Hardly Working with Brent Orrell

In March of 2020, the remote workforce skyrocketed from just 7 percent of the working population to nearly 40 percent at the height of the pandemic. The pandemic is winding down but it appears remote work is here to stay. In this episode of Hardly Working , I’m joined by Stanford economist Dr. Nicholas (Nick) Bloom to talk about the future of remote work, the worker-employer contest over returning...

In the age of rapid economic development and changing workforce demands, noncognitive skills are “master skills” which serve as a foundation for and amplify cognitive and technical skills. Communication, integrity, and organizational soft skills are in top demand by employers, and building and strengthening these characteristics is an essential part of preparing a strong workforce for the future....

In today’s rapidly changing economy, noncognitive skills development is the key to building a flexible, resilient, and strong workforce for today and in the future. Such skills include communication, integrity, and organization. They are in top demand by employers today, and uncovering how to develop them is an essential workforce policy area. This episode of "Hardly Working" is a rebroadcast of a...

Twenty-first century automation is fueling an ongoing debate around the future of work. Is the end to human labor around the corner? Will robots replace us? The short answer is no. The longer answer is that work is changing fast and will likely require the capacity to adapt and constant upgrading of skills. In this episode of "Hardly Working" , I was joined by Jamie Merisotis , president and CEO o...

The liberal arts are a frequent political punching bag for partisans on both sides of the aisle. Progressives have gotten used to “deconstructing” the “dead White males” of Western classics, leading populists to view them as either irrelevant for finding work or an actual threat to students’ well-being.  What if neither view was right? What if the liberal arts are more important and more bene...

The declining birth rate has come for most advanced countries, and the US is no exception. Now, we are starting to see what a labor market reshaped by years of low fertility looks like and what the future may hold.  Ron Hetrick of Emsi and Rob Sentz, formerly of Emsi, joined me to discuss their  report  on what they’re calling a “sansdemic” — literally, “without people” — labor mark...

Helping workers transition to new careers has taken on new importance during the COVID-19 recovery. This has led to special attention being given to worker transition systems and the existing inadequacies in our current programs, especially when compared to those from other countries.  Rachel Lipson and David Deming recently wrote an  AEI report  that provides an overview of what we...

For America’s workforce, the past year has been, if not the worst of times, certainly one of the most challenging in the nation’s history. Pandemic lockdowns have been associated with not only burnout and stress but also the discovery of the potential benefits of remote work.  Laurel Farrer , a remote work consultant and strategist, joined us on “ Hardly Working ”  to explain how the pan...

Job Corps  is a program that dates to President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty. The initial goal — help young people develop the skills they need to succeed in the workforce — was laudable. However, as tends to happen with government programs, the results have fallen short of the vision. On this episode of “Hardly Working,” I’m joined by Anne Kim, who listeners may recognize from  he...

Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash all represent a new kind of company — one that seeks to connect individual workers to fluid market demands. These electronic gig networks have not only spread prosperity but also made it clear how important people’s talents are to the economy as a whole. They also hold promise in providing people with ways to develop new skills and business opportunities and to become thei...

The liberal arts have been having a rough time. The left tends to see them as part and parcel of a racist system that must be overthrown, and the right sees them as either a waste of time or part of the woke industrial complex. All this leads us to ask: Are they doomed? Should they be?   This week, I sat down with Ted Hadzi-Antich of the Great Questions Foundation for a conversation about the...

Nontechnical skills — communication, creativity, and teamwork — are important to career success. Unfortunately, they often aren’t well-defined, and we have trouble “teaching” them in a classroom. David Deming of the Malcom Wiener Center on Social Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government has spent several years researching the role noncognitive and nontechnical skills play in workforce succ...

Remote work went from niche to mainstream due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A practice that was initially exclusive became the new normal for much of the white-collar workforce. Businesses and employees may not be keen to go back to the way things used to be.   This episode of “Hardly Working” is a companion episode to the one that ran two weeks ago and contains the second half of AEI’s remo...

Remote work exploded in popularity due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A practice previously used by a fraction of the workforce suddenly became the new normal for many white-collar workers. Many businesses have already suggested they may never return to the "old normal." In this episode of "Hardly Working," we look at the pluses and minuses of life in the home office and how working from home is affect...

Of all the things we take for granted, parental love is pretty high on the list, and yet few things are as important in setting our expectations and opportunities in life. But what happens when a child can’t depend on his or her parents? This is the story of Alexis and Justin Black , two young adults who grew up in the nation’s foster care system, and how, as young adults, they have overcome traum...

In 2016, the idea of ‘deaths of despair’ went from a social science term to a much more widespread one as the forgotten man (and woman) played an integral part in electing President Trump. How are things now, and what comes next? The authors of 2020’s Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism , Angus Deaton and Anne Case joined me on this episode to talk about this problem and what needs to b...

Entry-level workers face a myriad of obstacles to finding, keeping, and advancing in their careers that can hamper progress toward achieving family-sustaining employment. These obstacles are inhibit company productivity and company efforts to reduce turnover and strengthen and diversify workforces. Employer Resource Networks are a potential solution to this problem. This episode of Hardly Working...

Entry-level workers face a myriad of obstacles to finding, keeping, and advancing in their careers that can hamper progress toward achieving family-sustaining employment. These obstacles inhibit company productivity and company efforts to reduce turnover and strengthen and diversify workforces. Employer Resource Networks are a potential solution to this problem. This episode of Hardly Working is t...

Cases of COVID-19 are rapidly accelerating around the country, diminishing hopes that life will return to a pre-pandemic normal anytime soon. Health concerns are not all the country has to worry about, though. To discuss the economic and financial impacts of COVID-19 in America and in emerging markets, Brent is joined by Desmond Lachman, a Resident Fellow in Economic Policy for The American Enterp...

Are prisons designed to punish, rehabilitate, or a combination of the two? At age 17,  Chris Wilson  was sentenced to life in prison, but he developed a list of goals — his “master plan” — to help him become the man he knew he wanted to be, despite being behind bars. Sixteen years later, Chis was granted parole. Since then, he has dedicated his life to giving back to his community,...

Children who are born and raised in two-parent families are significantly more likely to avoid poverty and other adverse social outcomes but how that happens is unclear. Brent talks to Scott Winship, Director of Poverty Studies at AEI and co-author of a new report on family structure in America entitled “ The Demise of the Happy Two-Parent Home ”. They discuss family stability, economic security,...

Over the past five years, Americans have become more pessimistic about the nation’s economic future. We’ve weathered two recessions and now a pandemic that has put millions out of work. For some, these events have been a sign that free markets aren’t all they are cracked up to be and that stronger government interventions are needed. But does the data support this view? Brent talks to Michael Stra...

For decades society has awarded social prestige and financial benefits to those who acquire a college degree and enter the so-called “knowledge economy”. Skilled manual labor and the caring professions, however, have too often been left behind. Why are these workers not as valued as they should be? And how do we create a more equitable labor force to ensure that all workers are respected for the v...

The accessibility of a college-level education in prison has been a controversial topic for decades. While some view it as an innovative solution to reduce recidivism and help prisoners better understand themselves and the world around them, others see it as a waste of taxpayer funded resources. Brent talks to Max Kenner, the founder and Executive Director of the Bard Prison Initiative, a fully-ac...

For many years it was thought that the only industries at risk of being automated were those that did not require human intelligence. Artificial intelligence is bringing automation to increasing numbers of tasks and forcing human beings to work in concert with technology. Some say, AI is actually rewriting the playbook of work altogether and may undermine the role as a source of meaning and purpos...