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Social Finance has partnered with Governor Phil Murphy, the State of New Jersey, and the New Jersey CEO Council on the nation's first Pay It Forward program to prepare New Jersey residents for in-demand, family-sustaining jobs in industries like health care, IT, and clean energy.

The New Jersey Pay It Forward Program provides zero-interest, no-fee loans for participants-especially those who may not have the savings to pay for training or the credit history for a loan-to enroll in high-quality job training that offers a pathway to economic mobility. Participants pay no upfront costs and also receive living stipends and wraparound supports including access to emergency aid funds and mental health counseling to help them succeed.

After completing training, if participants earn above a minimum salary (e.g., $44,940 for those with a household of three), they pay back their loan through monthly repayments of 10% of their discretionary income for up to five years. If they don't earn more than this minimum salary, they pay nothing. Participants also do not have to pay back their living stipends or the cost of wraparound supports.

This program is a $12.5 million revolving fund that creates a sustainable cycle of job training. There is no return to investors and all loan repayments are recycled back into the fund to support future learners. The New Jersey Pay It Forward Program intends to collect and publish information on student outcomes and the effectiveness of the Pay It Forward model.

Our Training Programs

We partner with proven, high-quality training programs that have a track record of strong employment outcomes, employer relationships, and experience serving learners from diverse backgrounds.

The Cybersecurity Professional Bootcamp at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) in Newark is a 10-month, part-time, online course that can be financed through NJ Pay It Forward loans. To enroll, register here or call (973) 688-5050.

The Nursing Associate Degree Program at Hudson County Community College in Jersey City is a two-year, full-time program that can be financed through NJ Pay It Forward loans. To enroll, register here or call (201) 360-4754.

The Heating, Ventilation & Air Conditioning (HVAC) and Welding courses offered by Camden County College are nine-month, part-time courses that can be financed through NJ Pay It Forward loans. Classes take place at Camden County Technical School's Sicklerville Campus or Pennsauken Campus. To enroll in one of these courses, register here or call (856) 374-4955.

Please contact info@socialfinance.org if you have any questions about eligibility or enrollment. If you have a job training program in health care, IT, or renewable energy and are interested in offering the NJ Pay It Forward loan to your students, please contact Erin Thornton.

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New Jersey Pay It Forward Program - Social Finance

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Social Finance has partnered with Governor Phil Murphy, the State of New Jersey, and the New Jersey CEO Council on the nation's first Pay It Forward program to prepare New Jersey residents for in-demand, family-sustaining jobs in industries like health care, IT, and clean energy.

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Middlesex College is creating apprenticeship opportunities in Advanced Manufacturing through our partnership in Career Advance USA, a U.S. Department of Labor funded grant. Apprenticeships, developed and implemented in collaboration with employers, are earn-and-learn programs that combine formal classroom learning with on-the-job training.

Middlesex College will work with you to increase the retention rate of your current valued employees and connect you to additional highly qualified workers. We can also help you customize apprenticeship readiness training to prepare workers specifically for your workplace. Learn more today!

Advanced Manufacturing Pre-Apprenticeship Bootcamp 101

Start your path to a rewarding career! Receive an overview of manufacturing and prepare for future advanced trainings. In this industry-driven training model, learn about Manufacturing Basics, Safety (OSHA), Units of Measurement, Math Fundamentals, Shop Rules, Product Quality, and Troubleshooting Mechanical Systems. Our self-paced online curriculum is available 24/7 from any computer with Internet access.
Before registering for the Advanced Manufacturing Pre-Apprenticeship Bootcamp Program you must register for an Information Session.
Register for an Information Session

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Middlesex College is creating apprenticeship opportunities in Advanced Manufacturing through our partnership in Career Advance USA, a U.S. Department of Labor funded grant. Apprenticeships, developed and implemented in collaboration with employers, are earn-and-learn programs that combine formal classroom learning with on-the-job training.

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PBS Future of Work Documentary Preview video clips

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PBS Future of Work Documentary Preview video clips

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PBS Preview videos - YouTube

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Share your videos with friends, family, and the world

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YouTube list of Case Studies Video Clips

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YouTube list of Case Studies Video Clips

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Future of Work - YouTube

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Future of Work is a six-part docuseries chronicling mid-career adults as they navigate the rapidly changing work landscape, covering topics such as debt, the...

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About the apprenticeship:

An “earn and learn” program.

Focused on candidates:

Without a 4-year college degree

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Learn more about applying for Entry Level Apprenticeship - NAELFY22 position at Accenture.

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Shaping the future of work by Kochan, Thomas Post-Tenure George Maverick Bunker Professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

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Shaping the future of work by Kochan, Thomas Post-Tenure George Maverick Bunker Professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

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Shaping the future of work [electronic resource] : what future worker, business, government, and education leaders need to do for all to prosper

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Shaping the future of work [electronic resource] : what future worker, business, government, and education leaders need to do for all to prosper

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The Business Resource Connection @ EBPL

connects small business, entrepeneurs, and jobseekers within Middlesex County to vital resources, training, and networking opportunities to help them grow and thrive.

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Business Resource Center | East Brunswick Public Library

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connects small business, entrepeneurs, and jobseekers within Middlesex County to vital resources, training, and networking opportunities to help them grow and thrive.

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Career Training Center | Continuing Education

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Call 732-906-4231 for details. Approved provider for training grants sponsored by the Middlesex County Workforce Development Board (WDB).

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AARP Skills Builder for Work helps you gain job skills that could give you an edge in today's competitive job market. Get started with a free course.

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The Opportunity Partnership training program helps participants secure industry-specific employment by providing practical job readiness training in occupational or credential areas. Through this program, participants are provided practical training with an opportunity to learn a new skill and land a job.

To participate in the Employer Partnership program:

You must be authorized to work in the US.

You must have been terminated or laid off; you must be eligible for unemployment insurance benefits; or you must have exhausted unemployment insurance benefits within the last 52 weeks; or

you must have lost your job from permanent closure or substantial layoff from a plant, facility, or enterprise; or

you must have been self-employed and are now unemployed because of economic conditions or natural disaster; or

you must be a displaced homemaker-an individual who was dependent on the income of another family member and is no longer supported by the income of that family member; or

you must be a non-retiree military service member who was discharged or released from service under conditions other than dishonorable, or you must have received a notice of military separation issued in advance of 180 days; or

you must be a spouse of a member of the armed forces on active duty who is unemployed or underemployed and is experiencing difficulty in obtaining or upgrading employment; or

you must be the dependent spouse of a member of the armed forces on active duty and whose family income is significantly reduced because of a deployment, a call or order to active duty, or service-connected death or disability of the service member.

You must be receiving employment counseling by approved job counselors, seeking training services, and make an application for such services through your local One-Stop Career Center. You may not self-enroll prior to the approval from the job counselors.

Upon selection into an industry-specific training program, a participant may interview and make arrangements with employers during training depending on the complexity of skills that the participant may learn. Training periods vary.

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Career Services | Training Opportunities

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The Opportunity Partnership training program helps participants secure industry-specific employment by providing practical job readiness training in occupational or credential areas. Through this program, participants are provided practical training with an opportunity to learn a new skill and land a job. To participate in the Employer Partnership program: You must be authorized to work in the US.

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The Department of Labor and Workforce Development Job Source website is provided in English. However, the "Google Translate" option may assist you in reading it in other languages. Google Translate cannot translate all types of documents, and it may not give you an exact translation all the time. Anyone relying on information obtained from Google Translate does so at his or her own risk. The Department of Labor and Workforce Development does not make any promises, assurances, or guarantees as to the accuracy of the translations provided. The New Jersey, its officers, employees, and/or agents shall not be liable for damages or losses of any kind arising out of, or in connection with, the use or performance of such information, including but not limited to, damages or losses caused by reliance upon the accuracy of any such information, or damages incurred from the viewing, distributing, or copying of such materials.

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The Department of Labor and Workforce Development Job Source website is provided in English. However, the "Google Translate" option may assist you in reading it in other languages. Google Translate cannot translate all types of documents, and it may not give you an exact translation all the time.

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New Start Career Network provides older (ages 45+), long-term unemployed New Jersey job seekers with access to free, personalized career services, including resources and career coaching.

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Everyone's career will hit some turbulence at some point. The past year has left us all reacting to dramatic change. Instead of pushing harder against the headwinds, we're sometimes better off tilting our rudder and charting a new course. In this episode, hear from people who have taken unusual steps to battle uncertainty, rethought their approach to finding and landing a job, and reached out for help in unexpected places-as well as an expert on recessions who forecasts the future by looking to the past. For the transcript for this episode, visit go.ted.com/WLTranscript41. WorkLife is made possible with the support of LinkedIn, Logitech, Morgan Stanley, SAP, and Verizon.

WorkLife listeners-we're running a survey and we'd love to hear what you think of the show. Please give us some feedback at surveynerds.com/worklife. It only takes a few minutes, and it really helps us improve the podcast. Thanks!

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‎WorkLife with Adam Grant: Navigating Career Turbulence on Apple Podcasts

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Everyone's career will hit some turbulence at some point. The past year has left us all reacting to dramatic change. Instead of pushing harder against the headwinds, we're sometimes better off tilting our rudder and charting a new course. In this episode, hear from people who have taken unusual step...

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See above tile to learn how to use this tool

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The Skillscape is a project from the Scalable Cooperation group at The MIT Media Lab. This project is part of a broader effort to help society understand how Artificial Intelligence and robotic automation can impact human labor.

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What is disability inclusion at work?

Disability inclusion at work is about more than hiring people with disabilities. An inclusive workplace values all employees for their strengths. It offers employees with disabilities - whether visible or invisible - an equal opportunity to succeed, to learn, to be compensated fairly, and to advance. True inclusion is about embracing difference.

Why disability inclusion?

Disability inclusion is a critical part of any business.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one adult in four in the United States has a disability. That includes invisible disabilities as well as visible ones. It's likely that your workforce already includes many people with disabilities. Without disability inclusion, your business isn't doing all it can to support its current employees.

Disability inclusion is also crucial to your hiring process. Companies that aren't proactive about disability inclusion are losing out on qualified talent. If candidates face barriers during the application and interview process, or if they sense that your business is not inclusive, they're likely to look elsewhere.

Companies with strong disability inclusion programs have better access to talent and better employee retention. They have the tools they need to help their employees thrive.

People with disabilities represent a significant talent pool:

One adult in four has some type of disability, whether visible or invisible.

Despite wanting to work, people with disabilities are employed at a much lower rate than their peers.

The vast majority of people with disabilities are striving to work.

In 2018, only 33 percent of working-age Americans with disabilities participated in the workforce. That's compared to almost 77 percent of Americans without a disability. By tapping into this talent pool, employers can gain access to over 10 million working-age people.

Strengthen your workforce

Disability inclusion will strengthen your workforce:

Disability inclusion is a critical part of employee support.

Employees are looking for diverse, inclusive workplaces.

Inclusion builds morale and helps all employees do their best work.

To support your employees, you need a strong disability inclusion program. Without disability inclusion, your workforce won't thrive.

Building an inclusive workplace can improve morale and workplace culture. It sends an important message about your company's values.

More and more, employees with and without disabilities care about their workplace culture and believe it's important to help them thrive at work. Research from Deloitte shows that employees specifically value diversity and inclusion.

When employees believe that leadership truly owns the effort to build a more inclusive workplace, they're likely to have more respect toward those leaders. And they're likely to show more loyalty to the organization.

Inclusive practices not only support people with disabilities. Inclusion creates a more accepting and supportive workplace for all employees. Employers with strong disability inclusion programs can expect higher engagement from all employees.

Build a more inclusive workplace

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Disability inclusion at work: What it is and why it matters

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What is disability inclusion at work? Disability inclusion at work is about more than hiring people with disabilities. An inclusive workplace values all employees for their strengths. It offers employees with disabilities - whether visible or invisible - an equal opportunity to succeed, to learn, to be compensated fairly, and to advance.

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Find more information about how to care for your own mental health when facing difficult challenges at work. In addition, our Screening-to-Supports (S2S) program offers many general resources to help you take care of your mental health.

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What we lose when we lose women in the workforce

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A record number of women have left the US workforce during the COVID-19 crisis. A policy expert and former HR executive discuss the long-term effects--and their own experiences.

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AARP Foundation launched BACK TO WORK 50+ to provide unemployed older workers with a suite of tools and coaching resources to help them compete with confidence for today's high quality in-demand jobs. Foundational to its success is a nationwide network of community partners who implement program components in their local communities. Community Partners reach and serve older adults by incorporating tools and resources that address the unique challenges workers over 50 may face as they look for new work opportunities.

In addition to introducing jobseekers over 50 to a 7-Step job search roadmap, coaching supports for their search journey, and employer access events, community partners can also provide resources like short-term training and work-based learning.

BACK TO WORK 50+ is currently being administered in the following locations. To find out if there is a local BACK TO WORK 50+ site near you, dial toll free 1-855-850-2525 or search for a free Overview Workshop hosted by a community partner in your area or AARP Foundation.

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BACK TO WORK 50+ Helping Older Adults with Job Training

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Workers over 50 can find free job search workshops, job coaching, resources and job training to get the skills they need to succeed in the workplace.

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Hosted by Ramona Schindelheim, Work in Progress is a weekly podcast focused on the future of work and the future of the worker.

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Watch the series Future of Work: The Next Generation

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View full episodes, video shorts, and previews from the broadcast and digital series, 'Future of Work'.

What is the future of work that you're hoping for? How has your field has been affected by the changing landscape of work, and what you're doing to stay relevant?

'Future of Work: The Next Generation' is a six-part docuseries chronicling six mid-career adults as they navigate the rapidly changing work landscape.

Find weekly virtual events happening for 'Future of Work'.

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View full episodes, video shorts, and previews from the broadcast and digital series, 'Future of Work'. What is the future of work that you're hoping for? How has your field has been affected by the changing landscape of work, and what you're doing to stay relevant?

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Learn Anywhere, Anytime

Whether you want to learn a new language or learn a new computer skill, the library offers a set of resources and tools to get you started. Explore them all and try new things.

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Learn Anywhere, Anytime Whether you want to learn a new language or learn a new computer skill, the library offers a set of resources and tools to get you started. Explore them all and try new things.

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Middlesex County Vocational and Technical Adult Evening Schools 

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Middlesex County Vocational and Technical Adult Evening Schools 

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112 Rues Lane, East Brunswick, NJ 08816

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Whether you are changing careers, upgrading your present skills or just starting out, Adult Education at Middlesex County Vocational and Technical Schools is the place to begin! Today's global economy relies upon a skilled workforce as the foundation of its success and Adult Education at Middlesex County Vocational and Technical School is dedicated to its role in the county to provide outstanding postsecondary career skills training. Established in 1914 as the first county vocational school district in the United States; the mission remains true to its original purpose of training students to enter the industry of the community. Adult Evening School, Certificate Programs, Apprenticeship Training, Customized Training & Special Programs and Practical Nursing comprise the areas of Adult Education.

If need more information on Apprenticeship or Adult Certificate programs please contact our office by email or voice mail. Messages are checked daily.

Email: cardinalea@mcvts.net
Call 732-257-3300 Ext. 1925/1924

If you want short-term career skills training, Adult Evening School offers courses during Fall, Winter and Spring Semesters. You can take a course in agriscience, automotive tech, commercial art, computer applications, computer assisted drafting, electrical trades, construction trades, health and safety education and welding, to name a few. So if you want to start your career, change your career or upgrade your skills, click on Adult Evening Schools, browse the catalog, register online, printout your receipt and bring it with you to the first night o fclass. We hope to see you there! Register online anytime.

For a full list of our courses and descriptions, acess our catalog.

Certificate Programs

Certificate Programs are designed for individuals interested in changing careers as well as those who are looking to change classifications or acquire new skills within a career area. Successful completers of a sequence of courses earn a certificate and in some cases credit hours earned may be applied to a registered apprenticeship program. The programs offered are Electrical Technology, Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning Technology, and Plumbing Technology. For more information about Certificate Programs, call the Adult Education Office at 732-257-3300 ext. 1925.

Click Here for more information.

Apprenticeship Training

Registered Apprenticeship is an effective combination of structured on-the-job training and related technical instruction at no cost to the employer. This nationally recognized, post-secondary training is competency based and/or time-based and industry-driven for a vast range of occupations. Any employer can sponsor employees who work on a full time basis. Apprenticeship Training Programs range from one to six years in duration, depending upon occupation and job title. Apprentices receive a minimum of 2000 hours per year of on-the-job training by the sponsor. At Middlesex County Vocational and Technical Schools, apprentices attend related instruction classes two to three evenings per week from September through March. Apprenticeable classifications include Business and Office Occupations, Construction Trades and Manufacturing Industries. For more information about Apprenticeship please call the Adult Education Office at 732-257-3300 ext. 1924.

Customized Training

Adult Education is also a Customized Training provider. We provide on-campus, off-campus, and on-site training for firms and organizations, which require customized or specialized training or testing for employees or members. A class, course program, or workshop can be developed to address a client's needs. Performance and written testing is available and safety and skill training is not limited to courses listed in our catalog. For more information about Customized Training, call the Adult Education Office at 732-257-3300 ext. 1925.

Practical Nursing

If you are interested in a career in the health care industry, the Practical Nursing program is an excellent choice. The program has been nationally recognized by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing for having a 100% passing rate on the National Council Licensure Examination. This outstanding achievement supports the overall rigor of the practical nursing program and the dedication of an outstanding faculty. Practical Nursing is offered at the Middlesex County Vocational and Technical Schools' - Piscataway Campus. Students may apply to take the 15 month day-time program. The rigorous Practical Nursing curriculum includes instruction in Anatomy & Physiology, Microbiology, Pharmacology, Nutrition, Behavioral/Social Sciences, Sociology, Psychology, Contemporary Health Issues, Fundamentals of Nursing, Medical Surgical Nursing I, Medical Surgical Nursing II, Mental Health/Psychiatric Nursing, Obstetrical Nursing, and Pediatric Nursing. To become a Licensed Practical Nurse, you must have a High School diploma or G.E.D., successfully complete the Practical Nursing program and pass a licensing exam. For an application call the Health Occupations Office at 732-985-0717 extension 2274.

Transcript Request

To request a transcript release click on the link below, print form, complete and send to:

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Whether you are changing careers, upgrading your present skills or just starting out, Adult Education at Middlesex County Vocational and Technical Schools is the place to begin! Today’s global economy relies upon a skilled workforce as the foundation of its success and Adult Education at Middlesex…

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Take the smart approach with the Career Pathways Portal with Skillup America. 

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Take the smart approach with the Career Pathways Portal with Skillup America. 

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A license grants you access to e-learning for 180 days. This access starts from the time you receive your subscription confirmation. At the end of your license period, your account data is preserved, but you will not be able to launch courses.

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Upgrade your skills! Learn new skills! Get ready to get back to work!

The SkillUp NJ program is coordinated by the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

Metrix Learning is an online learning management system that helps jobseekers
upgrade their skills and gain certifications to secure employment.

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Upgrade your skills! Learn new skills! Get ready to get back to work! The SkillUp NJ program is coordinated by the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development. Metrix Learning is an online learning management system that helps jobseekers upgrade their skills and gain certifications to secure employment.

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Jewish Family Services of Middlesex County

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Our women's center's purpose is to prepare women to enter the workforce. We provide individual coaching to help women set personal professional goals.

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Specialized job support services for veterans, mature workers, youth, ex-offenders, displaced homemakers, and people with disabilities

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Career Services | Mature Worker Services

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Department of Labor & Workforce Development | Office of Apprenticeship

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Employer-sponsors can register with the NJDOL Office of Apprenticeship.

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New Jersey Future | Working for Smart Growth: More Livable Places and Open Spaces

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New Jersey's Smart Growth and Sustainable Development Advocacy Organization

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Information about smart growth and land use policy and planning initiatives in New Jersey.

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NJ Economic & Policy Research - Focus NJ

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Focus NJ, Inc. (Focus NJ) is an independent research non-profit conducting timely, innovative, nonpartisan economic and workforce research to support sound public policy in New Jersey. %

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NJBIA - New Jersey Business & Industry Association

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Focus NJ today released a series of reports to identify the changing dynamics, opportunities, challenges, emerging skill sets and solutions to fulfill future employment in four different industries in New Jersey.

The Future of Work in NJ: Industry Series Study is the culmination of information provided by 250 New Jersey business executives and industry leaders through focus groups, online surveys, and personal communication.

In the initial release of this study, four industries are o bserved: Construction, Health Services, Information Technology and Manufacturing.

While each industry has its own unique challenges, the overarching solutions for all of them include better collaboration between business, academia and government and a steadier track toward non-traditional education endeavors such as apprenticeships and credentialing.

"For a multitude of reasons, only a minority of our New Jersey businesses are engaged with their local community colleges or four-year institutions," said Focus NJ Executive Director Nicole Sandelier. "This shortage of collaboration has a direct impact on New Jersey's future workforce pipeline.

"Additionally, with New Jersey businesses looking to the state's postsecondary institutions to fill their workforce needs, it is imperative that those institutions have a better understanding of the skills desired by employers to ensure a properly educated workforce pipeline. This will provide employees with valuable, employable skills and supply employers with relevant talent in all industries."

Key findings among each industry report includes:
Construction
There is great opportunity to improve overall productivity and efficiencies with new technologies and materials.

The industry has been challenged by stagnated labor productivity, recruitment of qualified workforce, inadequate collaboration between suppliers and contractors and costs of materials.

Some jobs are transitioning from low- to middle-skilled jobs to higher-skilled, professional jobs with the advent of newer technologies.

The reincorporation of trade skill sets into K-12 education, increased capacity at the state's vocational-technical schools, the creation of more apprenticeships programs and the promotion of trade careers are some of the recommendations to improve the Future of Work in construction.
Health Services
Technological advancements, including artificial intelligence, will continue to allow for more accurate diagnoses and a better integration of delivery methods for healthcare.

Industry opportunities can be found in increased access to telehealth, advancements in immunotherapies and point-of-care diagnostics, higher demand for next-generation sequencing and the growth of the senior citizen population.

Some industry challenges include finding qualified a workforce today, employee burnout, the uncertain outlook of the Affordable Care Act, and the increase in high-deductible plans.

Recommendations to improve the Future of Work in health services include changing the misconception that a four-year degree is needed to have a career in the industry, creating more CNA and registered nursing schools and improving communication between industry, government and institutions to better articulate industry needs and training requirements.
Information Technology (IT)
There will continue to be an increased focus on service delivery, data processing and other IT services with the continued advancement of a digital economy.

Cybersecurity has transitioned from a reactive endeavor to a proactive approach that is now a mainstay of organizational strategic plans.

Emerging technologies have the potential to generate significant financial gains for the industry.

There are multiple industry challenges, including the search for a qualified and diversified workforce, industry regulation and the high cost of industry products versus the budget constraints of potential clients.

There is a need to create and promote internships and apprenticeships in this field. Other recommendations include the promotion of certificates and credentialing for preparing workers in the IT field.
Manufacturing
The industry is seeing greater integration between humans and robotics or machines on factory floors, described by some as the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

This integration is allowing for increased productivity within decreased timelines.

Companies are using predictive analysis to minimize machine malfunctions that compromise product outlook, sales and delivery.

Industry challenges include an aging workforce with a lack of young, skilled labor, the costly nature of New Jersey's business climate, shrinking margins due to increased pricing competition throughout the world and tariffs.

Some recommendations to improve the Future of Work in manufacturing include the reincorporation of trade skill sets in K-12 education, increased capacity in vocational-technical schools, more promotion of trades as a successful career pathways, and more apprenticeship programs to drive skilled labor to in-need industries.

To view the complete Future of Work in NJ: Industry Series Study, click here. More industry studies under the Future of Work in NJ banner are expected later this year.

Focus NJ - the Center for Economic Research and Workforce Solutions - is a nonpartisan, nonprofit research foundation launched by the New Jersey Business & Industry Association in February, 2020. It has and will continue to administer deep analysis of public policies, industry trends and economic indicators that impact New Jersey's overall affordability, workforce and competitiveness.

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Focus NJ Releases Future of Work in NJ Industry Study

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Focus NJ today released a series of reports to identify the changing dynamics, opportunities, challenges, emerging skill sets and solutions to fulfill future employment in four different industries in New Jersey. The Future of Work in NJ: Industry Series Study is the culmination of information provided by 250 New Jersey business executives and industry leaders through focus groups, online surveys, and personal communication.

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State of New Jersey- Future of Work Policy + Practices Catalog

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Policy + Practices to address possible diminishing wages, loss of benefits and social protections, and deteriorating work conditions. New technology has created opportunities for more flexible work arrangements and improved safety in many industries, but these advancements also come with their own set of challenges, particularly as they relate to the growing reclassification and misclassification of workers in the gig and platform economy.

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The Future of Work Accelerator is a 9-month program that will support innovations that advance New Jersey's workers' health and safety, improve access to benefits, strengthen training opportunities, and bolster worker voice.

Through the Accelerator, participants will receive custom coaching, curated connections to national experts, introductions to funders and peers, and the opportunity to pilot worker-centric programs and practices in New Jersey.

The Accelerator is open to startups, entrepreneurs, non-profits, public sector institutions and employees, unions, and grassroots organizations from across the globe that are interested in promoting innovative solutions. See a list of themes that the Accelerator will address, below.

Perhaps you've developed a digital job coach that helps workers identify the best post-pandemic career opportunities, or a training program that teaches workers at risk of automation how to code, or an idea to build traction around universal basic income. Whether the innovation is technology-based or not, the Accelerator can help take it to the next level.

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The Future of Work Accelerator is a 9-month program that will support innovations that advance New Jersey's workers' health and safety, improve access to benefits, strengthen training opportunities, and bolster worker voice. Through the Accelerator, participants will receive custom coaching, curated connections to national experts, introductions to funders and peers, and the opportunity to pilot worker-centric programs and practices in New Jersey.

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WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT BOARD OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY INC.

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WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT BOARD OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY INC.

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WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT BOARD OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY INC.

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Whether you are unemployed, underemployed or just interested in today’s hot career opportunities, our Middlesex Job Centers can provide you with real time data, tracking the latest career and...

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One Stop Career Centers​ | Middlesex County NJ

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Government » Departments » Department of Business Innovation, Education and Opportunity » Office of Career Opportunity » Job Seekers​

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Job Seekers of Montclair is a nonprofit organization that provides professional job search programs and valuable networking opportunities to community members who are from a wide career spectrum:

Job Seekers is a cooperative enterprise in which steering committee members volunteer and maintain the program by providing leadership, hospitality and arranging for speakers. Speakers are individuals from the community with expertise in career management topics who generously share their knowledge and skills to reach the common objective of providing support for people in career transition. People in career transition attend and learn and find new jobs and start new careers.

All meetings are held at St. Lukes Church Hall on Wednesday evenings from 7:30pm to 9:15pm. 73 South Fullerton Avenue (corner of Union Street), Montclair, NJ 07042.

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job hunting support group new jersey essex county career change

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Job Seekers of Montclair is a nonprofit organization that provides professional job search programs and valuable networking opportunities to community members who are from a wide career spectrum: Job Seekers is a cooperative enterprise in which steering committee members volunteer and maintain the program by providing leadership, hospitality and arranging for speakers.

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Information about programs and services available to jobseekers from the NJ Department of Labor

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Jewish Family Service of Somerset, Hunterdon, and Warren Counties

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In the Somerset, Hunterdon, and Warren Counties County area, Jewish Family Service is one of the very few agencies that offer comprehensive and individualized services on a sliding scale basis to individuals seeking employment who do not have a specific barrier to employment.

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"It's great to know that there are other people in the support groups who experience the same feeling I do and aren't afraid to share that with me".
"What a great community and the people are inspiring and kind. They care and want to help you and educate you. I am grateful for this and thanks so much!" "This is a guiding light as I try to establish daily routines and schedules." "I look forward to logging on every morning to see what's happening." "I like the friendly community feel of it."

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"It's great to know that there are other people in the support groups who experience the same feeling I do and aren't afraid to share that with me". "What a great community and the people are inspiring and kind. They care and want to help you and educate you.

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Career Support Group at St. Gregory the Great

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As a job seeker, are you wondering why you are not getting any response to your online submissions? Uncover why human eyes may never see the resumes you submit online and discover what you...

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Career Support Group at St. Gregory the Great - Where Job Search and Career Management Come Together.

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As a job seeker, are you wondering why you are not getting any response to your online submissions? Uncover why human eyes may never see the resumes you submit online and discover what you...

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Baltimore Job Hunters Support Group 410-627-2372

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Baltimore Job Hunters Support Group 410-627-2372

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Groth, Olaf/ Nitzberg, Mark/ Stavridis, James (FRW)/ Tyson, Laura (AFT)/ Zysman, John (AFT), author

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The AI Generation : Shaping Our Global Future With Thinking Machines

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Forward Thinking on economic recovery and gender equality with Laura Tyson

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In addition to the moral argument, the former White House economic adviser explains that gender diversity is “a matter of human capital. It’s a matter of talent. It’s a matter of the evidence mounting over time.”

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For centuries, experts have predicted that machines would make workers obsolete. That moment may finally be arriving. Could that be a good thing?

1. Youngstown, U.S.A.
The end of work is still just a futuristic concept for most of the United States, but it is something like a moment in history for Youngstown, Ohio, one its residents can cite with precision: September 19, 1977.

For much of the 20th century, Youngstown's steel mills delivered such great prosperity that the city was a model of the American dream, boasting a median income and a homeownership rate that were among the nation's highest. But as manufacturing shifted abroad after World War II, Youngstown steel suffered, and on that gray September afternoon in 1977, Youngstown Sheet and Tube announced the shuttering of its Campbell Works mill. Within five years, the city lost 50,000 jobs and $1.3 billion in manufacturing wages. The effect was so severe that a term was coined to describe the fallout: regional depression.

Dispatches from the Aspen Ideas Festival/Spotlight Health
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Youngstown was transformed not only by an economic disruption but also by a psychological and cultural breakdown. Depression, spousal abuse, and suicide all became much more prevalent; the caseload of the area's mental-health center tripled within a decade. The city built four prisons in the mid-1990s-a rare growth industry. One of the few downtown construction projects of that period was a museum dedicated to the defunct steel industry.

This winter, I traveled to Ohio to consider what would happen if technology permanently replaced a great deal of human work. I wasn't seeking a tour of our automated future. I went because Youngstown has become a national metaphor for the decline of labor, a place where the middle class of the 20th century has become a museum exhibit.

"Youngstown's story is America's story, because it shows that when jobs go away, the cultural cohesion of a place is destroyed," says John Russo, a professor of labor studies at Youngstown State University. "The cultural breakdown matters even more than the economic breakdown."

In the past few years, even as the United States has pulled itself partway out of the jobs hole created by the Great Recession, some economists and technologists have warned that the economy is near a tipping point. When they peer deeply into labor-market data, they see troubling signs, masked for now by a cyclical recovery. And when they look up from their spreadsheets, they see automation high and low-robots in the operating room and behind the fast-food counter. They imagine self-driving cars snaking through the streets and Amazon drones dotting the sky, replacing millions of drivers, warehouse stockers, and retail workers. They observe that the capabilities of machines-already formidable-continue to expand exponentially, while our own remain the same. And they wonder: Is any job truly safe?

Futurists and science-fiction writers have at times looked forward to machines' workplace takeover with a kind of giddy excitement, imagining the banishment of drudgery and its replacement by expansive leisure and almost limitless personal freedom. And make no mistake: if the capabilities of computers continue to multiply while the price of computing continues to decline, that will mean a great many of life's necessities and luxuries will become ever cheaper, and it will mean great wealth-at least when aggregated up to the level of the national economy.

But even leaving aside questions of how to distribute that wealth, the widespread disappearance of work would usher in a social transformation unlike any we've seen. If John Russo is right, then saving work is more important than saving any particular job. Industriousness has served as America's unofficial religion since its founding. The sanctity and preeminence of work lie at the heart of the country's politics, economics, and social interactions. What might happen if work goes away?

The U.S. labor force has been shaped by millennia of technological progress. Agricultural technology birthed the farming industry, the industrial revolution moved people into factories, and then globalization and automation moved them back out, giving rise to a nation of services. But throughout these reshufflings, the total number of jobs has always increased. What may be looming is something different: an era of technological unemployment, in which computer scientists and software engineers essentially invent us out of work, and the total number of jobs declines steadily and permanently.

This fear is not new. The hope that machines might free us from toil has always been intertwined with the fear that they will rob us of our agency. In the midst of the Great Depression, the economist John Maynard Keynes forecast that technological progress might allow a 15-hour workweek, and abundant leisure, by 2030. But around the same time, President Herbert Hoover received a letter warning that industrial technology was a "Frankenstein monster" that threatened to upend manufacturing, "devouring our civilization." (The letter came from the mayor of Palo Alto, of all places.) In 1962, President John F. Kennedy said, "If men have the talent to invent new machines that put men out of work, they have the talent to put those men back to work." But two years later, a committee of scientists and social activists sent an open letter to President Lyndon B. Johnson arguing that "the cybernation revolution" would create "a separate nation of the poor, the unskilled, the jobless," who would be unable either to find work or to afford life's necessities.

The job market defied doomsayers in those earlier times, and according to the most frequently reported jobs numbers, it has so far done the same in our own time. Unemployment is currently just over 5 percent, and 2014 was this century's best year for job growth. One could be forgiven for saying that recent predictions about technological job displacement are merely forming the latest chapter in a long story called The Boys Who Cried Robot -one in which the robot, unlike the wolf, never arrives in the end.

The end-of-work argument has often been dismissed as the "Luddite fallacy," an allusion to the 19th-century British brutes who smashed textile-making machines at the dawn of the industrial revolution, fearing the machines would put hand-weavers out of work. But some of the most sober economists are beginning to worry that the Luddites weren't wrong, just premature. When former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers was an MIT undergraduate in the early 1970s, many economists disdained "the stupid people [who] thought that automation was going to make all the jobs go away," he said at the National Bureau of Economic Research Summer Institute in July 2013. "Until a few years ago, I didn't think this was a very complicated subject: the Luddites were wrong, and the believers in technology and technological progress were right. I'm not so completely certain now."
2. Reasons to Cry Robot
What does the "end of work" mean, exactly? It does not mean the imminence of total unemployment, nor is the United States remotely likely to face, say, 30 or 50 percent unemployment within the next decade. Rather, technology could exert a slow but continual downward pressure on the value and availability of work-that is, on wages and on the share of prime-age workers with full-time jobs. Eventually, by degrees, that could create a new normal, where the expectation that work will be a central feature of adult life dissipates for a significant portion of society.

After 300 years of people crying wolf, there are now three broad reasons to take seriously the argument that the beast is at the door: the ongoing triumph of capital over labor, the quiet demise of the working man, and the impressive dexterity of information technology.

* Labor's losses. One of the first things we might expect to see in a period of technological displacement is the diminishment of human labor as a driver of economic growth. In fact, signs that this is happening have been present for quite some time. The share of U.S. economic output that's paid out in wages fell steadily in the 1980s, reversed some of its losses in the '90s, and then continued falling after 2000, accelerating during the Great Recession. It now stands at its lowest level since the government started keeping track in the mid‑20th century.
The paradox of work is that many people hate their jobs, but they are considerably more miserable doing nothing.
A number of theories have been advanced to explain this phenomenon, including globalization and its accompanying loss of bargaining power for some workers. But Loukas Karabarbounis and Brent Neiman, economists at the University of Chicago, have estimated that almost half of the decline is the result of businesses' replacing workers with computers and software. In 1964, the nation's most valuable company, AT&T, was worth $267 billion in today's dollars and employed 758,611 people. Today's telecommunications giant, Google, is worth $370 billion but has only about 55,000 employees-less than a tenth the size of AT&T's workforce in its heyday.

* The spread of nonworking men and underemployed youth. The share of prime-age Americans (25 to 54 years old) who are working has been trending down since 2000. Among men, the decline began even earlier: the share of prime-age men who are neither working nor looking for work has doubled since the late 1970s, and has increased as much throughout the recovery as it did during the Great Recession itself. All in all, about one in six prime-age men today are either unemployed or out of the workforce altogether. This is what the economist Tyler Cowen calls "the key statistic" for understanding the spreading rot in the American workforce. Conventional wisdom has long held that under normal economic conditions, men in this age group-at the peak of their abilities and less likely than women to be primary caregivers for children-should almost all be working. Yet fewer and fewer are.

Economists cannot say for certain why men are turning away from work, but one explanation is that technological change has helped eliminate the jobs for which many are best suited. Since 2000, the number of manufacturing jobs has fallen by almost 5 million, or about 30 percent.

Young people just coming onto the job market are also struggling-and by many measures have been for years. Six years into the recovery, the share of recent college grads who are "underemployed" (in jobs that historically haven't required a degree) is still higher than it was in 2007-or, for that matter, 2000. And the supply of these "non-college jobs" is shifting away from high-paying occupations, such as electrician, toward low-wage service jobs, such as waiter. More people are pursuing higher education, but the real wages of recent college graduates have fallen by 7.7 percent since 2000. In the biggest picture, the job market appears to be requiring more and more preparation for a lower and lower starting wage. The distorting effect of the Great Recession should make us cautious about overinterpreting these trends, but most began before the recession, and they do not seem to speak encouragingly about the future of work.

* The shrewdness of software. One common objection to the idea that technology will permanently displace huge numbers of workers is that new gadgets, like self-checkout kiosks at drugstores, have failed to fully displace their human counterparts, like cashiers. But employers typically take years to embrace new machines at the expense of workers. The robotics revolution began in factories in the 1960s and '70s, but manufacturing employment kept rising until 1980, and then collapsed during the subsequent recessions. Likewise, "the personal computer existed in the '80s," says Henry Siu, an economist at the University of British Columbia, "but you don't see any effect on office and administrative-support jobs until the 1990s, and then suddenly, in the last recession, it's huge. So today you've got checkout screens and the promise of driverless cars, flying drones, and little warehouse robots. We know that these tasks can be done by machines rather than people. But we may not see the effect until the next recession, or the recession after that."

Some observers say our humanity is a moat that machines cannot cross. They believe people's capacity for compassion, deep understanding, and creativity are inimitable. But as Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee have argued in their book The Second Machine Age, computers are so dexterous that predicting their application 10 years from now is almost impossible. Who could have guessed in 2005, two years before the iPhone was released, that smartphones would threaten hotel jobs within the decade, by helping homeowners rent out their apartments and houses to strangers on Airbnb? Or that the company behind the most popular search engine would design a self-driving car that could soon threaten driving, the most common job occupation among American men?

In 2013, Oxford University researchers forecast that machines might be able to perform half of all U.S. jobs in the next two decades. The projection was audacious, but in at least a few cases, it probably didn't go far enough. For example, the authors named psychologist as one of the occupations least likely to be "computerisable." But some research suggests that people are more honest in therapy sessions when they believe they are confessing their troubles to a computer, because a machine can't pass moral judgment. Google and WebMD already may be answering questions once reserved for one's therapist. This doesn't prove that psychologists are going the way of the textile worker. Rather, it shows how easily computers can encroach on areas previously considered "for humans only."

After 300 years of breathtaking innovation, people aren't massively unemployed or indentured by machines. But to suggest how this could change, some economists have pointed to the defunct career of the second-most-important species in U.S. economic history: the horse.

For many centuries, people created technologies that made the horse more productive and more valuable-like plows for agriculture and swords for battle. One might have assumed that the continuing advance of complementary technologies would make the animal ever more essential to farming and fighting, historically perhaps the two most consequential human activities. Instead came inventions that made the horse obsolete-the tractor, the car, and the tank. After tractors rolled onto American farms in the early 20th century, the population of horses and mules began to decline steeply, falling nearly 50 percent by the 1930s and 90 percent by the 1950s.

Humans can do much more than trot, carry, and pull. But the skills required in most offices hardly elicit our full range of intelligence. Most jobs are still boring, repetitive, and easily learned. The most-common occupations in the United States are retail salesperson, cashier, food and beverage server, and office clerk. Together, these four jobs employ 15.4 million people-nearly 10 percent of the labor force, or more workers than there are in Texas and Massachusetts combined. Each is highly susceptible to automation, according to the Oxford study.

Technology creates some jobs too, but the creative half of creative destruction is easily overstated. Nine out of 10 workers today are in occupations that existed 100 years ago, and just 5 percent of the jobs generated between 1993 and 2013 came from "high tech" sectors like computing, software, and telecommunications. Our newest industries tend to be the most labor-efficient: they just don't require many people. It is for precisely this reason that the economic historian Robert Skidelsky, comparing the exponential growth in computing power with the less-than-exponential growth in job complexity, has said, "Sooner or later, we will run out of jobs."

Is that certain-or certainly imminent? No. The signs so far are murky and suggestive. The most fundamental and wrenching job restructurings and contractions tend to happen during recessions: we'll know more after the next couple of downturns. But the possibility seems significant enough-and the consequences disruptive enough-that we owe it to ourselves to start thinking about what society could look like without universal work, in an effort to begin nudging it toward the better outcomes and away from the worse ones.
3. Consumption: The Paradox of Leisure
To paraphrase the science-fiction novelist William Gibson, there are, perhaps, fragments of the post-work future distributed throughout the present. I see three overlapping possibilities as formal employment opportunities decline. Some people displaced from the formal workforce will devote their freedom to simple leisure; some will seek to build productive communities outside the workplace; and others will fight, passionately and in many cases fruitlessly, to reclaim their productivity by piecing together jobs in an informal economy. These are futures of consumption, communal creativity, and contingency. In any combination, it is almost certain that the country would have to embrace a radical new role for government.

Work is really three things, says Peter Frase, the author of Four Futures, a forthcoming book about how automation will change America: the means by which the economy produces goods, the means by which people earn income, and an activity that lends meaning or purpose to many people's lives. "We tend to conflate these things," he told me, "because today we need to pay people to keep the lights on, so to speak. But in a future of abundance, you wouldn't, and we ought to think about ways to make it easier and better to not be employed."

Frase belongs to a small group of writers, academics, and economists-they have been called "post-workists"-who welcome, even root for, the end of labor. American society has "an irrational belief in work for work's sake," says Benjamin Hunnicutt, another post-workist and a historian at the University of Iowa, even though most jobs aren't so uplifting. A 2014 Gallup report of worker satisfaction found that as many as 70 percent of Americans don't feel engaged by their current job. Hunnicutt told me that if a cashier's work were a video game-grab an item, find the bar code, scan it, slide the item onward, and repeat-critics of video games might call it mindless. But when it's a job, politicians praise its intrinsic dignity. "Purpose, meaning, identity, fulfillment, creativity, autonomy-all these things that positive psychology has shown us to be necessary for well-being are absent in the average job," he said.

The post-workists are certainly right about some important things. Paid labor does not always map to social good. Raising children and caring for the sick is essential work, and these jobs are compensated poorly or not at all. In a post-work society, Hunnicutt said, people might spend more time caring for their families and neighbors; pride could come from our relationships rather than from our careers.

The post-work proponents acknowledge that, even in the best post-work scenarios, pride and jealousy will persevere, because reputation will always be scarce, even in an economy of abundance. But with the right government provisions, they believe, the end of wage labor will allow for a golden age of well-being. Hunnicutt said he thinks colleges could reemerge as cultural centers rather than job-prep institutions. The word school, he pointed out, comes from skholē, the Greek word for "leisure." "We used to teach people to be free," he said. "Now we teach them to work."

Hunnicutt's vision rests on certain assumptions about taxation and redistribution that might not be congenial to many Americans today. But even leaving that aside for the moment, this vision is problematic: it doesn't resemble the world as it is currently experienced by most jobless people. By and large, the jobless don't spend their downtime socializing with friends or taking up new hobbies. Instead, they watch TV or sleep. Time-use surveys show that jobless prime-age people dedicate some of the time once spent working to cleaning and childcare. But men in particular devote most of their free time to leisure, the lion's share of which is spent watching television, browsing the Internet, and sleeping. Retired seniors watch about 50 hours of television a week, according to Nielsen. That means they spend a majority of their lives either sleeping or sitting on the sofa looking at a flatscreen. The unemployed theoretically have the most time to socialize, and yet studies have shown that they feel the most social isolation; it is surprisingly hard to replace the camaraderie of the water cooler.

Most people want to work, and are miserable when they cannot. The ills of unemployment go well beyond the loss of income; people who lose their job are more likely to suffer from mental and physical ailments. "There is a loss of status, a general malaise and demoralization, which appears somatically or psychologically or both," says Ralph Catalano, a public-health professor at UC Berkeley. Research has shown that it is harder to recover from a long bout of joblessness than from losing a loved one or suffering a life-altering injury. The very things that help many people recover from other emotional traumas-a routine, an absorbing distraction, a daily purpose-are not readily available to the unemployed.

The transition from labor force to leisure force would likely be particularly hard on Americans, the worker bees of the rich world: Between 1950 and 2012, annual hours worked per worker fell significantly throughout Europe-by about 40 percent in Germany and the Netherlands-but by only 10 percent in the United States. Richer, college-educated Americans are working more than they did 30 years ago, particularly when you count time working and answering e-mail at home.

In 1989, the psychologists Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Judith LeFevre conducted a famous study of Chicago workers that found people at work often wished they were somewhere else. But in questionnaires, these same workers reported feeling better and less anxious in the office or at the plant than they did elsewhere. The two psychologists called this "the paradox of work": many people are happier complaining about jobs than they are luxuriating in too much leisure. Other researchers have used the term guilty couch potato to describe people who use media to relax but often feel worthless when they reflect on their unproductive downtime. Contentment speaks in the present tense, but something more-pride-comes only in reflection on past accomplishments.

The post-workists argue that Americans work so hard because their culture has conditioned them to feel guilty when they are not being productive, and that this guilt will fade as work ceases to be the norm. This might prove true, but it's an untestable hypothesis. When I asked Hunnicutt what sort of modern community most resembles his ideal of a post-work society, he admitted, "I'm not sure that such a place exists."

Less passive and more nourishing forms of mass leisure could develop. Arguably, they already are developing. The Internet, social media, and gaming offer entertainments that are as easy to slip into as is watching TV, but all are more purposeful and often less isolating. Video games, despite the derision aimed at them, are vehicles for achievement of a sort. Jeremy Bailenson, a communications professor at Stanford, says that as virtual-reality technology improves, people's "cyber-existence" will become as rich and social as their "real" life. Games in which users climb "into another person's skin to embody his or her experiences firsthand" don't just let people live out vicarious fantasies, he has argued, but also "help you live as somebody else to teach you empathy and pro-social skills."
4. Communal Creativity: The Artisans' Revenge
But it's hard to imagine that leisure could ever entirely fill the vacuum of accomplishment left by the demise of labor. Most people do need to achieve things through, yes, work to feel a lasting sense of purpose. To envision a future that offers more than minute-to-minute satisfaction, we have to imagine how millions of people might find meaningful work without formal wages. So, inspired by the predictions of one of America's most famous labor economists, I took a detour on my way to Youngstown and stopped in Columbus, Ohio.

Artisans made up the original American middle class. Before industrialization swept through the U.S. economy, many people who didn't work on farms were silversmiths, blacksmiths, or woodworkers. These artisans were ground up by the machinery of mass production in the 20th century. But Lawrence Katz, a labor economist at Harvard, sees the next wave of automation returning us to an age of craftsmanship and artistry. In particular, he looks forward to the ramifications of 3‑D printing, whereby machines construct complex objects from digital designs.
The most common jobs are salesperson, cashier, food and beverage server, and office clerk. Each is highly susceptible to automation.
The factories that arose more than a century ago "could make Model Ts and forks and knives and mugs and glasses in a standardized, cheap way, and that drove the artisans out of business," Katz told me. "But what if the new tech, like 3-D-printing machines, can do customized things that are almost as cheap? It's possible that information technology and robots eliminate traditional jobs and make possible a new artisanal economy ... an economy geared around self-expression, where people would do artistic things with their time."

In other words, it would be a future not of consumption but of creativity, as technology returns the tools of the assembly line to individuals, democratizing the means of mass production.

Something like this future is already present in the small but growing number of industrial shops called "makerspaces" that have popped up in the United States and around the world. The Columbus Idea Foundry is the country's largest such space, a cavernous converted shoe factory stocked with industrial-age machinery. Several hundred members pay a monthly fee to use its arsenal of machines to make gifts and jewelry; weld, finish, and paint; play with plasma cutters and work an angle grinder; or operate a lathe with a machinist.

When I arrived there on a bitterly cold afternoon in February, a chalkboard standing on an easel by the door displayed three arrows, pointing toward bathrooms, pewter casting, and zombies. Near the entrance, three men with black fingertips and grease-stained shirts took turns fixing a 60-year-old metal-turning lathe. Behind them, a resident artist was tutoring an older woman on how to transfer her photographs onto a large canvas, while a couple of guys fed pizza pies into a propane-fired stone oven. Elsewhere, men in protective goggles welded a sign for a local chicken restaurant, while others punched codes into a computer-controlled laser-cutting machine. Beneath the din of drilling and wood-cutting, a Pandora rock station hummed tinnily from a Wi‑Fi-connected Edison phonograph horn. The foundry is not just a gymnasium of tools. It is a social center.

Alex Bandar, who started the foundry after receiving a doctorate in materials science and engineering, has a theory about the rhythms of invention in American history. Over the past century, he told me, the economy has moved from hardware to software, from atoms to bits, and people have spent more time at work in front of screens. But as computers take over more tasks previously considered the province of humans, the pendulum will swing back from bits to atoms, at least when it comes to how people spend their days. Bandar thinks that a digitally preoccupied society will come to appreciate the pure and distinct pleasure of making things you can touch. "I've always wanted to usher in a new era of technology where robots do our bidding," Bandar said. "If you have better batteries, better robotics, more dexterous manipulation, then it's not a far stretch to say robots do most of the work. So what do we do? Play? Draw? Actually talk to each other again?"

You don't need any particular fondness for plasma cutters to see the beauty of an economy where tens of millions of people make things they enjoy making-whether physical or digital, in buildings or in online communities-and receive feedback and appreciation for their work. The Internet and the cheap availability of artistic tools have already empowered millions of people to produce culture from their living rooms. People upload more than 400,000 hours of YouTube videos and 350 million new Facebook photos every day. The demise of the formal economy could free many would-be artists, writers, and craftspeople to dedicate their time to creative interests-to live as cultural producers. Such activities offer virtues that many organizational psychologists consider central to satisfaction at work: independence, the chance to develop mastery, and a sense of purpose.

After touring the foundry, I sat at a long table with several members, sharing the pizza that had come out of the communal oven. I asked them what they thought of their organization as a model for a future where automation reached further into the formal economy. A mixed-media artist named Kate Morgan said that most people she knew at the foundry would quit their jobs and use the foundry to start their own business if they could. Others spoke about the fundamental need to witness the outcome of one's work, which was satisfied more deeply by craftsmanship than by other jobs they'd held.
5. Contingency: "You're on Your Own"
Late in the conversation, we were joined by Terry Griner, an engineer who had built miniature steam engines in his garage before Bandar invited him to join the foundry. His fingers were covered in soot, and he told me about the pride he had in his ability to fix things. "I've been working since I was 16. I've done food service, restaurant work, hospital work, and computer programming. I've done a lot of different jobs," said Griner, who is now a divorced father. "But if we had a society that said, 'We'll cover your essentials, you can work in the shop,' I think that would be utopia. That, to me, would be the best of all possible worlds."

One mile to the east of downtown Youngstown, in a brick building surrounded by several empty lots, is Royal Oaks, an iconic blue-collar dive. At about 5:30 p.m. on a Wednesday, the place was nearly full. The bar glowed yellow and green from the lights mounted along a wall. Old beer signs, trophies, masks, and mannequins cluttered the back corner of the main room, like party leftovers stuffed in an attic. The scene was mostly middle-aged men, some in groups, talking loudly about baseball and smelling vaguely of pot; some drank alone at the bar, sitting quietly or listening to music on headphones. I spoke with several patrons there who work as musicians, artists, or handymen; many did not hold a steady job.

"It is the end of a particular kind of wage work," said Hannah Woodroofe, a bartender there who, it turns out, is also a graduate student at the University of Chicago. (She's writing a dissertation on Youngstown as a harbinger of the future of work.) A lot of people in the city make ends meet via "post-wage arrangements," she said, working for tenancy or under the table, or trading services. Places like Royal Oaks are the new union halls: People go there not only to relax but also to find tradespeople for particular jobs, like auto repair. Others go to exchange fresh vegetables, grown in urban gardens they've created amid Youngstown's vacant lots.

When an entire area, like Youngstown, suffers from high and prolonged unemployment, problems caused by unemployment move beyond the personal sphere; widespread joblessness shatters neighborhoods and leaches away their civic spirit. John Russo, the Youngstown State professor, who is a co-author of a history of the city, Steeltown USA, says the local identity took a savage blow when residents lost the ability to find reliable employment. "I can't stress this enough: this isn't just about economics; it's psychological," he told me.

Russo sees Youngstown as the leading edge of a larger trend toward the development of what he calls the "precariat"-a working class that swings from task to task in order to make ends meet and suffers a loss of labor rights, bargaining rights, and job security. In Youngstown, many of these workers have by now made their peace with insecurity and poverty by building an identity, and some measure of pride, around contingency. The faith they lost in institutions-the corporations that have abandoned the city, the police who have failed to keep them safe-has not returned. But Russo and Woodroofe both told me they put stock in their own independence. And so a place that once defined itself single-mindedly by the steel its residents made has gradually learned to embrace the valorization of well-rounded resourcefulness.
Perhaps the 20th century will strike future historians as an aberration, with its religious devotion to overwork in a time of prosperity.
Karen Schubert, a 54-year-old writer with two master's degrees, accepted a part-time job as a hostess at a café in Youngstown early this year, after spending months searching for full-time work. Schubert, who has two grown children and an infant grandson, said she'd loved teaching writing and literature at the local university. But many colleges have replaced full-time professors with part-time adjuncts in order to control costs, and she'd found that with the hours she could get, adjunct teaching didn't pay a living wage, so she'd stopped. "I think I would feel like a personal failure if I didn't know that so many Americans have their leg caught in the same trap," she said.

Among Youngstown's precariat, one can see a third possible future, where millions of people struggle for years to build a sense of purpose in the absence of formal jobs, and where entrepreneurship emerges out of necessity. But while it lacks the comforts of the consumption economy or the cultural richness of Lawrence Katz's artisanal future, it is more complex than an outright dystopia. "There are young people working part-time in the new economy who feel independent, whose work and personal relationships are contingent, and say they like it like this-to have short hours so they have time to focus on their passions," Russo said.

Schubert's wages at the café are not enough to live on, and in her spare time, she sells books of her poetry at readings and organizes gatherings of the literary-arts community in Youngstown, where other writers (many of them also underemployed) share their prose. The evaporation of work has deepened the local arts and music scene, several residents told me, because people who are inclined toward the arts have so much time to spend with one another. "We're a devastatingly poor and hemorrhaging population, but the people who live here are fearless and creative and phenomenal," Schubert said.

Whether or not one has artistic ambitions as Schubert does, it is arguably growing easier to find short-term gigs or spot employment. Paradoxically, technology is the reason. A constellation of Internet-enabled companies matches available workers with quick jobs, most prominently including Uber (for drivers), Seamless (for meal deliverers), Homejoy (for house cleaners), and TaskRabbit (for just about anyone else). And online markets like Craigslist and eBay have likewise made it easier for people to take on small independent projects, such as furniture refurbishing. Although the on-demand economy is not yet a major part of the employment picture, the number of "temporary-help services" workers has grown by 50 percent since 2010, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Some of these services, too, could be usurped, eventually, by machines. But on-demand apps also spread the work around by carving up jobs, like driving a taxi, into hundreds of little tasks, like a single drive, which allows more people to compete for smaller pieces of work. These new arrangements are already challenging the legal definitions of employer and employee, and there are many reasons to be ambivalent about them. But if the future involves a declining number of full-time jobs, as in Youngstown, then splitting some of the remaining work up among many part-time workers, instead of a few full-timers, wouldn't necessarily be a bad development. We shouldn't be too quick to excoriate companies that let people combine their work, art, and leisure in whatever ways they choose.

Today the norm is to think about employment and unemployment as a black-and-white binary, rather than two points at opposite ends of a wide spectrum of working arrangements. As late as the mid-19th century, though, the modern concept of "unemployment" didn't exist in the United States. Most people lived on farms, and while paid work came and went, home industry-canning, sewing, carpentry-was a constant. Even in the worst economic panics, people typically found productive things to do. The despondency and helplessness of unemployment were discovered, to the bafflement and dismay of cultural critics, only after factory work became dominant and cities swelled.
6. Government: The Visible Hand
The 21st century, if it presents fewer full-time jobs in the sectors that can be automated, could in this respect come to resemble the mid-19th century: an economy marked by episodic work across a range of activities, the loss of any one of which would not make somebody suddenly idle. Many bristle that contingent gigs offer a devil's bargain-a bit of additional autonomy in exchange for a larger loss of security. But some might thrive in a market where versatility and hustle are rewarded-where there are, as in Youngstown, few jobs to have, yet many things to do.

In the 1950s, Henry Ford II, the CEO of Ford, and Walter Reuther, the head of the United Auto Workers union, were touring a new engine plant in Cleveland. Ford gestured to a fleet of machines and said, "Walter, how are you going to get these robots to pay union dues?" The union boss famously replied: "Henry, how are you going to get them to buy your cars?"

As Martin Ford (no relation) writes in his new book, The Rise of the Robots, this story might be apocryphal, but its message is instructive. We're pretty good at noticing the immediate effects of technology's substituting for workers, such as fewer people on the factory floor. What's harder is anticipating the second-order effects of this transformation, such as what happens to the consumer economy when you take away the consumers.

Technological progress on the scale we're imagining would usher in social and cultural changes that are almost impossible to fully envision. Consider just how fundamentally work has shaped America's geography. Today's coastal cities are a jumble of office buildings and residential space. Both are expensive and tightly constrained. But the decline of work would make many office buildings unnecessary. What might that mean for the vibrancy of urban areas? Would office space yield seamlessly to apartments, allowing more people to live more affordably in city centers and leaving the cities themselves just as lively? Or would we see vacant shells and spreading blight? Would big cities make sense at all if their role as highly sophisticated labor ecosystems were diminished? As the 40-hour workweek faded, the idea of a lengthy twice-daily commute would almost certainly strike future generations as an antiquated and baffling waste of time. But would those generations prefer to live on streets full of high-rises, or in smaller towns?

Today, many working parents worry that they spend too many hours at the office. As full-time work declined, rearing children could become less overwhelming. And because job opportunities historically have spurred migration in the United States, we might see less of it; the diaspora of extended families could give way to more closely knitted clans. But if men and women lost their purpose and dignity as work went away, those families would nonetheless be troubled.

The decline of the labor force would make our politics more contentious. Deciding how to tax profits and distribute income could become the most significant economic-policy debate in American history. In The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith used the term invisible hand to refer to the order and social benefits that arise, surprisingly, from individuals' selfish actions. But to preserve the consumer economy and the social fabric, governments might have to embrace what Haruhiko Kuroda, the governor of the Bank of Japan, has called the visible hand of economic intervention. What follows is an early sketch of how it all might work.

In the near term, local governments might do well to create more and more-ambitious community centers or other public spaces where residents can meet, learn skills, bond around sports or crafts, and socialize. Two of the most common side effects of unemployment are loneliness, on the individual level, and the hollowing-out of community pride. A national policy that directed money toward centers in distressed areas might remedy the maladies of idleness, and form the beginnings of a long-term experiment on how to reengage people in their neighborhoods in the absence of full employment.

We could also make it easier for people to start their own, small-scale (and even part-time) businesses. New-business formation has declined in the past few decades in all 50 states. One way to nurture fledgling ideas would be to build out a network of business incubators. Here Youngstown offers an unexpected model: its business incubator has been recognized internationally, and its success has brought new hope to West Federal Street, the city's main drag.

Near the beginning of any broad decline in job availability, the United States might take a lesson from Germany on job-sharing. The German government gives firms incentives to cut all their workers' hours rather than lay off some of them during hard times. So a company with 50 workers that might otherwise lay off 10 people instead reduces everyone's hours by 20 percent. Such a policy would help workers at established firms keep their attachment to the labor force despite the declining amount of overall labor.

Spreading work in this way has its limits. Some jobs can't be easily shared, and in any case, sharing jobs wouldn't stop labor's pie from shrinking: it would only apportion the slices differently. Eventually, Washington would have to somehow spread wealth, too.
Oxford researchers have forecast that machines might be able to do half of all U.S. jobs within two decades.
One way of doing that would be to more heavily tax the growing share of income going to the owners of capital, and use the money to cut checks to all adults. This idea-called a "universal basic income"-has received bipartisan support in the past. Many liberals currently support it, and in the 1960s, Richard Nixon and the conservative economist Milton Friedman each proposed a version of the idea. That history notwithstanding, the politics of universal income in a world without universal work would be daunting. The rich could say, with some accuracy, that their hard work was subsidizing the idleness of millions of "takers." What's more, although a universal income might replace lost wages, it would do little to preserve the social benefits of work.

The most direct solution to the latter problem would be for the government to pay people to do something, rather than nothing. Although this smacks of old European socialism, or Depression-era "makework," it might do the most to preserve virtues such as responsibility, agency, and industriousness. In the 1930s, the Works Progress Administration did more than rebuild the nation's infrastructure. It hired 40,000 artists and other cultural workers to produce music and theater, murals and paintings, state and regional travel guides, and surveys of state records. It's not impossible to imagine something like the WPA-or an effort even more capacious-for a post-work future.

What might that look like? Several national projects might justify direct hiring, such as caring for a rising population of elderly people. But if the balance of work continues to shift toward the small-bore and episodic, the simplest way to help everybody stay busy might be government sponsorship of a national online marketplace of work (or, alternatively, a series of local ones, sponsored by local governments). Individuals could browse for large long-term projects, like cleaning up after a natural disaster, or small short-term ones: an hour of tutoring, an evening of entertainment, an art commission. The requests could come from local governments or community associations or nonprofit groups; from rich families seeking nannies or tutors; or from other individuals given some number of credits to "spend" on the site each year. To ensure a baseline level of attachment to the workforce, the government could pay adults a flat rate in return for some minimum level of activity on the site, but people could always earn more by taking on more gigs.

Although a digital WPA might strike some people as a strange anachronism, it would be similar to a federalized version of Mechanical Turk, the popular Amazon sister site where individuals and companies post projects of varying complexity, while so-called Turks on the other end browse tasks and collect money for the ones they complete. Mechanical Turk was designed to list tasks that cannot be performed by a computer. (The name is an allusion to an 18th-century Austrian hoax, in which a famous automaton that seemed to play masterful chess concealed a human player who chose the moves and moved the pieces.)

A government marketplace might likewise specialize in those tasks that required empathy, humanity, or a personal touch. By connecting millions of people in one central hub, it might even inspire what the technology writer Robin Sloan has called "a Cambrian explosion of mega-scale creative and intellectual pursuits, a generation of Wikipedia-scale projects that can ask their users for even deeper commitments."

There's a case to be made for using the tools of government to provide other incentives as well, to help people avoid the typical traps of joblessness and build rich lives and vibrant communities. After all, the members of the Columbus Idea Foundry probably weren't born with an innate love of lathe operation or laser-cutting. Mastering these skills requires discipline; discipline requires an education; and an education, for many people, involves the expectation that hours of often frustrating practice will eventually prove rewarding. In a post-work society, the financial rewards of education and training won't be as obvious. This is a singular challenge of imagining a flourishing post-work society: How will people discover their talents, or the rewards that come from expertise, if they don't see much incentive to develop either?
7. Jobs and Callings
Modest payments to young people for attending and completing college, skills-training programs, or community-center workshops might eventually be worth considering. This seems radical, but the aim would be conservative-to preserve the status quo of an educated and engaged society. Whatever their career opportunities, young people will still grow up to be citizens, neighbors, and even, episodically, workers. Nudges toward education and training might be particularly beneficial to men, who are more likely to withdraw into their living rooms when they become unemployed.

Decades from now, perhaps the 20th century will strike future historians as an aberration, with its religious devotion to overwork in a time of prosperity, its attenuations of family in service to job opportunity, its conflation of income with self-worth. The post-work society I've described holds a warped mirror up to today's economy, but in many ways it reflects the forgotten norms of the mid-19th century-the artisan middle class, the primacy of local communities, and the unfamiliarity with widespread joblessness.

The three potential futures of consumption, communal creativity, and contingency are not separate paths branching out from the present. They're likely to intertwine and even influence one another. Entertainment will surely become more immersive and exert a gravitational pull on people without much to do. But if that's all that happens, society will have failed. The foundry in Columbus shows how the "third places" in people's lives (communities separate from their homes and offices) could become central to growing up, learning new skills, discovering passions. And with or without such places, many people will need to embrace the resourcefulness learned over time by cities like Youngstown, which, even if they seem like museum exhibits of an old economy, might foretell the future for many more cities in the next 25 years.

On my last day in Youngstown, I met with Howard Jesko, a 60-year-old Youngstown State graduate student, at a burger joint along the main street. A few months after Black Friday in 1977, as a senior at Ohio State University, Jesko received a phone call from his father, a specialty-hose manufacturer near Youngstown. "Don't bother coming back here for a job," his dad said. "There aren't going to be any left." Years later, Jesko returned to Youngstown to work, but he recently quit his job selling products like waterproofing systems to construction companies; his customers had been devastated by the Great Recession and weren't buying much anymore. Around the same time, a left-knee replacement due to degenerative arthritis resulted in a 10-day hospital stay, which gave him time to think about the future. Jesko decided to go back to school to become a professor. "My true calling," he told me, "has always been to teach."

One theory of work holds that people tend to see themselves in jobs, careers, or callings. Individuals who say their work is "just a job" emphasize that they are working for money rather than aligning themselves with any higher purpose. Those with pure careerist ambitions are focused not only on income but also on the status that comes with promotions and the growing renown of their peers. But one pursues a calling not only for pay or status, but also for the intrinsic fulfillment of the work itself.

When I think about the role that work plays in people's self-esteem-particularly in America-the prospect of a no-work future seems hopeless. There is no universal basic income that can prevent the civic ruin of a country built on a handful of workers permanently subsidizing the idleness of tens of millions of people. But a future of less work still holds a glint of hope, because the necessity of salaried jobs now prevents so many from seeking immersive activities that they enjoy.

After my conversation with Jesko, I walked back to my car to drive out of Youngstown. I thought about Jesko's life as it might have been had Youngstown's steel mills never given way to a steel museum-had the city continued to provide stable, predictable careers to its residents. If Jesko had taken a job in the steel industry, he might be preparing for retirement today. Instead, that industry collapsed and then, years later, another recession struck. The outcome of this cumulative grief is that Howard Jesko is not retiring at 60. He's getting his master's degree to become a teacher. It took the loss of so many jobs to force him to pursue the work he always wanted to do.

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For centuries, experts have predicted that machines would make workers obsolete. That moment may finally be arriving. Could that be a good thing?

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EBPL Book Record. The new geography of jobs Author: Moretti, Enrico.

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EBPL Book Record. The new geography of jobs Author: Moretti, Enrico.

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American rust -- Smart labor : microchips, movies, and multipliers -- The great divergence -- Forces of attraction -- The inequality of mobility and cost of living -- Poverty traps and sexy cities -- The new "human capital century".

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Economist Enrico Moretti sees “massive changes” in how people live and work.

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Economist Enrico Moretti sees “massive changes” in how people live and work.

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ABOUT US

CARGO BIKE SOLUTIONS WAS BORN OUT OF THE NEED TO SEPERATE OURSELVES FROM EVERY OTHER BICYCLE DELIVERY SERVICE IN NEW YORK CITY IN EVERY WAY IMAGINABLE.

THIS IS ABOUT THINKING COMPLETELY DIFFERENTLY AS IT RELATES TO RAPID DELIVERY INFRASTRUCTURE FOR THE REALITIES OF congested CITY STREETS while tackling climate change.

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food rescue

Excess food sent to landfills is a leading contributor to urban emmission causing climate change. It also just feels TERRIBLE to throw perfectly good food in the trash when you know your going to pass several homeless people on your commute. Lets end this insane, soul crushing behavior. Through our parterns at Transfernation, we are the leading, most reliable ground operation powering food rescue efforts in New York City for pick ups under 200 lbs. Click here to learn more.

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Point A to point B any where inside Manhattan from top to bottom, Downtown Brooklyn, Williamsburg, Greenpoint, & Long Island City. You tell us where to pick up, what it is, where you want it, and your deadlines. We'll exceed your expectations even on the simple stuff. We have 3 hour, 2 hour, 1 hour and 30 minute rush options.

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Some things need to come back to you after some one else has worked their magic on it. We'll make sure that your stuff reappears in your life when you need it to.

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Have lots of product going from one place to multiple locations? We got all your bases covered! We'll load up as much as we can carry in one trip and execute numerous consecutive drops and refill if needed.

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We're proud to be the backbone of Transfernation and Doordash Project DASH food rescue operations here in New York City . Whether you're a fast casual dining establishment with several locations, a corporate cafeteria, or just hosted an event and have leftover food, we're the fastest, most reliable pick-up service that will shuttle leftovers to a nearby pantry helping New York City's food insecure residents get free, high-quality meals.

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How to Reboot Your Organization's Work Operating System
Why the future of work requires the deconstruction of jobs and the reconstruction of work.
Work is traditionally understood as a "job," and workers as "jobholders." Jobs are structured by titles, hierarchies, and qualifications. In Work without Jobs, Ravin Jesuthasan and John Boudreau propose a radically new way of looking at work. They describe a new "work operating system" that deconstructs jobs into their component parts and reconstructs these components into more optimal combinations that reflect the skills and abilities of individual workers. In a new normal of rapidly accelerating automation, demands for organizational agility, efforts to increase diversity, and the emergence of alternative work arrangements, the old system based on jobs and jobholders is cumbersome and ungainly. Jesuthasan and Boudreau's new system lays out a roadmap for the future of work.

Work without Jobs presents real-world cases that show how leading organizations are embracing work deconstruction and reinvention. For example, when a robot, chatbot, or artificial intelligence takes over parts of a job while a human worker continues to do other parts, what is the "job"? DHL found some answers when it deployed social robotics at its distribution centers. Meanwhile, the biotechnology company Genentech deconstructed jobs to increase flexibility, worker engagement, and retention. Other organizations achieved agility with internal talent marketplaces, worker exchanges, freelancers, crowdsourcing, and partnerships. It's time for organizations to reboot their work operating system, and Work without Jobs offers an essential guide for doing so.

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Ravin Jesuthasan, a recognized futurist and authority on the future of work, human capital, and automation, is Senior Partner and Global Leader for Transformation Services at Mercer. He is a member of the World Economic Forum's steering committee on work and employment.

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EBPL Book record: Reinventing jobs : a 4-step approach for applying automation to work by Jesuthasan, Ravin

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EBPL Book record: Reinventing jobs : a 4-step approach for applying automation to work by Jesuthasan, Ravin

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Reinventing jobs : a 4-step approach for applying automation to work

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Introduction: AI and robotics are here. Now what? -- Part One. Optimizing work automation: a 4-step framework: Deconstruct the job: which job tasks are best suited to automation? -- Assess the relationship between job performance and strategic value: whatis the automation payoff? -- Identify options: what automation is possible?

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Indeed Interactive 2021: Vivienne Ming on Creativity and the Future of Work

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To gear up for Indeed Interactive 2021, we spoke with theoretical neuroscientist Vivienne Ming more about creativity, human potential and the future of work.

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United States could have 1,245,665 more jobs created by All entrepreneurs.

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United States could have 1,245,665 more jobs created by All entrepreneurs.

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(function (w,d,s,o,f,js,fjs) { w["PEII-Widget"] = o; w[o] = w[o] || function () { (w[o].q = w[o].q || []).push(arguments); }; (js = d.createElement(s)),(fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]); js.id = o; js.src = f; js.async = 1; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs); })( window, document, "script"

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EBPL Book Record: AI 2041 : ten visions for our future by Kai-Fu Lee

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EBPL Book Record: AI 2041 : ten visions for our future by Kai-Fu Lee

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"In a groundbreaking blend of science and imagination, the former president of Google China and a leading writer of speculative fiction join forces to answer an urgent question: How will artificial intelligence change our world over the next twenty years?AI will be the defining issue of the twenty-first century, but many people know little about it apart from visions of dystopian robots or flying cars.

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Panel discussion with Roger Taylor, Carlos Gutierrez, Diane Gherson and Peter Mandelson on how AI is redefining the world of work as the pandemic has accelerated changes across the economy.

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SkillUp helps workers find free and low-cost career and training resources to get back to work quickly. Our non-profit coalition includes over 60 training and education providers, tech firms, employers, and philanthropies all dedicated to supporting upskilling needs.

We offer a variety of resources to help you transition to a better career with the skills you already hav e.

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Impacted by COVID-19 and need a new job? Use our free tool to learn about careers that are a good fit for you, in growing industries like technology and healthcare. Find training and employers that can help relaunch your career!

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We’re calling on Bay Area employers to work together toward hiring at least 5,000 Bay Area STARs in full-time, middle-wage jobs by 2024.

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EBPL Book Record: The race between education and technology by Goldin, Claudia Dale.

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EBPL Book Record: The race between education and technology by Goldin, Claudia Dale.

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The race between education and technology

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The human capital century -- Inequality across the twentieth century -- Skill-biased technological change -- Origins of the virtues -- Economic foundations of the high school movement -- America's graduation from high school -- Mass higher education in the twentieth century -- The race between education and technology -- How America once led and can win the race for tomorrow.

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At Coworker, we believe people should have agency and power in their work lives. Most of us will spend a third of our adult lives at work-more time than we will spend with our families, in school, or participating in our community's civic life. And yet many of us are silenced and unseen at our jobs. We deserve to have a voice in shaping our working conditions and the ways in which work happens. We are powerful, and together, we can transform our jobs and workplaces.

Coworker is the leading global peer-based platform designed specifically to support workers of all kinds to spark true change in the workplace. Our team of advocacy experts and organizers back workers and groups alike by offering proven education and training, strategic support, research, data analysis, and a range of advocacy tools.

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At Coworker, we believe people should have agency and power in their work lives. Most of us will spend a third of our adult lives at work-more time than we will spend with our families, in school, or participating in our community's civic life. And yet many of us are silenced and unseen at our jobs.

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The manufacturing workforce has been absorbing new technology for more than two centuries. Today, the industry finds itself in the midst of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which is poised to transform work at an unprecedented pace through exponential technologies such as artificial intelligence, advanced robotics and cognitive automation, advanced analytics, and the Internet of Things (IoT).

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Higher Education in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

By Joseph E. Aoun

How to educate the next generation of college students to invent, to create, and to discover-filling needs that even the most sophisticated robot cannot.

This book is an authoritative call for action and a compelling model for the next step in the evolution of higher education. Aoun offers an optimistic-and more important, realistic-vision of how we can educate ourselves for an AI economy.

Jeffrey S. Bornstein

Vice Chairman & Chief Financial Officer, GE

Overview Author(s) Praise

Summary

How to educate the next generation of college students to invent, to create, and to discover-filling needs that even the most sophisticated robot cannot.
Driverless cars are hitting the road, powered by artificial intelligence. Robots can climb stairs, open doors, win Jeopardy, analyze stocks, work in factories, find parking spaces, advise oncologists. In the past, automation was considered a threat to low-skilled labor. Now, many high-skilled functions, including interpreting medical images, doing legal research, and analyzing data, are within the skill sets of machines. How can higher education prepare students for their professional lives when professions themselves are disappearing? In Robot-Proof, Northeastern University president Joseph Aoun proposes a way to educate the next generation of college students to invent, to create, and to discover-to fill needs in society that even the most sophisticated artificial intelligence agent cannot.

A "robot-proof" education, Aoun argues, is not concerned solely with topping up students' minds with high-octane facts. Rather, it calibrates them with a creative mindset and the mental elasticity to invent, discover, or create something valuable to society-a scientific proof, a hip-hop recording, a web comic, a cure for cancer. Aoun lays out the framework for a new discipline, humanics, which builds on our innate strengths and prepares students to compete in a labor market in which smart machines work alongside human professionals. The new literacies of Aoun's humanics are data literacy, technological literacy, and human literacy. Students will need data literacy to manage the flow of big data, and technological literacy to know how their machines work, but human literacy-the humanities, communication, and design-to function as a human being. Life-long learning opportunities will support their ability to adapt to change.

The only certainty about the future is change. Higher education based on the new literacies of humanics can equip students for living and working through change.

Hardcover

Out of Print ISBN: 9780262037280 216 pp. | 5.375 in x 8 in

Paperback

$17.95 T ISBN: 9780262535977 216 pp. | 5.375 in x 8 in

Authors

Joseph E. Aoun

Joseph Aoun is President of Northeastern University.

Endorsements

This book is an authoritative call for action and a compelling model for the next step in the evolution of higher education. Aoun offers an optimistic-and more important, realistic-vision of how we can educate ourselves for an AI economy.

Jeffrey S. Bornstein

Vice Chairman & Chief Financial Officer, GE

Dr. Aoun is a leader in framing new educational models to enable student readiness for careers in our evolving economy. Our future as a nation depends on getting this right.

Wes Bush

Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and President of Northrop Grumman Corporation

In this original, timely, and provocative study, President Aoun challenges higher education to think differently about and prepare for the age of artificial intelligence. He appeals to universities to foster a generation of lifelong learners who can master robotics, not be mastered by it-a generation that will be prepared to meet the demands of a new economy and the revolutionized nature of the workplace.

Vartan Gregorian

President, Carnegie Corporation of New York

Joseph Aoun's book is a thought-provoking analysis of our technology-infused world and higher education's place in it. Far from fearing the dislocation caused by the increased use of robots and the development of AI, Aoun offers an optimistic, practical view of what higher education can do to prepare the next generation. Anyone interested in higher-education policy will greatly benefit from this cogent, persuasively written work.

Janet Napolitano

President, University of California, and former Secretary, U.S. Department of Homeland Security

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How to educate the next generation of college students to invent, to create, and to discover-filling needs that even the most sophisticated robot cannot.Driverless cars are hitting the road, powered by artificial intelligence. Robots can climb stairs, open doors, win Jeopardy, analyze stocks, work in factories, find parking spaces, advise oncologists.

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Chicago Manufacturing Excellence: People, Process, and Product

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"[An] essential book... it is required reading as we seriously engage one of the most important debates of our time."-Sherry Turkle, author of Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age
From drones to Mars rovers-an exploration of the most innovative use of robots today and a provocative argument for the crucial role of humans in our increasingly technological future.

In Our Robots, Ourselves, David Mindell offers a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the cutting edge of robotics today, debunking commonly held myths and exploring the rapidly changing relationships between humans and machines.

Drawing on firsthand experience, extensive interviews, and the latest research from MIT and elsewhere, Mindell takes us to extreme environments-high atmosphere, deep ocean, and outer space-to reveal where the most advanced robotics already exist. In these environments, scientists use robots to discover new information about ancient civilizations, to map some of the world's largest geological features, and even to "commute" to Mars to conduct daily experiments. But these tools of air, sea, and space also forecast the dangers, ethical quandaries, and unintended consequences of a future in which robotics and automation suffuse our everyday lives.

Mindell argues that the stark lines we've drawn between human and not human, manual and automated, aren't helpful for understanding our relationship with robotics. Brilliantly researched and accessibly written, Our Robots, Ourselves clarifies misconceptions about the autonomous robot, offering instead a hopeful message about what he calls "rich human presence" at the center of the technological landscape we are now creating.

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Our Robots, Ourselves: Robotics and the Myths of Autonomy - MIT STS

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"[An] essential book... it is required reading as we seriously engage one of the most important debates of our time."-Sherry Turkle, author of Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age From drones to Mars rovers-an exploration of the most innovative use of robots today and a provocative argument for the crucial role of humans in our increasingly technological future.

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Co-chaired by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, the independent 27-member Commission includes leading global figures from business, trade unions, think tanks, government and non-governmental organizations. It was established by the International Labour Organization in 2017 as part of the ILO's Future of Work Centenary Initiative. The Organization marks its centenary in 2019.

Among the key issues considered by the Commission are new forms of work, the institutional ramifications of the changing nature of work, lifelong learning, greater inclusivity and gender equality, the measurement of work and human well-being, and the role of universal social protection in a stable and just future of work.

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Co-chaired by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, the independent 27-member Commission includes leading global figures from business, trade unions, think tanks, government and non-governmental organizations. It was established by the International Labour Organization in 2017 as part of the ILO's Future of Work Centenary Initiative.

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EBPL Book record: "Janesville : an American story"

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EBPL Book record: "Janesville : an American story"

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"A Washington Post reporter's intimate account of the fallout from the closing of a General Motors' assembly plant in Janesville, Wisconsin--Paul Ryan's hometown--and a larger story of the hollowing of the American middle class. This is the story of whathappens to an industrial town in the American heartland when its factory stills--but it's not the familiar tale.

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In ‘Janesville,’ When the G.M. Plant Closed, Havoc Followed (Published 2017)

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Amy Goldstein chronicles in vivid, sophisticated detail the evisceration of life in a Wisconsin town after the loss of its major employer.

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World Employment and Social Outlook - Trends 2021

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ILO projections highlight the danger of a COVID-19 labour market legacy of increased geographic and demographic inequality, rising poverty and fewer decent jobs.

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2022 Word Employment and Social Outlook Trends

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2022 Word Employment and Social Outlook Trends

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How AI and other exponential technologies are transforming business and society.

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How AI and other exponential technologies are transforming business and society.

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HBR Presents

How AI and other exponential technologies are transforming business and society.

About the host

Azeem Azhar is an entrepreneur, investor, and the creator of Exponential View, a highly-regarded newsletter on the future. He is on the board of the Ada Lovelace Institute and a number of other firms. His work has been profiled in The Economist, Financial Times, New York Times, WSJ, and MIT Technology Review.

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HBR Presents How AI and other exponential technologies are transforming business and society. About the host Azeem Azhar is an entrepreneur, investor, and the creator of Exponential View, a highly-regarded newsletter on the future.

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MIT Technology Review events span the globe and illuminate some of the world's brightest thinkers, technologies and companies.

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Skillscape: How skills affect your job trajectory, and their implications for automation by AI – MIT Media Lab

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This blog post summarizes the key findings of our new paper Unpacking the polarization of workplace skills published in Science Advances by our research team...

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Probably not. But if we want a future where more of those jobs are decent and well-paying, we - and our institutions - need to rise to its challenge, says economist David Autor.

Here's a startling fact: in the 45 years since the introduction of the automated teller machine, those vending machines that dispense cash, the number of human bank tellers employed in the United States has roughly doubled, from about a quarter of a million in 1970 to a half a million today, with 100,000 added since the year 2000. These facts, revealed in Boston University economist James Bessen's recent book Learning by Doing, raise an intriguing question: What are all those tellers doing, and why hasn't automation eliminated their employment by now?

If you think about it, many of the great inventions of the last 200 years were designed to replace human labor. Tractors were developed to substitute mechanical power for human physical toil. Assembly lines were engineered to replace inconsistent human handiwork with machine perfection. Computers were programmed to swap out error-prone, inconsistent human calculation with digital perfection. These inventions have worked: We no longer dig ditches by hand, pound tools out of wrought iron or do bookkeeping using actual books. And yet, the fraction of US adults employed in the labor market is higher now in 2016 than it was in 1890, and it's risen in just about every decade in the intervening 125 years. This poses a paradox. Our machines increasingly do our work for us. But the reason there are still so many jobs can be explained by two fundamental economic principles: one has to do with human genius and creativity; and the other has to do with human insatiability, or greed, if you like.

Automating a subset of a position's tasks doesn't make the other ones unnecessary - in fact, it makes them more important.

I'll call the first economic principle the O-ring principle, and it determines the type of work that we do. ATMs ended up having two countervailing effects on bank teller employment. As you'd expect, they replaced a lot of teller tasks, and the number of tellers per branch fell by about one-third. But banks quickly discovered ATMs also made it cheaper to open new branches, so the number of bank branches increased by about 40 percent in the same time period. The net result was more branches and more tellers. However, these tellers were doing somewhat different work. As their routine, cash-handling tasks receded, they became less like checkout clerks and more like salespeople, forging relationships with customers, solving problems and introducing them to new products like credit cards, loans and investments. They were doing a more cognitively demanding job.

In general, automating some subset of a position's tasks doesn't make the other ones unnecessary - in fact, it makes them more important and increases their economic value. Let me give you a stark example. In 1986, the space shuttle Challenger exploded and crashed down to Earth less than two minutes after takeoff. The cause of that crash, it turned out, was an inexpensive rubber O-ring in the booster rocket that had frozen on the launchpad the night before and failed catastrophically moments after takeoff. In this multibillion-dollar enterprise, that simple rubber O-ring made the difference between mission success and the death of seven astronauts. Building on this powerful metaphor, Harvard economist Michael Kremer developed the O-ring production function.

The O-ring production function conceives of work as a series of interlocking steps, links in a chain, and every one of those links must hold for the mission to succeed. If any of them fails, the mission, product or service comes crashing down. This precarious situation has a surprisingly positive implication, which is that improvements in the reliability of any one link in the chain increase the value of improving any of the other links. Conversely, if most of the links are brittle and prone to breakage, the fact that your link is not that reliable is not that important because something else will probably break anyway. But as all the other links become robust and reliable, the importance of each link becomes more essential. The reason the O-ring was critical to space shuttle Challenger is because everything else worked perfectly.

In much of the work that we do, we are the O-rings. Yes, ATMs could do certain cash-handling tasks faster and better than tellers, but that didn't make human tellers superfluous. Instead, it increased the importance of their problem-solving skills and their relationships with customers. The same principle applies if we're building a building, if we're diagnosing and caring for a patient, or if we're teaching a roomful of high schoolers. As our tools improve, technology magnifies our leverage and increases the importance of our expertise, judgment and creativity.

Material abundance has never eliminated perceived scarcity.

The second principle is the never-get-enough principle, and it determines how many jobs there actually are. Once we create a technology that makes us sufficiently productive at something, we've basically worked our way out of a job. In 1900, 40 percent of all US employment was on farms; today, it's less than two percent. This isn't because we're eating less or because there are fewer Americans. A century of productivity growth in farming means that now, a couple of million farmers can feed a nation of 320 million. It's amazing progress, but it also means there are only so many O-ring jobs left in farming. So technology can eliminate jobs, and farming is only one example. But what's true about a single product, service or industry has never been true about the economy as a whole.

Many of the industries in which we now work - health and medicine, finance and insurance, electronics and computing - were tiny or barely existent a century ago. Many of the products that we purchase, like air conditioners, sport utility vehicles, computers and mobile devices, were unattainably expensive, or just hadn't been invented back then. As automation frees our time and increases the scope of what is possible, we invent new products, new ideas and new services that command our attention, occupy our time and spur consumption. While you may think some of these are frivolous - extreme yoga, adventure tourism, Pokémon GO - the fact is, people desire them and they're willing to work hard to pay for them. In 2015, the average worker who wanted to attain the average living standard of 1915 could do so by working just 17 weeks a year, or one third of the time. But most people don't choose to do that. They're willing to work hard to harvest the technological bounty that is available to them. Material abundance has never eliminated perceived scarcity, or, in the words of economist Thorstein Veblen, invention is the mother of necessity.

However, this doesn't mean we'll always have plenty of jobs. Automation creates wealth by allowing us to do more work in less time, but there is no economic law which mandates we will use our wealth well, and this is something worth worrying about. Consider two countries: Norway and Saudi Arabia. While both are oil-rich nations, they haven't used that wealth equally well to foster human prosperity. Norway is a thriving democracy. By and large, its citizens work and play well together, and it typically ranks between no. 1 and no. 4 in rankings of national happiness. Saudi Arabia, by contrast, is an absolute monarchy in which many citizens lack a path for personal advancement, and it's typically ranked 35th among nations in happiness, which is low for such a wealthy nation. (By way of comparison, the US is typically ranked around 12th or 13th.) The difference between the two countries is not their wealth and it's not their technology - it's their institutions. Norway has invested to build a society with opportunity and economic mobility. Saudi Arabia has raised living standards while frustrating many other human strivings.

We've faced equally momentous economic transformations in the past, and we've come through them successfully.

The challenge today is not that we're running out of work - the US has added 14 million jobs since the 2008 recession - but that many of those jobs are not good jobs. What's more, many citizens cannot qualify for the good jobs that are being created. Employment growth in the US and in much of the developed world looks like a barbell with increasing poundage on either end of the bar. On the one hand, you have high-education, high-wage jobs, like doctors and nurses, programmers and engineers, and marketing and sales managers. Employment and employment growth are robust in those professions. Similarly, growth is robust in many low-skill, low-education jobs, like food service, cleaning, security and home-health work. At the same time, employment is shrinking in many middle-education, middle-wage, middle-class jobs, like blue-collar production and operative positions and white-collar clerical and sales positions.

The reasons behind the contracting middle are not mysterious - many middle-skill jobs use well-understood rules and procedures that increasingly can be codified in software and executed by computers. The challenge this phenomenon creates is that it knocks out rungs in the economic ladder, shrinks the size of the middle class, and threatens to make us a more stratified society, divided between highly paid, highly educated professionals doing interesting work and low-wage employees whose primary responsibility is to see to the comfort and health of the affluent. That's not my vision of progress, and I doubt that it's many people's.

The encouraging news is we've faced equally momentous economic transformations in the past, and we've come through them successfully. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, when automation eliminated vast numbers of agricultural jobs, the farm states faced a threat of mass unemployment, a generation of youth no longer needed to work in the fields but not prepared for industry. The country took the radical step of requiring that the entire youth population remain in school and continue their education until they were 16. This was called the high school movement, and it was a radically expensive thing to do. Not only did America have to invest in schools, but kids couldn't work at jobs. It also turned out to be one of the best investments the US made in the 20th century, giving us the most skilled, the most flexible and the most productive workforce in the world.To see how well this worked, imagine taking the labor force of 1899 and bringing them into the present. Despite their strong bodies and good characters, many of them would lack the basic literacy and numeracy skills to do all but the most mundane jobs. Many of them would be unemployable.

What this highlights is the primacy of our institutions, most especially our schools, in allowing us to reap the harvest of our technological prosperity. Clearly, we can still get this wrong. If the US had not invested in its schools and in its skills a century ago with the high school movement, we'd be a less prosperous, less mobile and probably a lot less happy society. But it's equally foolish to say our future will be decided by the machines or the market. It will be decided by us and by our institutions.

Some would argue that this time is different from what happened 100 years ago, and of course, it is different - every time is different. On many occasions in the last two centuries, scholars and activists have raised the alarm that we were running out of work and making ourselves obsolete. There were the Luddites in the early 1800s; US Secretary of Labor James Davis in the mid-1920s; Nobel-winning economist Wassily Leontief in 1982; and the many researchers, pundits, technologists and media figures today.

But the predictions of our present-day self-proclaimed oracles strike me as arrogant. In effect, they're saying, "If I can't think of what people will do for work in the future, then you, me and our kids aren't going to think of it, either." While I can't tell you what people are going to do for work 100 years from now, the future doesn't hinge on my imagination. If I were a farmer in Iowa in the year 1900 and an economist from the 21st century teleported down and said, "Hey, guess what, farmer, in the next hundred years, agricultural employment will drop to two percent due to rising productivity. What do you think the other 38 percent of workers are going to do?" I wouldn't have said, "Oh, we got this. We'll do app development, radiological medicine, yoga instruction, Bitmoji." I wouldn't have had a clue. But I hope I would have said, "Wow, a 95 percent reduction in farm employment with no shortage of food. That's an amazing amount of progress. I hope that humanity finds something remarkable to do with all of that prosperity."

Of course, rising to our challenges will not be automatic, costless or easy. But it is feasible, and thanks to our amazing productivity, we're rich and can afford to invest in ourselves and in our children, just as America did 100 years ago. Arguably, we can't afford not to.

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Here's a startling fact: in the 45 years since the introduction of the automated teller machine, those vending machines that dispense cash, the number of human bank tellers employed in the United States has roughly doubled, from about a quarter of a million in 1970 to a half a million today, with 100,000 added since the year 2000.

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Editor's Note: In 2020, an MIT Task Force produced a comprehensive on the Work of the Future. Since then, the global pandemic has had a significant effect on work and businesses, providing the impetus for The Work of the Future, by the same authors. The book, from which the following excerpt is adapted, will be published by MIT Press on January 25, 2022.

A decade ago, powerful mobile phones were still a novelty, driverless cars were never seen on public roadways, and computers did not listen to conversations or respond to spoken questions. The possibility of robots taking jobs seemed far off, save for an assembly line or two. But as the emerging capabilities of robotics and artificial intelligence began capturing headlines and the popular imagination, researchers and commentators began warning that jobs long thought to be immune to automation-those demanding expertise, judgment, creativity, and seasoned experience-might soon be better accomplished by machines. Citizens of industrialized countries took notice, reacting with mounting trepidation.

Our research did not confirm the dystopian vision of robots ushering workers off factory floors or AI rendering human expertise and judgment superfluous. But it did uncover something equally pernicious: amid a technological ecosystem delivering rising productivity and an economy generating plenty of jobs (at least until the covid-19 crisis), we found a labor market in which the fruits are so unequally distributed, so skewed toward the top, that the majority of workers have tasted only a tiny morsel of a vast harvest.

For most US workers, the trajectory of productivity growth diverged from the trajectory of wage growth four decades ago. This decoupling had baleful economic and social consequences: low-paid, insecure jobs held by non-college-educated workers; low participation rates in the labor force; weak upward mobility across generations; and festering racial disparities in earnings and employment that have not substantially improved in decades. While new technologies have contributed to these poor results, these outcomes were not an inevitable consequence of technological change, or of globalization, or of market forces. Similar pressures from digitalization and globalization affected most industrialized countries, yet their labor markets fared better.

We know that history and economics show no intrinsic conflict among technological change, full employment, and rising earnings. The dynamic interplay of task automation, innovation, and new work creation, while always disruptive, is a primary wellspring of rising productivity. Innovation improves the quantity, quality, and variety of work that a worker can accomplish in a given time. This rising productivity, in turn, enables improving living standards and the flourishing of human endeavors.

When innovation fails to drive opportunity, however, it generates a fear of the future: the suspicion that technological progress, even if it makes the country wealthier, will threaten numerous livelihoods. This fear exacts a high price: political and regional divisions, distrust of institutions, and mistrust of innovation itself. In US politics, a growing gulf between the "haves" and the "have-nots" has driven a deepening national schism over how society should respond to the needs of those at the bottom of the economic ladder.

The central challenge ahead-indeed, the work of the future-is to advance labor market opportunity to meet, complement, and shape technological innovation. This drive will require innovating in our labor market institutions by modernizing the laws, policies, norms, organizations, and enterprises that set the "rules of the game."

The labor market impacts of technologies like AI and robotics are taking years to unfold. But we have no time to spare in preparing for them. If those technologies are deployed in the labor institutions of today, which were designed for the last century, we will see effects similar to those manifested in recent decades: downward pressure on wages and benefits, and an increasingly bifurcated labor market.

Building a future of work that harvests the dividends of rapidly advancing automation and ever more powerful computers can deliver opportunity and economic security for workers. To do that, we must foster institutional innovations that complement technological change.

The central challenge ahead-indeed, the work of the future-is to advance labor market opportunity to meet, complement, and shape technological innovation.

Long before the pandemic disruption, our research on the work of the future showed how many in our country are failing to thrive in a labor market that generates plenty of jobs but little economic security. The effects of the pandemic have made it even more viscerally and publicly clear: despite the official designation of many low-paid workers as "essential," they endured the riskiest working conditions in the face of covid-19, since most of their jobs cannot be done remotely.

Some forecast that robots will soon take over those roles, though few have to date. Others see the indispensable role of human flexibility, since it is human, not machine, adaptability that has allowed us to reorganize work on the fly during the pandemic. Still others see covid-19 as an automation-forcing event-a catalytic force that will pull technologies from the future into the present as we learn to deploy machines in jobs that humans cannot safely perform. However it plays out, the effects of covid-19 on technology and work will last long beyond the pandemic, instigating changes that may look quite unlike what anyone envisioned in 2018.

Other forces have also roiled the 2018 visions of the future, including the rupture between the world's two largest economies and a surge of political turmoil and economic populism that culminated in the violent attack on the US Capitol in the wake of the 2020 election of President Joe Biden. These pressures are reshaping alliances, breaking apart and reorganizing global business relationships, and spurring new forms of cyberwarfare, including disinformation, industrial-scale espionage, and electronic compromising of critical infrastructure. The US and China had friction before, but nothing like the fracture that is now occurring. What began as a trade war has morphed into a technology war. China's whole-of-government approach to tackling major industrial and technological goals poses a competitive challenge for Western economies, which typically take a decentralized, often business-led approach. It remains to be seen whether China's focus on government-driven domination of data accumulation yields technological advances beyond creating powerful tools for monitoring and controlling its own population.

The clash with China is rippling through the economy and threatens to hinder innovation, which increasingly emerges from countries around the world as researchers collaborate across borders and time zones. How can we make sure that technological advances, whenever they come, yield prosperity that is widely shared? How can the US and its workers continue to play a leading role in inventing and shaping the technologies and reaping the benefits?

No compelling historical or contemporary evidence suggests that technological advances are driving us toward a jobless future. On the contrary, we anticipate that in the next two decades, industrialized countries will have more job openings than workers to fill them, and that robotics and automation will play an increasingly crucial role in closing these gaps.

Spectacular advances in computing and communications, robotics and AI, are reshaping industries as diverse as insurance, retail, health care, manufacturing, logistics, and transportation. But we observe substantial time lags, often on the scale of decades, from the birth of an invention to its broad commercialization, assimilation into business processes, widespread adoption, and impacts on the workforce. Novel industrial robots have been slow to move into small and medium-sized firms, for example, and autonomous vehicles have yet to be deployed on a large scale. Indeed, the most profound labor market effects of new technology that we found were due less to robotics and AI than to the continuing diffusion of decades-old (though much improved) technologies like the internet, mobile and cloud computing, and mobile phones.

This time scale of technological change provides the opportunity to craft policies, develop skills, and foment investments to constructively shape the trajectory of change toward the greatest social and economic benefit.

What will be required to reshape and refocus the institutions and policies of the US to create the shared prosperity that is possible if we are willing to make the necessary changes?

We begin by looking at how workers are trained to make their way in a fast-changing economy. Enabling workers to remain productive in a continuously evolving workplace requires empowering them to learn new skills at all stages of life-in primary and secondary schools, in vocational and college programs, and in ongoing adult training programs. The distinctive US system for worker training has shortcomings, but it also has unique virtues. For example, it offers numerous points of entry for workers who may want to reshape their career paths or need to find new work after a layoff. We argue that the US must invest in existing educational and training institutions and innovate to create new training models to make ongoing skills development accessible, engaging, and cost-effective.

But even well-trained and motivated workers need and deserve a sense of basic security. Rising labor productivity has not translated into broad increases in incomes because labor market institutions and policies have fallen into disrepair.

Peer nations from Sweden to Germany to Canada have faced the same economic, technological, and global forces as the US, and have enjoyed equally strong economic growth, but have delivered better results for their workers. What set the US apart are specific institutional changes and policy choices that failed to blunt, and in some cases magnified, the consequences of these pressures on the labor market.

The US has allowed traditional channels for the workers' voice to atrophy without fostering new institutions or buttressing existing ones. It has permitted the federal minimum wage to recede to near irrelevance, lowering the floor under the labor market for low-paid workers. It has embraced a policy-driven expansion of free trade with the developing world, Mexico and China in particular, that has raised aggregate national income, and yet it has failed to address the resulting employment losses and the retraining needs of workers displaced by these policies.

No evidence suggests that this strategy of embracing growth while ignoring the plight of rank-and-file workers has paid off for the US. US leadership in growth and innovation is long-standing-the country led the world throughout the 20th century, and particularly in the several decades immediately after World War II-while the labor market maladies documented here are recent. These failures do not inevitably follow from innovation or constitute costs worth paying to gain the other economic benefits that they ostensibly deliver. We can do better.

Recognizing the centrality of good jobs to human welfare and the centrality of innovation to the creation of good jobs leads us to ask how we can leverage investments in innovation to drive job creation, speed growth, and meet rising competitive challenges.

Investments in innovation expand the economic pie, which is crucial to meeting challenges posed by a globalized economy marked by fierce technological competition. Throughout our studies, we found technologies that were direct results of US federal investment in research and development over the past century and longer: the internet, advanced semiconductors, AI, robotics, and autonomous vehicles, to name but a few. These new goods and services generate new industries and occupations that demand new skills and offer new earnings opportunities. The US has a stellar record of supporting innovations that inventors, entrepreneurs, and creative capital deploy to support and create new businesses.

Adopting new technology creates winners and losers and will continue to do so. Seeking input from all stakeholders-including workers, businesses, investors, educational and nonprofit organizations, and government-can minimize the harms and maximize the benefits to individuals and communities and help ensure that the labor market of the future offers advantages, opportunity, and a measure of economic security to all.

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Editor's Note: In 2020, an MIT Task Force produced a comprehensive report on the Work of the Future. Since then, the global pandemic has had a significant effect on work and businesses, providing the impetus for The Work of the Future, by the same authors.

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A new social contract is possible if workers, business, labor, education and government work together, Lee Dyer and Tom Kochan say in the new edition of their book.