Search Results
Discussion Paper
Introducing the Unemployment Claims Monitor
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused an unparalleled economic slowdown and record numbers of layoffs. Even casual economic observers have seen reports of millions of workers filing claims for unemployment insurance—between the weeks of March 21, 2020 and April 25, 2020, 19 percent of workers covered by unemployment insurance filed an initial claim—but what exactly does this mean for unemployment?1 It is important to understand exactly what an unemployment insurance (UI) claim represents and how it provides information on what is happening in the economy.
Discussion Paper
How Community Partners in Chattanooga, Tennessee Are Working toward an Equitable Workforce System
From April 2022 through March 2023, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s Center for Workforce andEconomic Opportunity participated in the Reinventing Our Communities (ROC) program, a place-basedeconomic inclusion program designed to increase equity in the workforce development system inChattanooga, Tennessee. Through applied trainings, workshops, peer learning, and technical support,the program helped public- and private-sector community partners across Chattanooga work toward:• Improved community-led collaboration around racial equity and workforce development• Increased ...
Discussion Paper
Creating Opportunities for Young Workers
Integrating young workers into the workforce, especially opportunity youth, takes a deliberate approach. Considering the needs and perspectives of young workers is critical to integrating them into the workforce. Involving young adults and opportunity youth in the design and development of programs and curricula that prepare them for work will help ensure that the programs address challenges young workers face in the labor market. Creating opportunities for early work experience also plays an important role.
Discussion Paper
Hiring Difficulties across Industries and Location
In the current tight labor market with low levels of unemployment, it is not surprising that a large share of firms experience difficulty hiring candidates for open positions. However, much is unclear about the extent of these difficulties, their underlying reasons, and how firms respond. Using data from the Federal Reserve Banks' national 2017 Small Business Credit Survey, a recent paper examines the nature of firms' hiring difficulties and how they vary by industry and geographic location. The paper also explores how the reasons behind hiring difficulties relate to firms' responses. The ...
Discussion Paper
Opportunity Occupations and the Future of Work
From 19th-century workers smashing textile factory machines to John Maynard Keynes's musing on technological unemployment, worries and passions about machines replacing workers are hundreds of years old. More recently, robots and computers (through artificial intelligence) are replacing a growing number of human skills, and this has become an important topic of conversation in public policy. It is also increasingly on the minds of workers and students making decisions about their investments in skills and career preparation.
Discussion Paper
Rework America Alliance: Helping Workers Move into Good Jobs
We see the current situation as a call to action—and an unparalleled opportunity to advance more effective and equitable systems to connect people to opportunity. Seizing this opportunity will require building new partnerships improving training systems, and prototyping new models of action. As such, we are excited to announce that the Atlanta Fed’s Center for Workforce and Economic Opportunity is partnering with the Markle Foundation and many other organizations to launch the Rework America Alliance, an innovative, nationwide initiative to help workers emerge from this crisis stronger. ...
Discussion Paper
Public Libraries and the Workforce
This Workforce Currents article presents the broad range of ways that public libraries are responding to COVID-19. It provides a brief overview of the role of libraries and their range of services, how they responded to workforce needs in the past, and how they are responding and preparing for long-term impacts of the current pandemic. Libraries are mobilizing for the economic fallout associated with COVID-19 such as facilitating unemployment insurance enrollment, referrals to food banks, and other services for immediate needs. Library staff are also thinking longer term about how ...
Discussion Paper
The Geography of AI Demand in the Southeast: Patterns of Growth and Labor Market Structure
Artificial intelligence (AI) tools have moved from niche to a broadly discussed force in the labor market, with a growing body of research exploring how AI may shape skill demand and broader labor market outcomes. Much of the current research suggests that the effects of AI are unlikely to be evenly distributed across occupations and education levels, and that differences in regional and local labor market composition may shape how these changes unfold.2 At the same time, there remains considerable uncertainty about how these effects will materialize in practice. Some analyses focus on how AI ...
Discussion Paper
Can Community Colleges Step Up as Engines of Economic Recovery?
In midsummer 2010, the New York Times sent a reporter to the Rust Belt to talk to manufacturing employers.1 Had the picture brightened in their sector? Were they adding jobs? How many of the 2 million manufacturing workers laid off since the crash in 2007 were being rehired?The answer was unexpected and bittersweet. Manufacturing was slowly coming back, and plants were starting to rehire. But even with a vast pool of unemployed workers to draw on, employers were having trouble filling jobs. "The people that are out of work don’t match the jobs that are open and growing," one Midwesterner ...
Discussion Paper
Who Has COVID-19 Impacted and What’s Been Done to Help?
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports the unemployment rate monthly. Generally, it gives an idea of the number of Americans who are out of work and looking for new employment. During times of economic stress, however, this metric may not paint a full picture of those who are out of work.Headline unemployment numbers can be misleading, and the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the accuracy of the picture painted by the headline unemployment numbers. For instance, the October jobs report from the BLS identified 11.1 million unemployed workers, or 6.9 percent unemployment. But this ...