Unemployment Is Low, But We Can Do Better

The country might be enjoying unemployment rates at a near 50-year low this Labor Day, but it’s a far more complicated story for many U.S. workers. Estimates are that more than 19 million workers earn less than $15 an hour, and now new data suggests that nearly 40 percent are working in lower-quality jobs that leave them feeling underpaid, overworked, and trapped.

The familiar narrative of low-quality jobs being rights-of-passage or waypoints on the way to a stronger career and a better life doesn’t quite hold up today. While some of these workers are indeed young people experiencing their first brush with work, nearly two-thirds of workers in low-wage jobs are between 24 and 55 years old, what is considered to be their prime working years. Forty percent of those workers are raising children. The reality is that many people working in lower-quality jobs today do so to support themselves and their families. Rather than acting as stepping stones, lower-quality jobs can too easily occupy the bulk or even the entirety of a person’s career.

We cannot expect to have a thriving, engaged workforce unless every worker has access to quality jobs– ones that include family-sustaining wages and benefits, as well as flexibility, autonomy and pathways for professional advancement.

To that end, my organization, Jobs for the Future, recently commissioned Morning Consult to survey more than 2,200 workers to better understand the scope of this challenge. Unfortunately, U.S. workers in low-quality jobs are telling us they do not see a path forward. Workers with low-medium quality jobs (15%) are less likely to strongly agree that the education and career pathway they pursued helped them achieve a quality job, than those already in high-quality jobs (43%).

Perhaps unsurprisingly, we also found that job quality and worker well-being are deeply connected: Workers reporting high-quality jobs are consistently more likely to say that they feel productive (46 percent vs. 29 percent), happy (40 percent vs. 14 percent), and optimistic (34 percent vs. 15 percent) than those with low- to medium-quality jobs. At the same time, just 58 percent of workers say that the quality of their current or most recent job is very or somewhat high.

While 30 percent of workers do consider pay an essential component of a quality job, 70 percent value other aspects, including work-life balance, flexible schedule, and the ability to work from home.

Workers in lower-quality jobs also lack clarity on career advancement and how to find their way to high-quality jobs. In essence, for many people, working in a low-quality job is itself a barrier to advancement. Workers with lower-quality jobs are consistently less likely to say that they feel they are clear about how to obtain such a job (20 percent vs. 46 percent). They are consistently less likely to say they understand which credentials lead to quality jobs (22 percent vs. 49 percent).

Labor Day should be a rallying cry for employers, industry leaders, and policymakers to take action to improve the job quality of U.S. workers. The solution lies in improving the quality of all jobs—not only helping people escape to better ones.

To start, companies can adopt a skills-first approach to hiring and promotion, implement strategies to better center worker voice, and redesign career advancement pathways to higher quality jobs. In a tight labor market, prioritizing the economic and social well-being of their workers is also a smart business move to attract and retain talent.

Through the lessons from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Job Quality Academy, the public workforce system can play a stronger role in helping workers secure quality jobs. We are seeing investors begin to highlight job quality as key in their investment criteria, and encourage more to do so. Policymakers can push for legislation, rules, and regulations that incentivize—or even require—higher job quality across sectors.

For example, the Good Jobs Initiative, spearheaded by the U.S. Departments of Labor and Commerce, has already laid out principles outlining a shared vision of good jobs for the federal government and a range of stakeholders. The Families and Workers Fund, a coalition of more than 15 major philanthropic institutions, is organizing funders to use their resources and influence to advance the growth of good jobs.

There is much more work to be done to improve the quality of jobs in America. Everyone—from training providers and educational institutions to workforce development boards and community-based organizations—has a role to play in building stronger pathways for professional advancement. This includes creating stronger navigational supports for workers and providing them with more opportunities to gain new skills while in the workplace, pursue credentials and certifications in a classroom, and continuously learn wherever they are. We want all U.S. workers to have what they need to find, finance and flourish in their career journey.

We recognize Labor Day not only to honor the contributions of U.S. workers but to remember the fight for fairer working conditions. With so many people in the United States working in lower-quality jobs—and with little hope for finding their way to roles that promise good pay, a positive workplace culture, and opportunities for career advancement—that fight is far from over. Together, we can turn this vision of quality jobs for every worker into a reality.