News and Insights
Dawson has written a set of six “opinion briefs” on improving the quality of jobs for low-income workers. Topics range from employer engagement to re-designing workforce intermediaries. We recommend starting with Paper #1 and Paper #6. The six briefs are at: {www.thepinkertonfoundation.org/paper_type/job-quality-series}
Also, the National Fund has built upon the job-quality framework proposed in Paper #6 for a “dynamic definition” of the many ways in which frontline jobs can be improved: https://nationalfund.org/job-quality-resource-center/.
This Time Magazine editorial, written by Maureen Conway of the Aspen Institute, makes a strong argument for why the workforce field must look beyond training strategies alone, to interventions that include “the nature of work, and the kind of opportunity a job offers.” This brief Time editorial can be found at:
Many workforce practitioners are assisting retail businesses—and have quickly come to understand that scheduling practices are a prime factor in destabilizing both work- and homelife for frontline retail staff. This study is a disciplined analysis of scheduling practices at national retail store, The Gap, and how certain interventions, such as tech-enabled shift swapping, impacted both workers and Gap stores.
A brief introductory article can be found at the Slate website: https://slate.com/human-interest/2018/03/new-study-examines-schedule-instability-in-retail-jobs.html
PCV, based in Oakland, California, is a nonprofit community development finance institution (CDFI) that invests in small businesses in low-income communities. There are over 1000 CDFIs in the U.S., and several are now pursuing job-quality strategies—combining business investment with workforce development. PCV’s report offers a CDFI perspective on these initiatives. Here is the executive summary to the “Moving Beyond Job Creation: Defining and Measuring the Creation of Quality Jobs” article.
The full report is at: https://www.pacificcommunityventures.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2016/04/Quality-Jobs_Moving-Beyond-Job-Creation.pdf