State of Our Workforce

Workforce systems are complex. Education, employers, nonprofits, funders, and public institutions all play a role. Too often, those pieces operate separately. Creating better pathways to economic mobility requires bringing people and systems together around shared challenges and solutions. In this episode, we’re getting to know one of Shift Work Forward’s newest Network Partners: the Future of Wor...

What does it take to build a local economy where workers, entrepreneurs, small businesses, and communities can all thrive? In this episode of State of Our Workforce: Unpacked, Henry Danner sits down with Dee Manyama, Initiatives Director at Prosper in Birmingham, Alabama, one of Shift Work Forward’s newest Network Partners. Dee shares how Prosper is working to build a more thriving and inclusive l...

Creating a stronger childcare system doesn't happen through one program or one organization. It requires communities willing to work together, test new approaches, and learn from one another. In this second special episode recorded during Shift Work Forward's June 2026 Childcare Cross-Site Meeting in Chicago, three additional community leaders discuss how they're advancing systems-level strategies...

When people talk about fixing childcare, the conversation often centers on affordability for families or access to available seats. Those challenges are real, but they only tell part of the story. Behind every childcare classroom are educators whose working conditions shape not only their own futures, but the quality and stability of care that families depend on. In this first of two special episo...

Childcare is essential infrastructure for workers, families, and local economies. Too often, people who make it possible are left out of the conversations shaping the future of the industry. In this episode we’re joined by Linda Dworak, Executive Director of the Baltimore Workforce Funders Collaborative, to explore why Baltimore became fertile ground for centering workers to shape solutions to som...

Too often, workforce conversations focus on skills, training, and hiring. But workers need more than a job to succeed. For many workers, the biggest barriers to career success happen outside the workplace. Childcare, housing costs, transportation, access to healthcare. These challenges shape whether people can get a job, keep a job or move forward in their careers. In this episode, we’re joined by...

The Bay Area’s workforce faces both historic inequities and new challenges—from climate risks to rising job precarity. How can philanthropy move beyond distant grantmaking to actually empower workers and build lasting power in local communities? In this episode, we sit down with Rob Hope, Director at ReWork the Bay, and Brianna Rogers, Initiative Officer at ReWork, to explore how proximate grantma...

2026 is shaping up to be a defining year for the field of workforce development. We’re launching new programs. We have the SHIFT Conference coming up in Albuquerque this September. And across the country, conversations about job quality, worker voice, and racial equity are accelerating. In this special episode of State of Our Workforce, we’re joined by Amanda Cage for a candid conversation about t...

In this special bonus episode, State of Our Workforce producer Josh Enoch sits down with Michelle Wilson and Henry Danner, hosts of State of Our Workforce and Unpacked, to look back at a year of powerful conversations. Together, they revisit standout moments, unpack recurring themes, and explore what those stories reveal about the state of workforce equity. The conversation also digs into why stor...

New York City’s affordability crisis is reshaping the conversation about work, wages, and economic mobility. But what would it take to ensure more New Yorkers can access jobs that truly sustain a family — and build a future? In this episode, we’re joined by Judith Smith, Director of the NYC Workforce Funders Collaborative; Lauren Melodia, Director of Economic and Fiscal Policies at the Center for...

As another year of rapid change and workplace demands comes to a close, we’re taking a different kind of pause. In this episode, guests Peter Godard and Mona Khan of the Social Identity Coaching Lab invite us into a grounded, reflective conversation about what it means to cultivate joy, peace, and presence at work — not as a luxury, but as a necessary condition for people to thrive. We explore why...

In Massachusetts, new public investments are expanding access to English language learning for immigrants. But as Andre Green, Executive Director of SkillWorks argues, money alone won’t fix the system . To truly support immigrant workers, we need coordinated systems that recognize language access as a key pillar of equity and economic mobility. In this episode, we unpack what it takes to build tho...

In today’s economy, data drives decisions. From how employers hire, to how training programs are designed, to how policymakers invest in communities. When data is accurate, comprehensive, and trusted, it helps align resources, reveal opportunities, and strengthen entire systems. In this episode, we’re joined by Joel Simon, Director of Workforce Innovation at the Burning Glass Institute to explore...

What happens when a grant-funded experiment turns into a lasting way of working? In Louisville, a creative idea to better reach rural jobseekers became much more than a pilot. Born out of the Human-Centered Workforce Services project, their approach was shaped through empathy interviews and co-designed with community members. It worked so well, that even after the project ended, the team at Kentuc...

Workforce development is at a critical inflection point. Economic shifts, technological change, and evolving employer needs are reshaping the labor market, while long-standing inequities continue to hold many workers back. In this episode, we take a wide-angle view of the field: Where are the greatest opportunities? What systemic challenges still demand urgent action? And how can we strengthen equ...

Too often, workers feel disconnected from the decisions that shape their jobs and see little reward when the companies they power succeed. At Optimax Systems, things look different. In this episode, Ale’ Mendoza, Director of Human Resources at Optimax and chair of the board for the National Fund for Workforce Solutions, takes us behind the curtain to share how they are successfully engaging worker...

Too many workers spend their lives in low-wage jobs with no path to stability or growth — stuck earning just a paycheck, with little say in the workplace. But what if workers didn’t just show up to do a job — what if they owned the business itself? Employee ownership can transform workplaces, giving workers a real stake in profits, decisions, and their own futures. In this episode, we talk with Ra...

Historically, the restaurant industry is one of the trickiest for workforce development partnerships. It’s a low-margin, low-wage sector, where the work can be physically demanding, unpredictable, and often undervalued. But change is possible. In this episode of Unpacked, we hear from two of our Network Partners, Bonny Yeager, Senior Manager of Industry Solutions, Partner4Work in Pittsburgh and Bi...

Too many people, especially young people, people of color, and those in lower-income communities, struggle to find and keep good jobs due to barriers like lack of childcare, poor transportation, and limited access to training or support. The system isn't broken. It was built this way. In this episode, we talk with Marjorie Parker, President and CEO of JobsFirstNYC, about how unfair systems, not pe...

What happens when you center Black men—not as problems to be solved, but as experts in their own experience? In this episode of Unpacked, we speak with leaders behind the new report Breaking the Chains , which challenges the systemic roots of economic exclusion and highlights the ingenuity and resilience of Black men in Chicago. Guests Matthew Bruce, Dr. Clinton Boyd, Jr., and Richard Wallace join...

What does the future of work really look like—and who is it for? In this episode, we talk with Chike Aguh, senior advisor at Harvard’s Project on Workforce, about what it takes to build a future of work that delivers not just innovation, but inclusion, equity, and economic mobility. Chike brings a rare blend of policy insight and on-the-ground experience to big questions shaping our economy: How d...

The childcare industry is in crisis. In Central Iowa, like much of the country, families struggle to find affordable, reliable care, and the educators who provide that care are often overworked, underpaid, and under-supported. It’s a system that leaves everyone losing—parents without options, children without consistent caregivers, and workers without a path to stability. But what if improving job...

The childcare crisis isn’t just about affordability—it’s about job quality. With nearly half of working parents forced out of jobs due to unstable and unaffordable childcare, the ripple effects touch every part of our economy. At the same time, childcare workers—disproportionately women and people of color—struggle with low wages, high credentialing barriers, and limited support. In this episode,...

Dallas is growing fast, but a shortage of skilled workers in construction is slowing down progress. What does it take to build a skilled, diverse workforce to meet the needs of this booming industry? In this episode of State of Our Workforce: Unpacked , we are joined by Catlin Hale, Director of Career Pathways at the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, to discuss how Pathways to Work’s Construction...

In this episode, we’re digging into a powerful shift that’s gaining momentum across industries: skills-based hiring. For too long, traditional hiring practices have relied on degrees as a proxy for talent—reinforcing occupational segregation and shutting out millions of capable workers. But what if we reimagined hiring to focus on what people can do, not just where or if they went to school? Joini...