders are free to fund (among many options) student tuition sources, apprenticeship developments, collaborative organizations, and outreach activities that unite the entire community – schools, businesses, industries, and government – behind the workforce development initiative.

 

 

States Select Strategies

At the state level, where the funds will be spent, stakeholders must determine not just where to invest but also the processes necessary to ensure those investments pay off. Analyses of local, regional, and state-level economies will suggest where these processes might begin:

Addressing the most pressing community needs – food scarcity and lack of housing are often caused by insufficient or non-existent work opportunities;

Clarifying relevant stakeholders and their potential for collaboration;

Enhancing existing workforce development activities and practices, or

Filling existing workforce needs and gaps.

These are just four of the many challenges that can be remediated with BIL funds.

 

 

Enlisting Educators

At the heart of the workforce development project is the training facility. Schools designed to provide occupational and vocational education – including community colleges, technical schools, trade schools, etc. – have many options open to them that can be funded with IIJA dollars:

Staff upskilling and training – the pandemic demonstrated that today’s education tools are much more varied than books and paper.

Professional development – see above.

Incorporating internships into existing workflows.

Partnering with community members to facilitate apprenticeships.

Outreach to bring more invested parties into the conversation and the project.

The state governments that are tasked with allocating these funds can streamline their decision-making processes by creating and pursuing a goal set that builds on existing resources:

They can leverage current educational capacities by understanding what each program offers, tweaking it to fit needs better, or expanding it to serve more people.

They can use existing data in conjunction with emerging information and digital technologies to clarify precisely where demand lies and solutions might be found.

They might set up a governing body to oversee, from a 30,000′ level, the activities, outputs, outcomes, and results of IIJA investments. Interim reports can reveal where things are on target – or not.

Engage with their industrial community, especially the businesses and organizations that are already invested in the local community. Businesses thrive with well-trained employees, so business owners should have some influence on what it takes to create that human resource.

 

The IIJA is funding America’s renewed infrastructure framework by focusing its resources on the civic, social, and industrial opportunities that benefit the country as a whole. The ultimate goal of the endeavor is to enhance and bolster the nation’s workforce to ensure the economy has the labor it needs to maintain stability and add growth. Facilitating that process are the country’s middle-skill schools – the trades, unions, and community colleges – that are evolving into the workforce development hubs that America needs to achieve these ambitions.

 

 

The Infrastructures Bill’s Potential Impact on the EWD Sector

Pam Sornson, JD on December 31, 2023

Pam Sornson, JD

January 2, 2024

Deep in the heart of the Covid pandemic, America’s national leaders did an extraordinary thing. On November 6, 2021, they passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), “a once-in-a-generation investment in our nation’s infrastructure and competitiveness.” The Bipartisan Act commits over one trillion dollars to repairing America’s decaying infrastructure while building new foundational resources to meet 21st-century demands. The new law will address two critical national concerns at once:

the repairing of the country’s substructure systems (railways, bridges, highways, etc.)

while also generating the jobs and business opportunities that will ensure a stable economy.

Embedded in its provisions are mandates requiring equitable practices across all industries so that the nation’s residents have the employment, income, and work opportunities they need to accomplish their personal goals. The IIJA is an attempt to address many or most of the complex issues America faces today while also adding resources to expand the country’s vast potential.

 

Repairing Aging Systems

Studies conducted over the past several years clearly reveal that the nation’s infrastructure systems are decaying. Much of that foundation was built decades ago, and it is suffering extreme distress because of the population explosion that occurred in the intervening years.

According to government reports, 20% of America’s highways and 45,000 bridges are failing. The roads require repaving at the least, and many require additional substructure repair to retain their usability into the future. Bridge inspections show cracks, separations, lost connectors, and other signs of deterioration. In almost all cases, obsolete materials and extreme overuse are causing the problems.

The airports are also showing serious signs of wear and tear, as are the country’s ports of entry. These assets play a crucial role in the nation’s economy, underpinning its extensive network of supply chains.

Public transport options are also suffering from years of neglect and deferred maintenance. America needs at least 24,000 new buses, 5,000 metro cars, and thousands of miles of train tracks to serve today’s population.

Public water systems are also in disarray; many still use life- and health-threatening lead pipes, and studies show that as many as 10 million homes are without safe drinking water.

The country relies on each of these systems to maintain its economic activity and provide healthy, happy communities for its residents. Further, in many cases, providing these resources will alleviate much of the inequities caused when transportation options are few and far away, as is the case in many of America’s ethnic communities. The IIJA investments promise a safer, more adaptable infrastructure foundation that upgrades its capacities while adding resources to address emerging demands, opportunities, and realities.

 

Building in New Resources

The IIJA also looks ahead. The IIJA aims to spend much of its investment dollars on building – at a national level – the resources needed for every local community to thrive and compete economically.

Digital resources are driven by the internet, and without that asset readily available, communities suffer. This was just one significant fact revealed during the pandemic. Thousands of remote communities lost contact with their neighbors and support services when communications channels were only available through an internet connection.

The realities of climate change are also compelling a rethinking of how systems should work. The IIJA invests heavily in electric vehicles and the network of public charging stations that will keep them running. This specific project serves two purposes: it will reduce the country’s negative impact on the climate while also increasing manufacturing employment opportunities. The rebuilding process will include accommodations for current and future threats caused by floods, storms, drought, etc., and the enhanced, ‘greener’ public transportation system will eliminate millions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions.

And clean, reliable energy itself is a central element of the two-year-old law. The Department of Energy reports that power outages across the country cost its citizens as much as $70 billion each year. In areas where extreme heat is happening more frequently, the number of lives lost to climate change is also growing. The nation’s electric grid is in serious need of an overhaul and modernization effort; the IIJA intends to ensure it gets that attention.

With funds directed at repairing failing systems while building in new resources, the IIJA promises to bring America’s foundation back to its former glory, a model for the world on how a booming and free economy thrives.

 

Creating Economic Stability

For many years, the American economy has been tilting toward the wealthy in terms of growth opportunities and reductions in tax contributions. The IIJA will remedy some of these inequities by improving publicly available resources in previously underserved places, typically in communities of lower economic status. The infrastructure investments themselves will have an impact – those efforts routinely represent positive contributions to local, regional, and national GDP and employment numbers. But where the strategy might be most helpful is its intention to hire and employ the millions of workers needed to bring its goals to fruition.

And to hire that labor force, those workers must first be trained and ready to work. According to the Brookings Institute, a nationwide, all-encompassing training effort will require inputs from every element of the economic sector. Businesses, industries, governments, and educators must all work together to develop occupationally focused education systems needed to sustain the IIJA’s upward trajectory. Those experts also suggest ways to accomplish these lofty goals. They suggest that the country should:

Increase investments in training programs, including upskilling and reskilling options. At best, today’s existing workforce training resources are only moderately adequate because most do not yet incorporate the digital aspect of the emerging workforce environment.

Utilize more work-based learning options, including apprenticeships, internships, and union participation. Very few school-based programs can match the efficacy and efficiency that come from on-the-job training.

Embrace diversity as an economic asset. Too many people are left out of the workforce for no other reason than their ethnicity, heritage, or even sexual orientation. The Brookings leaders assert that those human resources can provide immense value to their communities both as workers and as leaders. Adding their capacities will result in improved economic outcomes across all segments of the population.

 

Passage of the IIJA was a noteworthy accomplishment because it aims to both rebuild America’s aging infrastructure and also construct a future economy that supports a successful future for everyone. This ‘once in a generation’ investment will surely benefit not just this generation but all of those yet to come.

 

Artificial Intelligence and the Emerging Workforce

Pam Sornson, JD on December 31, 2023

The ultimate impact that artificial intelligence (AI) will have on the emerging workforce has yet to be determined. The technology itself is still too new, and the few released iterations of its current capacities only suggest what added services and benefits it may eventually provide. Experts note, too, that the digital science poses significant threats if its capabilities are used for nefarious purposes; present-day policies and safeguards do not yet have the capacity to police these concerns.

What is known is that there is an almost unlimited number of use cases for AI wizardry and that its adoption will upend virtually every aspect of industry, policy, and society. Already, emerging AI applications are changing how the world works and the direction its industries are moving. Maximizing the values offered by AI will require sophisticated knowledge and training. Preparing the workforce to both master existing technology as well as embrace future innovations will be a momentous task. Designing, developing, and implementing that task is the next step in the AI adoption process.

 

Generative AI – What It Is and Why It’s Becoming so Popular

Stated very simply, ‘generative AI’ amalgamates several different algorithms to create and process digital data into meaningful, useful information – ‘content.’ In this case, ‘content’ means the text, imagery, sound, and other computing capacities afforded by today’s computers. With AI, multiple coding techniques combine to present the varied data contained in each separate program into a cohesive, intelligible whole. The AI program scours billions of data bits in millions of databases to find information related to the user’s posited question, then organizes and presents them in a way that responds best to the inquiry. The result is a more complete response pulled from a more comprehensive range of communication tools. For example, asking the ChatGPT ‘bot’ (short for robot) to suggest options for a toddler birthday party results in a long list (10 items) of things to do, from choosing a theme to engaging parent participation. AI can also generate an essay about geology, analyze medical records for more accurate diagnoses, and adapt manufacturing prototypes into higher-functioning working models. These are just three among – literally – millions of other AI-driven services.

Because AI technology moves so fast and is so comprehensive in its delivery, it can – and does – outperform human actions in many, many tasks. Consequently, many companies have adopted the science to perform routine tasks within their organizations, a choice that often displaces the worker who had previously done that work. It is because of its swifter, more accurate performance capabilities that AI poses such a threat to the livelihoods of millions of workers worldwide. If a company can achieve its goals faster, with more accuracy, and at less cost, then making the shift to AI over human labor is a sound business decision. But what does that mean to the now-unemployed laborer?

 

AI and Today’s Workforce

AI has already displaced millions of workers, in part because the recent pandemic prohibited close contact between people, which caused the closing of millions of businesses. The global health crisis drove more than eight million American workers to ‘change’ their occupations, either by finding new work or by leaving the workforce altogether. In many cases, the jobs they left were subsequently ‘automated’ – taken over by an AI bot that was programmed to perform those specific functions. These occupations are often ‘routine’ duties that don’t require any creative inputs, such as data entry, product assembly, or even commonly occurring responses to consumer inquiries. Their automation reduced both virus exposure and payroll for many organizations.

Further, it appears that the coronavirus only accelerated the transition from human to technical ‘worker.’ The World Economic Forum predicted in 2020 that more than 85 million jobs would be replaced by AI technology by 2025 and that those occupations would straddle many industries:

Customer service representatives, vehicle drivers, and factory workers are among the ‘blue collar’ jobs that will slowly disappear.

Computer programmers, paralegals, and travel advisors are also on the block, even though that type of work itself requires more intellectual input. AI can be programmed to provide those capacities.

‘White collar’ occupations are not immune, either. The duties performed by financial traders and research analysts are also within the scope of operations facilitated by AI technology.

Clearly, AI-driven automated services are already taking over elements of the labor force and leaving the workers who had held those occupations without jobs. One facet of the AI evolution will be to find new occupations and opportunities to replace those lost employment options.

 

AI and Tomorrow’s Workforce

Fortunately, governments and industries are already discussing the potential pathways that might develop as AI continues to evolve. In the U.S. Senate, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) introduced his “SAFE Innovation Framework” in the summer of 2023, a plan that safeguards worker security within the greater context of the expansion of AI technology. That Framework is presumed to become part of the effort by the White House to develop a National AI Strategy that will outline how the country will adapt to the occupational and economic impacts of the transition to AI. Built into it are mechanisms that will also address the inequities of today’s fractured society. Again, the opportunities posed by this technology are almost unlimited.

However, industry experts aren’t as concerned about the immediate impacts of AI. They assert that today’s AI models aren’t as clever as the media presents them and that they are often hyped beyond their actual capacities. Many of those commentators also note that the programming can generate as many jobs as it takes out, if not more, which would provide the job opportunities needed to maintain a stable economy. Like any other technology, AI requires program updates, oversight, maintenance, and management, all roles typically held by human workers. There would be more of those as the technology expands into new arenas. They also add that AI will augment existing work, enhancing and improving the impacts of human inputs to maximize outputs and outcomes.

 

While no one knows where the global embrace of AI is headed, the ultimate goal should be for both industry and humanity to thrive during and after the transition into a fully AI-invested community.

Emerging Influences on the Future of Work

Pam Sornson, JD on December 17, 2023

The disparities embedded in today’s society have a negative impact on everyone. Workers who aren’t compensated appropriately often rely on already stressed public resources to make up the difference. Those public assistance reserves are limited at the best of times; people compelled to seek that support are also often unable to put back into those coffers what they are taking out. The ultimate consequence is that the whole community suffers when its reservoir of assets (both human and material) is depleted.

The new year promises to be momentous as society continues its course out of the chaos of the pandemic and into its re-envisioned economic future. Three emerging influences appear to be rising rapidly, and each offers a unique context in which to examine nascent workforce development opportunities: Artificial Intelligence, the newly launched Infrastructure Bill, and the possibilities afforded to all through a centrally sited EWD department in every community college.

Themes one and two arise in the technology and economic policy sectors, and both of those are potent influences on theme three. Throughout 2024, we will be tracking the evolution of these phenomena, with particular attention paid to how technology and policy impact higher education. The focus will be on how well – if at all – innovations in the greater workforce development sector can reverse the erosion of economic health caused by the pandemic and previously accepted social policies.

 

Artificial Intelligence: Friend or Foe?

Today’s artificial intelligence (AI) is the product of decades of development, beginning in its current iteration when Alan Turing published his treatise, “Computer Machinery and Intelligence,” in 1950. Already, AI responsible for ‘automating’ many jobs, making them more productive while reducing both their errors and their costs.

However, recently released digital applications (“ChatGPT,” as an example) are challenging many traditional occupations by taking over some or all of their functions, effectively displacing the humans who previously had performed those tasks. In many, many cases, the results are overwhelmingly positive:

Doctors can make more accurate diagnoses so patients get better treatment;

Automated drones can access locations where humans cannot go, and the images they collect provide exceptional data that may not have been discovered otherwise;

People with disabilities now have automated tools that facilitate experiences they would never have encountered.

As laudable as those accomplishments are, however, the technology also comes with many drawbacks and challenges. The reality is that AI doesn’t actually ‘think’ independently like a human does. Instead, it scours billions of digital files to find those it determines to be most ‘related’ to the question posed. The program does NOT also determine the accuracy, truthfulness, or relevance of the data it produces; it simply posts it for the reader to consume ‘as is.’ Too many people are already relying on AI to provide them with accurate, timely information related to their computer queries, but because the user can’t tell whether what they’re reading is actually applicable to their situation, any subsequent decisions they make based on that erroneous ‘information’ can be disastrous.

Despite these conflicting attributes, AI is here to stay, and its influence on industry, the workforce, and the economy will continue to grow. The next step in mastering it will be to ensure that people who use it understand that they can’t or shouldn’t rely on it as a credible resource.

 

The 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA)

Now two years old, the IIJA has had a significant impact on the country’s economy. As a government investment vehicle, the Act is substantial:

It provides 452 distinct ‘funding pots’ that offer

Over $850 billion in funding options.

Overall, the Bill is expected to invest $1.2 trillion in rebuilding the country’s aging and decaying foundations.

Major construction and reconstruction projects, such as bridge and tunnel repairs, long-deferred highway maintenance, and environmental cleanups, are now underway, providing well-paying jobs for hundreds of thousands of Americans. Its companion law, the  Build Back Better Act (signed into law August 16, 2022), directs funding toward projects supporting economic development activities, including financial resources for child care, elder care, rebates, and tax incentives for environmentally sensitive initiatives. Its Registered Apprentice program provides funding for thousands of paid on-the-job training opportunities across virtually all industries.

Not least, both Acts mandate intentional remedial actions to ‘level America’s economic playing field’ that is now so rife with inequities and disparities.

 

The Expansion of Workforce Development Hubs within California’s Community Colleges

Admittedly, this premise is still just that: a possible response to the nation’s current challenge of finding appropriate job training and education for its unemployed that also responds to the high industrial demand for skilled labor. California’s community college system is a world-class network of educators, innovators, and collaborators. Together, these 116 schools offer courses and programs to almost two million students each year. Their impact on their local community is enormous and growing.

They are also at the center of the State’s investment in its economic infrastructure. The leaders in Sacramento have poured billions of dollars into developing their higher education system into a workforce development incubator. Their intentions and investments direct school administrators to build partnerships and strategies with neighboring businesses and industries to align those labor demands with the training programs the schools will provide. These propositions have been manifesting over the past several years and are already showing success in many locations. The current scheme is to continue this forward momentum until every corner of the state has in place the labor development tools it needs for its local and regional economies to thrive.

 

The lessons learned throughout 2023 about how society values (or doesn’t value) its human labor assets will inform our analysis of 2024’s economic development actions. We hope you continue to follow our progress. Thank you for your continued support of our work.

Looking Back: How We Actually Value ‘Labor’

Pam Sornson, JD on December 17, 2023

Throughout 2023, the Pulse presented several distinctly different perspectives on how today’s society values ‘labor.’ The conversation is a response to recent events that have compelled a reflection on how society ‘works’ and how those who keep it running are compensated. It’s not about how each individual worker performs. Instead, it’s about how a community system flows because of the labor its workforce performs. The advent of the ‘essential’ employee highlighted how sometimes menial labor provides the highest value available at that moment. The question is, ‘How did one type of occupation become so much more ‘valuable’ in society’s eyes than another that provides as much or more actual worth to the community?’

The data revealed that how labor is ‘valued’ often has little to do with its level of effort or even the consequent high value of its outcome. Instead, workers are too often compensated based on aspects that have almost nothing to do with their skill level or capacity and much more to do with their status.

 

Status as a ‘Value’ Determiner

A plethora of studies indicate that the ‘value’ of human labor is often assigned unequally and that there are three primary ‘classes’ of workers that bear the brunt of those inequities:

Those at the bottom of the economic scale,

Women, and

Migrants.

The Economically Disadvantaged

Typically, workers in this group perform the community’s ‘hidden,’ sometimes deemed ‘menial’ tasks, such as janitorial work, rote clerical activities, and agricultural activities. The work itself is often not intellectually demanding but instead involves sometimes strenuous physical effort to perform. Because the qualifications for the job are usually minimal, most of these occupations are at the very bottom of the pay scale, typically garnering only minimum wage or slightly above.

What was remarkable about the COVID-19 pandemic is that it showcased how critical these jobs are to keeping society humming. These occupations were deemed ‘essential,’ and the employees providing the labor were compelled to continue working after the shutdown even though doing so posed a risk of catching the virus.

More than half (62%) of California’s farm labor was deemed ‘essential’ even though those jobs pay only an average of about $16 per hour.

The lowest-paid workers in most healthcare settings were also suddenly considered ‘essential’ because they kept those facilities sanitary.

In retrospect, it seems decidedly unfair that those who perform roles that are deemed ‘essential’ to the foundational management of the country and workers who were asked to risk their lives to continue doing so should also be some of its lowest-paid workers. However, up until the pandemic hit, that’s the way this particular form of labor was ‘valued.’

Women

Despite comprising more than half (51.1%) of the population and despite the 1967 passage of the American Equal Pay Act, companies continue to pay women less than their male counterparts for performing the same job duties. On average, full-time female employees are paid only 83.7% of what men are paid for the same work, which results in a deficit of ~$10,000 per year in wages. Much of the disparity is due to lingering but unfounded concerns about ‘family’ intrusions into the work environment, a notion that presumes women are still absorbing the bulk of domestic responsibilities while working full-time. Men are not typically subjected to the same limitations.

In other circumstances, women are also not paid at all for much of the labor they perform in their homes and in service of others. Around the world, females perform 2.5 times as much non-paid labor (housekeeping, caregiving, etc.) as men; this statistic doesn’t change even in countries that enjoy high economic stability.

The data suggest that long-time cultural norms continue to influence not just how much female workers get paid but also how the value of their labor is calculated.

Immigrants vs. Native-born Workers

America is a land populated by people who came (or whose ancestors came) from somewhere else. Today’s immigrant community makes up approximately 14% of America’s population and comprises 18% of its workforce. Almost half of this group is Hispanic, another quarter is Asian, and nearly 10% have African heritage.

Together, America’s foreign-born workers perform a significant percentage of the country’s ‘essential services:’

    • In California, 69% of agricultural workers are immigrants.
    • In Nebraska, immigrants comprise 66% of that state’s meat packaging industry.
    • In Alaska, 70% of the state’s seafood industry is of foreign descent.

In addition to those labor contributions, these communities are also responsible for a sizeable volume of consumer spending. A 2019 survey reveals that the nation’s immigrant population, in general, is responsible for spending over $1.4 trillion annually in U.S. markets. They are also more likely than native-borns to open a new business and to work in the burgeoning STEM industries. Immigrants also file more than 75% of the patents developed in U.S. universities.

Despite these notable contributions to the country’s economy, immigrants are typically paid ~12% less than natural-born workers at the national level and more than 25% less than their comparably educated, native-born colleagues in California.

 

Pay Disparity is Expensive

These data demonstrate that the ‘wage gap’ in the United States and worldwide is vast — and expensive. The ‘gender gap’- the difference between average wages for men and women- may amount to as much as $7 trillion in reduced global economic activity. Those lost dollars would cover living costs that now often limit the opportunity to work, such as child care or caregiving expenses. With those issues managed, the workers who would normally do those chores are able to find paying work to earn a better living, pay more in taxes, and lessen the economic burden on social services. Employees who are paid equally for doing the same work are less likely to quit prematurely, which reduces the expense of hiring and training new workers. Almost all studies demonstrate that when people are appropriately compensated for their work, regardless of the type of work it is, they are more willing to contribute and participate in their community as responsible citizens.

 

Looking ahead into 2024, these evolutions in how ‘work’ is perceived will continue, and several emerging influences will significantly impact the direction those adaptations will take. Two, in particular, have already compelled alterations in workflows and investments: Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the newly launched federal Infrastructure Bill. Each of these phenomena refocus the context in which ‘work’ occurs, as well as how it’s performed. And for both, the community college system is gearing up to build the appropriate workforce to move them forward.

The FOW Panel Two: Student Focused Systems Change

Pam Sornson, JD on December 3, 2023

Pam Sornson, JD

December 5, 2023

The four phases of economic growth are consistent: expansion, peak, contraction, and trough. The circumstances of the past few years — the pandemic, wars, social unrest, etc. — have driven many aspects of the global economy into a contracted state, if not a full-on trough. The bad news is that many people have suffered financial hardships caused by these realities. The good news is that there’s nowhere to go but up from where we find ourselves at now. Those evolutions in the world’s industrial complex have caused revolutions in how work gets — or will get — done. The schools and training programs needed to build the new workforce are in development now, and the people ‘in charge’ of their progress are collaborating on how it will go moving forward.

At least that’s the takeaway from the discussion presented by the second Panel of expert guests at the Future of Work conference (FOW) hosted by Pasadena City College’s (PCC) Economic and Workforce Development division (EWD) on October 26th (watch the replay here). These four industry specialists offered their vision of how today’s education systems can flex to better engage with each other to fill the workforce demands of the future.

 

Four Perspectives. One Primary Goal.

The overarching subject matter for the Panel focused on how to revise existing systems to maximize the student/ trainee’s experience and opportunity to achieve success. The individuals gathered to talk about their personal experiences and the aggregate wisdom those engendered, and how they use that knowledge to inform their current work within this arena.

 

From the Industry Perspective

Dennis Rodriguez, Director of Business Development for Black & Veatch, a global engineering firm, offers an ‘industry-based’ context. He notes that his firm actively engages with several elements of the workforce development (WFD) sector. They seek available, relevant funds from governments and then use those funds to partner with schools to design and build needed business-focused training programs. Obviously, the schools themselves are integral collaborators in the process.

 

From the Government Perspective

Kelly Mackey, State Director of Strategic Apprenticeships, CA Department of Industrial Relations, shared how California is going all-in with apprenticeships. Her newly formed agency incorporates an array of WFD services and supports that previously had operated as silos. Now, they’re working together towards common goals, including building DEI, equity, and social support into WFD initiatives. The State’s growing focus on ‘registered apprenticeships’ seeks to find paid work-based learning opportunities that connect those who need work with the businesses that need them. Adding a financial compensation aspect to the arrangement allows students to maintain their lives while learning; the companies get the assurance that their next ‘hire’ will be appropriately trained to do the job.

 

From the Worker Perspective

Nicole Feenstra, founder of the marketing entity ‘The DNA Agency,’ brings a unique thought to the chat: why aren’t we marketing jobs to learners and workers to businesses? In many instances, those looking for work don’t know how to find it, while those who need workers can’t seem to locate them. This communication disconnect cements the divide between potential employers and employees, exacerbating the economic challenges of unemployment rates and unfilled job openings.

Instead, she suggests, companies should consider modifying their methods to attract potential workers. Her research shows that typical ‘job search’ messaging can’t compete for attention against the panoply of digital distractions constantly streaming through electronic devices. Advertising jobs today mandates using similar tags and enticements as those that attract millions of viewers to cute cat videos.

But that’s not all that’s needed, Feenstra says. Gaining attention is simply step #1. Step #2 is giving viewers follow-up options that actually move them to take action. And all of these activities should be coordinated across the EWD and WFD spectrum.

 

Chancellor-Rodriguez-8×10-300dpi

From the Education Perspective

Dr. Francisco Rodriguez, Chancellor of the Los Angeles Community College District, shared two fundamental aspects that characterize the work being done by his ‘agency,’ the nine LA-based community colleges.

    1. They are focused on collaboration with educational, industrial, and governmental partners. With constant outreach to other schools, State, regional, and local government agencies, and business and industry leaders, the schools are forming partnerships that will together build the region’s new economic foundation.
    2. They are ‘tuning up’ their internal operations to reflect their external goals and initiatives. Dr. Rodriguez sees the District as a role model for organizations of any type. They intentionally seek out DEI and multicultural hires to expand their leadership perspectives. They’re adding new courses and programs related directly to the needs of their business partners. And the District is actively engaged with the Legislature to ensure that policy, funding, and actions all coalesce around these WFD principles.

 

 

WFD & Emerging Trends

Collectively, the Panel also discussed how emerging trends are affecting their decisions and practices.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is already encroaching on all of their sectors.

Current and future workers will need proficiency in these technical skills, so the schools and the government are developing responsive training programs to provide that option.

Businesses must compete with the software phenomenon, too, so they’re also reimagining their operations using an AI lens.

AI doesn’t replace ‘soft skills,’ however, according to the Black & Veatch representative. Even with all the promise shown by the technology, its value will only be as good as the humans who develop and implement it.

Global competitiveness is also spurring innovation, instigating conversations about what needs to be done to compete in that realm effectively and how to best pursue support and enhancements for those projects. The panelists confirmed:

Dedicated government funding will ensure training programs are both relevant and sufficient to restructure the economic foundation.

Local and regional resources are vast and deep. Both the educational and industry leaders on the Panel agreed that further exploration and development at the local level will retain economic resources in those areas while also strengthening the outcome for the State as a whole.

Improving the messaging among WFD participants from all segments will encourage communication, outreach, and connections that will result in enhanced economic activity.

 

It’s clear that Los Angeles, LA County, and the State of California are all in the midst of significant economic and social upheavals, some in the form of industrial contractions, others definitely in the throes of economic troughs. It will take a village to remediate all these situations, and the conversation presented by the Panelists at PCC’s FOW Conference was informative for all who attended. It offered insights and action items for anyone who is invested in furthering their local, regional, and state economies.

 

The FOW Panel One: What’s News with Training, Trades, and Transformations

Pam Sornson, JD on December 3, 2023

Pam Sornson, JD

December 5, 2023

An enormous volume of information and insight emerged from the Future of Work Conference (FOW) hosted on October 26th by the Economic and Workforce Development division (EWD) of Pasadena City College (PCC). The past two editions of the Pulse covered several elements of the conversation:

The three keynote speakers, California Labor and Workforce Development Agency leader Secretary Stewart Knox, California Senator Anthony Potantino, and Union Station Homeless Services CEO Anne Miskey, shared their vision of today’s economic situation as they see it through their particular lens.

Opinions offered by the elected officials in attendance, California Assemblymember Mike Fong and Pasadena City Mayor Victor Gordo, revealed their perspectives on how EWD initiatives impact their constituents.

The two panels of industry experts discussed each of the two overarching conference themes:

How education can (and should) lead the way to a stronger economy and

How to revolutionize worker pathways to ensure qualified applicants are available for current and emerging jobs in high-demand industries.

There were very well-educated and experienced professionals sharing high-level insights on what needs to be done to improve California’s economy. However, the actual content that came out of those two panel discussions has not yet been covered.

In the last Pulse edition, we presented an overview of the questions we asked each of our panel participants. Their comprehensive responses enlightened both their colleagues on the dias and the ~200 attendees about the subtle nuances at play in this complex system of education, government, and industry. In this article, we will share the data offered by Panel One participants. This edition’s second article explores the subjects the other group was talking about.

 

 

Panel One Topic:    Training, Trades, and Transformation of Pathways

Each of the three panelists shared how their individual experiences in life drew them into EWD issues and how their occupations have led them to their current role as leaders in their sector.

County Agency Leader Kelly Lobianco

Kelly Lobianco, the inaugural leader of LA County’s Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO), spoke about how working with veterans in New York City early in her career helped her understand the power of the pivot. The center she helped to develop was unsuccessful until they realized their services weren’t available where the veterans happened to be – restructuring the organization made it more helpful for its intended population and more sustainable as a viable resource.

In her role with the new LA County agency, she gets to apply a similar mindset to her department’s emerging challenges. The DEO is a mashup of several previously individual departments that operated separately, even though they shared many common goals and resources. Now, as a combined force, the new organization is focusing on leveraging the assets available through the American Rescue Plan and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to improve the fortunes of LA County’s workforce stakeholders.

She notes, in particular, how the new funding brings with it a focus on socially beneficial elements and how they can enhance the success of every project. She expects her team to include needed social services and resources within any EWD project they’re working on.

She also shares her agency’s augmented attention to equity issues. As she learned in NYC, funds must be deployed where they’re needed, so she’s working on ensuring that people can access whatever resources they need to move forward, regardless of where they live within the county.

 

Union and Labor Leader Ernesto Medrano

As a long-time Union advocate and current Executive Secretary of the Los Angeles/Orange Counties Building and Construction Trades Council, Ernesto Medrano came to his understanding of the work world when laboring at a local fast food restaurant in the 1970s. Even then, he was concerned about the economic and life challenges presented to people with few or no trained skills, and that exposure ultimately led to his role in Union leadership.

These days, he’s tracking the diversity gap in the building trades (which are a critical element of the Infrastructure Bill), as well as perceived barriers to the educational resources that lead to jobs and careers. The federal government, he notes, is putting millions of dollars into career training programs to ensure a sufficient supply of well-trained workers for existing and emerging job openings. As a strong champion of the community colleges, Medrano sees them as critical players in the workforce development environment. He’s working now with PCC to develop courses that feed the demand for workers in specific trades. The rise in apprenticeship opportunities also bodes well for those who score those positions and the companies and industries in which they will work.

 

Pasadena City Mayor Victor Gordo

Mayor Gordo represents a significant population within the LA region: he’s a Mexican immigrant who experienced employer exploitation as a young man and became a labor lawyer to combat those systems. As Mayor, he’s struck by how ‘both sides’ of the EWD strata — employee and employers — often share identical concerns: there are not enough resources available to address all the challenges they (individually) face. He describes it as a ‘disconnect’ between job seekers and job offerers because neither group seems to know what the other group is doing. From his chair, improved communication between the two will go a long way to alleviating the divide.

He also sees EWD initiatives as projects with many layers. Not only must open jobs be filled by qualified workers but ladders must also be built within those occupations to facilitate their upward mobility.

As a civic leader, Gordo’s attention is on embracing new businesses and industrial sectors and the EWD opportunities they bring to the table. In Pasadena, he asserts, there’s been a boom in the biotech sector, which has led to an expansion of innovation and the growth of new sub-industries. Those new jobs come with new skills, and Gordo sees Pasadena City — and Pasadena City College — as major players in finding the training resources those workers will need. He also sees the need for a broad-based educational strategy because, he aptly shares, “there is no one pathway to success.”

 

To get the full skinny on what went down on October 26th, you can stream the replay here. To learn what Panel Two participants had to say about revolutionizing worker pathways to occupational success, read on to our next article in this edition of the Pulse.

 

The Future of Work – Messengers & Changemakers

Pam Sornson, JD on November 18, 2023

Pam Sornson, JD

November 21, 2023

Elected officials weren’t the only participants at Pasadena City College’s (PCC) 5th Annual Future of Work Conference, hosted on October 26th by its Economic and Workforce Development division (EWD): 

The three featured Keynote speakers – California Labor Secretary Stewart Knox, Senator Anthony Portantino, and Anne Miskey – brought nuance and insight into the ongoing discussions. 

The two assembled panels were populated by notable experts in their fields of education, communications, labor, and industry. 

The audience was populated by knowledgeable professionals from a variety of organizations, all of whom are deeply invested in this expanded community conversation and several of whom asked really interesting questions. 

The audience also included the recipient of the inaugural California Changemaker Award, Sheris Davoodi of Glendale Community College (seen above with PCC Interim President/Superintendent Dr. Jose A. Gomez), who has spent her career helping students from all walks of life achieve their educational and occupational goals.   

This assembly of talent, passion, and intelligence offered many angles and contexts to contemplate the serious subjects at hand.

 

Keynote Speaker California Senator Anthony Portantino

A long-time supporter of California’s community colleges, Senator Portantino represents California’s 25th State Senate District. His many successful projects include securing $4.5 million for the Glendale CC Virtual Reality & STEM Pilot project and pushing two school safety bills through into law.  

In his comments as the Keynote for Panel Two, the Senator encouraged conference attendees to stay flexible and fluid in how they address this myriad of complex EWD issues. He applauds the work being done to expand access to trade jobs. He also sees a need for an expanded education model that facilitates learning and advancement through many modalities, not just the traditional few (2- and 4-year colleges, dedicated trade schools, etc.) currently in use. He suggests focusing on the ultimate goal for the entire sector: what jobs will be available, and how do we train those who will fill those positions? “It’s about the individual … and what they want to achieve for themselves. We need everyone from across the spectrum to have access to these opportunities.” 

Senator Portantino’s inclusive message was an apt introduction to the subject matter for Panel Two: Innovating Student Success Systems Change. 

 

Keynote Speaker Anne Miskey, CEO of Union Station Homeless Services

As a bookend to Speaker Stewart Knox, who spoke about the state’s efforts to alleviate the challenges arising in EWD systems and programs, the day’s second Keynote, Anne Miskey, spoke about the people toward whom many of these efforts are directed – community members experiencing homelessness.  

A nationally recognized leader in developing strategies and solutions that approach the root causes of homelessness, Ms. Miskey has worked with the country’s most influential leaders, including First Lady Michelle Obama, the White House, and several federal departments, including Housing and Urban Development, Veterans Affairs, and the Department of Labor. She currently sits on several notable boards and committees, as well, including the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) Ad Hoc Committee on Women’s Homelessness, the Technical Assistance Collaborative, which focuses on issues of mental health, addiction, and homelessness, and the Steering Committee for the Provider Alliance, a network of over 70 non-profit organizations working on homelessness. 

In her work as the Chief Executive Officer of Los Angeles Union Station Homeless Services (USHS), Ms. Miskey sees firsthand the consequences of insufficient economic resources and the impact that circumstance has on an individual. The statistics are alarming:

Every day, there are approximately 2 million people in the state who are at risk of falling into homelessness. 

Between 2020 and 2023, the number of homeless individuals in Los Angeles County rose by 9%. (Los Angeles City saw a 10% increase.)

The fastest-growing population within the homeless community are seniors, those 65+ years old who don’t have the financial resources to maintain their previous lifestyle.

The second fastest-growing group of people entering homelessness are families with children. Eight percent of the total homeless number are children under age 18, while 5% are ‘transition’ age – 18 to 24 years.  

Approximately 40% of people aging out of foster care will become homeless by age 26, and

A full 30% of college students are either currently either homeless or at risk of becoming so in the near future. 

Not only do these unhoused individuals represent escalating burdens on social services and other public resources, but their absence from the labor force represents a significant loss of talent, skill, and initiative that could and should be put to use for their own and the community’s greater good. 

Accordingly, Ms. Miskey offered information on existing barriers to improvement as well as possible solutions to the homelessness concern for Conference attendees to consider.

 

Barriers

She notes that obstacles to progress exist in both the population being served and the agencies that are trying to serve it.

Barriers to Individual Success:

The absence of affordable, convenient training and education centers leaves many people with no options for bettering their economic situation. The current structure of today’s educational system requires students to have the time, money, and opportunity to attend. 

The absence of childcare is an extra burden carried by single mothers who are also homeless. Today, 30% of LA County’s homeless are single females, and those with children don’t usually have the financial resources needed to pay for that service.

Barriers to Agency Success:

Ms. Miskey notes the adaptations her agency needed to make to deliver more efficient and effective services. Starting out as an employment-focused organization, the enterprise had to adopt and coordinate a constellation of social services to better meet its constituents’ needs. 

A negative cultural mindset also permeates the homeless concern. In too many cases, she says, people who are looking for work and are also homeless are seen to be less desirable as workers, and that perspective certainly impedes the process of finding work for this group.  

 

Possible Solutions

In light of those considerations, Ms. Miskey suggests several avenues that the sector could adopt to ease the homeless problem while also alleviating the unfilled job opening concern.

Create meaningful connections with the unhoused individuals. Providing support and comfort initially (food, shelter, mental health, and addiction services) builds both their internal frame of reference and their trust that their community can help them.

Create equally meaningful connections between the unhoused population and its attendant service providers. Achieving access to entry-level jobs that lead to solid career opportunities is the ultimate goal, so support agencies might consider developing short-term training programs to get their unhoused community members into the work world as soon as possible.

Provide employers with similar support. The USHS has helped many companies hire and sustain new employees who continue to struggle with internal issues. The added support resources allow the worker to retain their job while reducing the unexpected demand on the employer.  

Ms. Miskey also followed a comment thread that ran throughout her presentation: the LA region needs not just more affordable housing. It also needs an across-the-board increase in wages and salaries. Too many people in these lower economic sectors must choose between rent and medicine, or child care, or food. Paying them a living wage raises them up into a better life circumstance while also preventing their slide into the morass of homelessness, hopelessness, and despair.    

 

The Inaugural California Changemaker Award

Sheris Davoodi  – Programs and Services Specialist – Career Services, Glendale Community College

For 15+ years, Ms. Davoodi has served the student community at Glendale Community College by providing career development services and courses in her roles as the Programs and Services Specialist and Adjunct Instructor. Her hands-on practice shares skillsets and insights for many career and occupational choices, including customer service, business technology, and business management communications. She and her team arm their student clients with soft skills, organizational effectiveness, and computer literacy capacities to facilitate their entry into the ’employee’ sector. For a brief moment, she also held the role of Interim Director for PCC’s Robert G. Freeman Center for Career and Completion. 

Her selection as the inaugural recipient of this prestigious honor is well-made and appropriate, considering how many learners have succeeded in their career dreams because of her thoughtful training and mentoring strategies. Congratulations, Ms. Davoodi. 

 

 

The Future of Work Panels: Questions and Overview

Pam Sornson, JD on November 18, 2023

Pam Sornson, JD

November 21, 2023

Many topics were discussed at the recent Future of Work Conference hosted by Pasadena City College’s Economic and Workforce Development division (PCC EWD) on October 26th. Speakers, panelists, and audience members all contributed unique and relevant inputs to the broader conversation, adding color and nuance based on their particular EWD sector and expertise. A short synopsis of the questions posed to them all – and the questions some of them asked in response – may help Pulse readers make more sense of the two Panel dialogues that will be presented in our December 5th edition.

 

Three Overarching Conference Considerations

There were three primary considerations proposed as the foundation of the day’s conversations:

How can we better align the goals and systems of California’s three major EWD elements: state-based workforce development programs, community college career technical education courses (CCC CTE), and trade union participation?

How do we adapt the California community college academic system’s best-in-class student success innovations to better meet learner and employer needs?

How can we best align our CCC efforts with national and State priorities, including enhanced union engagement, to connect industry sector priorities to growing and emerging economic opportunities?

These are not insignificant issues. The fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and its ancillary industrial and social upsets has roiled the traditional way of doing business. The panelists, speakers, and audience members were eager to share their views on how those developments have impacted the way they do their work.

 

Two Panels. Many Perspectives.

The day’s two panels focused on related but different aspects of the EWD environment. The first one focused on transforming educational pathways to occupations and careers. The second Panel focused on modifying student success systems to reflect the influx of desperately needed system change. Each panelist was then asked to respond to specific questions within each topic to elicit their particular perspective on those issues. The aggregation of opinions and expertise provided an excellent overview for audience members of the many facets involved in addressing these pressing EWD concerns.

 

Panel One:  Training, Trades, and the Transformation of Pathways

Panelists on the first chat of the day represented three major EWD subsectors:

Government: Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo, whose focus for his 20+ years in leadership has been to promote safe, family-friendly environments throughout [LA].

Unions: Ernesto Medrano, a construction trade union chief who currently holds the role of Executive Secretary, Los Angeles/Orange Counties Building and Construction Trades Council, and

Service Agencies: Kelly LoBianco, the inaugural director of LA County’s newly formed Department of Economic Opportunity.

Their responses to questions asked by Moderator PCC Interim President/Superintendent Dr. Jose Gomez reflect the views they’ve developed based on their unique histories and careers and on the roles they currently hold within their sector. The takeaways from the conversation enlightened the audience about how these three systems are working together to repair organizational damage while reinventing elements that disappeared.

What are the biggest influences on the building trades these days?

How can we build an equitable workforce while rebuilding the economic infrastructure?

How can we best manage the EWD investments directed at each of your agencies?

The commentary by the panelists stimulated equally interesting questions from the audience:

How can small businesses connect with these development opportunities?

Is there training available for the administration jobs that industries are generating?

What opportunities are available for former prison inmates?

Are funds and support systems in the works for the families caring for these workers, especially for child care?

The queries and responses presented by both panelists and audience members provided insights into individual elements of the EWD sector as well as raised further questions for future discussion.

 

Panel Two: Innovation in Driving Student-Focused Systems Change

The second Panel was equally informative, as it focused the conference’s attention on community colleges and the success of their students. These four experts represented distinct elements of the EWD sector: government, business, communications, and (of course) education.

Government: Kelly Mackey, State Director of Strategic Apprenticeships, State of California Apprenticeship and Workforce Innovation Unit, CA Department of Industrial Relations

Industry: Dennis Rodriguez, Director of Business Development, Black & Veatch, a construction corporation focused on infrastructure resources, including power and water utilities.

Communications: Nicole Feenstra, Director – The DNA Agency, a messaging and marketing agency engaging directly with the residential construction industry.

Education: Dr. Francisco Rodriguez, Chancellor, Los Angeles Community College District, which includes nine California Community Colleges in the LA County region.

In addition to the overarching ‘student success’ inquiry for this Panel, they were each asked to offer their thoughts on several ancillary topics, as well:

How will technology impact student success?

How do we create a culture of collaboration within your agency?

What is the State doing about diversity within career pathways?

How are industries bridging the worker/workforce supply/demand gap?

How do we recruit potential workers to industry-focused programs?

How can we collect the feedback we need to clarify our processes and achieve our goals?

And, again, members of the audience had their own concerns to raise:

Are we teaching soft skills as well as technical capacities?

Are we including older workers in evolving EWD systems?

What are we doing to reach into communities to find those who want access to these resources?

The substance of these conversations was wide-ranging and comprehensive. They will be featured in the next edition of the Pulse.

Overall, it was an energetic, informative, and community-building kind of day, where all participants – keynote, panelists, and audience members – gave their particularly relevant contributions to the broader conversation. Clearly, the residents of Pasadena, the Los Angeles region, and California in general are very well served when it comes to addressing pressing workforce challenges to create the economic foundation of the future.

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