jobs « Kristin Wolff

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Jobs Policy: What’s a Government to do?

Via Networked Publics »

Today, voters in Arizona will decide whether a $.01 sales tax increase (in a state with 9.6% unemployment and wages 6% below the national average) will stave off otherwise draconian cuts in state support for higher education, K-12 schools, healthcare, and welfare.

The last two weeks offered unprecedented drama in the UK, as the general election resulted in the resignation of Gordon Brown as the head of the Labour Party on May 11, and the establishment of a coalition government lead by new Prime Minister David Cameron (Conservative) and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg (Liberal Democrat). The domestic agenda? Reducing the UK's £163B deficit and addressing the highest rates of joblessness in over 15 years.

And then there's Greece, flanked (in print) by the words "austerity" and "job loss" in roughly equal measure.

Jobs Issues are Central

The jobs issue is at the heart of some of the most difficult challenges cash-strapped governments face the world over (but in particular, where the tango between the finance and housing industries wrought the greatest havoc). Some of these connections are obvious: people who lose their jobs have less money to spend, reducing the government revenue they would otherwise pay in the form of income and sales tax and increasing their need for government services - unemployment insurance, training grants, food stamps, health insurance, transport, even public libraries.

There are also less obvious "costs" linked to unemployment ranging from an increase in public school enrollment as more parents have difficulty paying for private school, to widespread declines in risk-taking on the part of entrepreneurs, consumers, lenders, and even job seekers ill-matched with their current positions but fearful of leaving them. Never mind the longterm and potentially massive social costs.

Community Perspectives on Jobs

This past March, my colleagues and I at Corporation for a Skilled Workforce captured the experiences of workforce professionals at the National Association of Workforce Boards Annual Forum - they are the community faces of workforce policy in communities across the U.S. And they are very concerned about jobs.

Policy Levers for Job Creation

We also interviewed policy professionals and thought leaders representing a wide range of perspectives about the policy prescriptions they were advocating - from Dean Baker's (CEPR) ideas on job sharing to Jagadeesh Gokhale (Cato) on loosening credit and promoting self-employment to Heidi Schierholz's (EPI) case for a second stimulus. Most focused on federal-level interventions. (The entire set of 14 videos is in this playlist.)

Communities, too, are advancing solutions:

Investing in innovation and growing sustainable industries through collaborative ventures;
Economic gardening, regional resilience efforts, and other locally-focused development strategies;
Promoting upskilling among workers and those looking for work;
Reinventing placement services and supports;
Experimenting with new (and revisiting old) approaches to training and placement; and
Using technology to make information more accessible and transparent, and to connect job seekers with resources, information and assistance outside of government - leveraging community resources and social networks.

Over the next six weeks, we will be looking specifically at government policies, programs, and approaches that seek to accelerate job creation and promote prosperity, in a sustainable way.

Labor Market Policy: It’s About More Than Skills

Via Start, Grow, Transform »

Thanks to Flickr pal woodleywonderworks.

NOTE: This is a continuation of the series we warned you about a few days ago. We are summarizing several large reports for each other (members of the Community Team at CSW), but we’re doing it here so you can benefit too – you know, if you are interested (since you found your way here for some reason). You won’t find a lot of wit, but there might be some wisdom for the taking.

One thing we love about OECD reports (and international comparisons generally for that matter) is that they remind us that the challenges we face are more universal than we think – and we can learn from looking up and out. On this count, More than Just Jobs: Workforce Development in a Skills-Based Economy does not disappoint.

At its core, the paper argues that although workforce development – the ecosystem of people, policies, and organizations concerned with the intersection of people, skills, jobs, and the economy – has been primarily concerned with narrow targets, transactions, and sets of activities, the field has an increasingly important role to play in improving the prosperity of communities. Author Sylvain Giguère suggests a broader goal for workforce development than the field (on the whole) has adopted to date:

“The comprehensive management of human resources, so as to better meet the demands of a global economy at both the national and local levels, through improving economic competitiveness and social cohesion.”

The reports names governance - leadership, policy coordination, adaptation of policy and program to diverse local conditions, and community engagement – as among the most significant challenges faced by workforce organizations seeking to advance this important aim. It calls for local policy to reflect a better balance between national aims and local needs and greater experimentation throughout the system, tempered with efficiency and accountability.

Policy Recommendations

A comparison of policies in seven OECD countries (United States, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, and Korea) yielded the following recommendations:

Inject flexibility into management. Decisions about strategic priorities in the implementation of public programs and services should be made locally, using a management by objective framework negotiated with central government.
Establish an overarching management framework that embeds local flexibility to ensure alignment while also encouraging differentiation and experimentation.
Build strategic capacity. Local staff should have strong knowledge of local economic conditions as well as effective human resource development practices, and the analytical and strategic capacity to be able to set priorities and development methods for addressing them.
Build up local data and intelligence. The ability to aggregate and organize data in a way that supports local strategy development is essential and could be better supported by national level efforts to develop tools that adapt to local circumstances.
Improve governance mechanisms. Labor market and workforce organizations should collaborate with education, economic development, business, and civic organizations. There is no governance mechanism for this kind of collaboration, but networks of partnerships go a long way in increasing and extending the capacity of workforce organizations.
Improve administrative processes. Aligning policies through institutional reform is a difficult challenge, exacerbated by the scale of larger countries. Still efforts should be made to review the cross-agency implementation of broader workforce policy with the aim of better promoting collaboration, efficiency, and effectiveness.

Other Findings

Workforce development matters because it directly impacts four drivers of economic growth: Skills, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Social Cohesion.
Three major obstacles impede adoption of the broader goal of workforce development: 1) speeding up education and training systems; 2) fragmentation of local decision-making and workforce resources; and 3) lack of willingness to look long term. All of these could be ameliorated though larger investments and more serious support for governance (collaboration).

Case Studies: Out of Date?

Warning: Although the paper was published in 2008, the analysis of the U.S. Workforce System is very dated. It builds from the original six Workforce Investment Act (WIA) principles (one of which was “strong boards” which was summarily eliminated from WIA implementation documents within a matter of months). Baldridge work (ancient history when I realized I’d become part of the “field” of workforce development in 2003 or so) features prominently, and some of the organizations named in the local case studies have long since been replaced, some more than once.

Having some context from my work in the UK from 2001-2003 (in economic and workforce development), I could see that the U.K. case study was also quite dated, though Departmental names, and configurations change more frequently there (often coinciding with budget reviews).

This made me somewhat suspect of the case study portions of the report, but the larger trends and recommendations identified in the content chapters seem quite sound.

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US Department of Labor Employees Meet Each Other (and US!) on Facebook

Via Start, Grow, Transform » Kristin Wolff »

“We’re All Doing It”

Last month the US Department of Labor (DOL) launched a Facebook page. Other federal agencies maintain them too, but DOL hasn’t really been out-front in implementing the Administration’s early commitment to communication, transparency, and participation. While Facebook is just one means of demonstrating this commitment (the Department, and Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis also tweet), it is an important one for which the department deserves kudos.

Concern About Jobs

It goes without saying (but I’m going to say it anyway) that the “jobs agenda” has reached fever pitch across the country. During the past several months, jobs – the lack of them, the low pay associated with them, the fear of losing them, the benefits associated (or not associated) with them, even guilt on the part of people who still have them – have dominated the public discourse. Many times I’ve felt helpless in trying to refer people with questions to the right agency, department, workforce board or one-stop (and I’m familiar with the workforce system). But within moments of the Department launching its Facebook page, people inside and outside the agency were getting their questions answered—in public.

People Meeting (and Learning from) People

Here are my favorite examples* to date:

1. Sonya Schurr Taylor (GA)

Last Thursday evening Sonya asked USDOL why the Georgia Department of Labor’s website had no information about extended unemployment insurance. By 7:30 the next morning, this information was posted on the Georgia DOL site. Sonya shared this with USDOL, and USDOL reponded, letting her know the agency was “glad to hear it”, and providing a link to additional services.

What happened here?

Did someone at USDOL contact someone at the Georgia State DOL? Did someone at Georgia DOL catch the mention because they were scanning for social intelligence? Did a previous inquiry by Sonya prompt the change? Was it a coincidence? We don’t know. But by simply allowing such problems to appear in public, the likelihood that they will be noticed and resolved quickly dramatically increases. And positive resolutions to citizen problems generate trust between citizens and their government.

2. Daliah Holmes, USDOL

Daliah’s question – posted on November 16 – was intended for DOL insiders with knowledge about recent policy changes having to do with building security. The November 18 response answered her question, and was right there for everyone else to see.

What’s going on here?

Facebook is helping DOL employees respond to their colleagues’ questions. We outsiders can see this, and assess for ourselves whether this kind of conduct inspires confidence. For me, the answer is an unqualified yes.

3. Jordana Cohen, (NY)

Jordana, clearly agitated about the lack of information provided to her about extended benefits by the State of New York, posted an article about it, along with a question and plea for clarity on November 18. Hours later, Karin Gehn Barrett responded, indicating what she knew (and confirming what Jordana feared). Jordana, outraged, posted instructions for contacting New York’s Congressional delegation to insist on a change.

What do we make of this?

In this case, two strangers from New York are using Facebook to share information about issues of concern to both of them (and certainly to others). There is no DOL response here, probably because the interaction raises tricky questions for the agency. Joanna is asking for political action using the DOL Facebook page.

Transparency Brings Challenges and Opportunities to DOL

Transparency brings new challenges that DOL attorneys and others will undoubtedly fret over, but efforts like these bring welcome opportunities for citizens and residents to interact with their government and with each other—across geographies, time zones, and demographic groups – in ways that help all of us get smarter, faster.

* At posting time, all three examples were accessible from the Department’s front page here. By the time you see this, you may have to scroll back a few pages. I hope so.

Kristin Wolff
@kristinwolff

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