Workforce Development

Even with unemployment rates at historic lows, over 6 million American remain out of work. The barriers to employment are complex. Even among those who are working, many struggle to earn family sustaining wages. These challenges expose workers, families, and communities across our nation to instability and hardship. Meanwhile, employers and industry sectors struggle to find the talent they need to remain competitive in a rapidly evolving global economy.

AIR has an experienced team that is passionate about improving workforce outcomes to expand economic opportunity. We work with both workforce development stakeholders to develop and link the right workers to the right jobs and expand access to good jobs for all. Working with our federal, state, local, foundation, and private sector partners, AIR offers expertise in:

HARNESSING EVIDENCE-BASED, INNOVATIVE APPROACHES

We bring streamlined access to a range of proven and innovative methods to help our clients improve policies, programs, strategies, and practices:

Integrated research and evaluation (R&E) and technical assistance (TA)
Human-centered design
Behavioral insights
Data analytics and strategic solutions
Human capital solutions

We anchor our methodological expertise with deep knowledge of target populations, systems and regional and local contexts.

HELPING PROGRAM ADMINISTRATORS IMPROVE SERVICES

Image of young woman with pen at a bulletin board

Workforce programs can only reach their full potential efficiently if they can access and implement best practices. We leverage AIR’s deep expertise in providing evidence-driven technical assistance across a range of programs. AIR’s recent work includes:

Modernizing the Job Corps curriculum
Strengthening staff capacity for customer centered design and data driven decisionmaking
Supporting work-based learning initiatives in states

HELPING POLICY MAKERS LEARN WHAT WORKS, WHEN, AND FOR WHOM

We focus on develop rigorous evidence on a wide range of workforce programs that can help guide strategic decisions on how to best invest funding in increasingly scarce resource environments. Some of our work in this area includes:

Evaluations of welfare to work, transitional work-based learning, and career pathways programs
Studies and consumer information tools on labor market returns to education
Rapid cycle evaluations of behavioral nudges for labor programs

HELPING EMPLOYERS FIND, RETAIN, AND REWARD TALENT

AIR’s industrial and organizational psychologists use research-based principles to prepare employers, industry, and public agencies to recruit, develop, and retain the human capital needed for organizational success and to facilitate worker acquisition of skills needed for life long employment. We offer services and have experience in:

Job analysis and competency modeling
Employee recruitment and selection
Training and professional development
Performance management
Human factors and usability testing

Latest Work

Project

Identifying and Reducing Gender Bias in STEM: Systematically Synthesizing the Experimental Evidence

Researchers are debating whether biases against women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) have reduced over time, persist in nearly all training and career contexts, or vary in more nuanced ways across contexts and STEM fields. AIR is synthesizing four decades of research to understand the postsecondary and workforce contexts in which bias against women in STEM remains especially pernicious and the interventions that can most effectively reduce such biases.

27 Apr 2021

In the Field

Building the U.S. Workforce of the Future: Key Challenges and Opportunities

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic put extraordinary pressures on the U.S. economy, a number of disruptive shifts complicated workforce stability and preparation. AIR's Workforce Development and Economic Mobility/Prosperity Working Group conducted a series of analyses to better understand current economic dynamics. Here are the key takeaways and guideposts for building a strong, enduring workforce system.

5 Mar 2021 | 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM

Event

The Relative Returns to Credit- and Non-Credit-Bearing Attainment

In the midst of the economic fallout from COVID-19, Scott Cheney, CEO of Credential Engine, joined Irma Perez-Johnson, vice president at AIR, to discuss recent research findings by Candace Hester and Sami Kitmitto suggesting that credit-bearing credentials are worth about 17% more annually than non-credit-bearing credentials.

Project

The Workforce Development and Economic Mobility/Prosperity Working Group at AIR

Disruptive shifts, such as technology and automation, have affected the stability of the U.S. workforce in recent years, and the COVID-19 pandemic has put even greater pressures on the economy, displacing many workers. At the same time, many employers are finding it more difficult to hire workers with the skills they need, and fewer students are enrolling in and completing postsecondary degree programs.

Project

An Opportunity to Do Better: Youth Pathways to Thriving

While communities have made progress in the last decade to reconnect youth to opportunities to thrive and build skills through school and employment, the COVID-19 pandemic threatens this progress. Now is the time to address this inequity through a learning agenda for opportunity youth. This brief explores the promise of adolescents as a force for good, reviews the evidence on programs intended to support opportunity youth in their transition to adulthood, and identifies a learning agenda to support opportunity youth on a path to thriving.

29 Dec 2020

Report

NCSL Occupational Licensing Consortium Case Study Reports

With one in four jobs requiring an occupational license, licensing is one of the central factors that shapes employment opportunities for many workers. AIR has worked with the National Conference for State Legislatures and its partner organizations, the Council of State Governments and the National Governors Association's Center for Best Practices to develop case studies reviewing their licensing practices. This report illustrates each state’s effort and identifies promising practices from these states.

20 Oct 2020 | 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM

Event

Leading the Way or Falling Behind? A Policy Panel on Pay Disparities for People with Disabilities

People with disabilities are an important part of the workforce, but make 63 cents for every dollar earned by a person without a disability—and that gap rises as educational attainment increases. On Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2020, the Institute for Educational Leadership and AIR led a discussion on the challenges that people with disabilities face in the workplace, and the implications for policymakers at the state and local levels.

1 Oct 2020

Report

The Relative Returns to Credit- and Non-Credit-Bearing Credentials

This analysis used 20 years of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 panel using an individual fixed-effects regression strategy to estimate the returns to noncredit-bearing credential and licensure pathways compared with credit-bearing credential and associate degree programs. Our findings show that credit-bearing credentials yield an approximately equal likelihood to be employed as noncredit-bearing credentials, but significantly improved earnings of about $7,000 a year.

4 Jun 2020

Podcast

AIR Informs Episode #7: The Real Unemployment Rate and Workplace After COVID-19

In the latest episode of AIR Informs, Irma Perez-Johnson explains why the U.S. Department of Labor’s unemployment statistics may not capture the full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the workforce; why an accurate count matters; and what the road to economic recovery may look like.

13 May 2020

Brief

Millions More People Were Jobless Due to COVID-19 Than Indicated by Official Statistics

The U.S. Department of Labor reported that 23 million Americans were unemployed as of April 2020. While these numbers may seem shocking, the official count may exclude up to 8 million more who lost jobs or stopped looking for work between February and April. This brief examines those numbers.

Project

What’s Your Vision? A Campaign for the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind

AIR worked with the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind (MCB) to develop an advertising campaign, What’s Your Vision?, which aims to connect Massachusetts residents with visual impairments with employment opportunities, through partnerships MCB has with employers, vision care providers, and educators. AIR leveraged its cross-cutting capabilities to develop this campaign, involving activities that spanned research, communications, technical assistance, and evaluation.

Image of AIR Principal Researcher Samia Amin

18 Nov 2019

Video

Long Story Short: How Can Behavioral Insights Improve Public Services and Policies?

Behavioral insights draw on psychology, cognitive science, social science, and research to understand how people make decisions. In this video, AIR Principal Researcher Samia Amin explains why the use of behavioral insights has become increasingly important in the public sector.

18 Nov 2019

Q & A

Meet the Expert: Samia Amin

Samia Amin leads the workforce development practice at AIR. She’s helped federal, state, local, and international governments and foundations develop and refine workforce programs. At AIR, she directs a variety of studies and is an expert in using methods such as behavioral insights, human-centered design, and research-driven pilot programs for continuous program improvement.

Project

National Evaluation of Career and Technical Education under Perkins V (NECTEP)

The Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (Perkins V) reauthorized the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006, which funds state agencies that in turn provide grants to school districts and postsecondary institutions to implement career and technical education. AIR and its partners will design and execute an evaluation, collecting and analyzing data from a variety of sources to evaluate CTE under the new law.

Project

Grow Your Own (GYO): A Systematic Approach to Securing an Effective Educator Talent Pool Modules

GYO is one strategy to address local teacher shortages and recruit future teachers of color. By leveraging local talent, GYO programs can promote a more diverse workforce while supporting college and career readiness development in high school students. The learning series, Grow Your Own: A Systemic Approach to Securing an Effective Educator Talent Pool, helps those interested in developing and implementing GYO programs through four short modules.

1 Mar 2019

Brief

Developing a College- and Career-Ready Workforce: An Analysis of ESSA, Perkins, and WIOA

To establish an education-to-workforce pipeline, state leaders need to align labor market efforts with the education pipeline to ensure a seamless system of academic, technical, and employability skills preparedness. This updated brief aims to identify opportunities to connect, align, and leverage state policies, programs, and funding across federal laws that govern the pipeline.

4 Feb 2019

Video

Long Story Short: How Can Design Thinking Improve How We Serve Vulnerable Populations?

What is design thinking and how is AIR using it to serve vulnerable populations? AIR expert Virginia Hamilton explains how design thinking is used across a variety of sectors and can bring a diverse group of people together to work toward the same goal: supporting others.

11 Jan 2019

Video

Work-Based Learning Activity State Spotlight: Georgia State-Led Topical Conversations

Georgia has long believed that work-based learning is the best vehicle to teach students employability skills. Learn more about Georgia’s approach to work-based learning standards and how its structure plays a part in the success of their program.

Project

Career and Technical Education Research Network

Career and technical education (CTE) prepares students with academic, technical, and employability skills for success in the workplace and in further education. More research is needed to understand its effects on student outcomes. The CTE Research Network seeks to meet this need by increasing the number of impact studies and strengthening the capacity of the field to conduct and use rigorous research.

1 May 2018

Brief

A Description of U.S. Adults Who Are Not Digitally Literate

This brief highlights findings from the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) in an effort to obtain a clear understanding of the ability of adults to undertake digital problem solving. This brief uses data gathered from a sample of 5,000 adults across different socio-demographic groups in the United States and compares it to international averages from 19 other countries to answer three specific study questions.

14 Sep 2017

Report

Adult Education and Training: Results from the National Household Education Surveys Program of 2016

In 2016, more than one quarter of adults had a nondegree credential—including a postsecondary certificate, occupational license, or occupational certification—according to the latest results from the National Household Education Surveys. This report summarizes key findings from the 2016 Adult Training and Education Survey, which gathered nationally representative data on U.S. adults’ training and education as of 2016.

Project

National Study of the Implementation of Adult Education Under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act

The Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA) Program, authorized under Title II of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), is the main source of federal support for adult basic and literacy education programs for adults who lack basic skills, a high school diploma, or proficiency in English. The National Study of the Implementation of Adult Education Under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act is the first study in the evaluation of WIOA Title II, and will collect data for the first time in over a decade on how adult education programs are providing services under AEFLA.

Project

Evaluation of SB 1041 Reforms to California’s CalWORKs Program

The California Budget Act of 2012 included significant reforms to California’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program known as CalWORKs (California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids). AIR is partnering with the RAND Corporation to evaluate whether or not the reforms are achieving their objectives and if there are any unintended consequences.