A New Promise of Work: What the Evidence Says About America’s Workforce

At a moment when workers and employers alike are navigating rapid technological and economic change, the question isn’t just what’s happening in the labor market – it’s what kind of promise work should hold. For too many workers, steady employment is no longer enough to cover basic needs. Wages have failed to keep pace with the rising cost of housing, childcare, and healthcare – and the workforce field has too often responded by treating skills and job quality as separate problems with separate solutions.

Join the National Skills Coalition and WorkRise, an initiative of the Urban Institute, for a virtual conversation on what the evidence tells us about building a workforce system that works. 

NSC’s CEO Brooke DeRenzis will sit down with Elisabeth Jacobs, acting Executive Director of WorkRise, to explore a deceptively simple question: What does it take for work to deliver on its promise?

Following the conversation, NSC’s Chief of Policy and State Strategies Melissa Johnson will lead a panel discussion with leaders from NSC’s New Promise of Work Advisory Council and WorkRise’s Leadership Board. Drawing on evidence and on-the-ground experience, panelists will focus on concrete strategies to simultaneously expand access to high-demand skills, improve job quality, and address the affordability pressures that determine whether work actually delivers economic security.