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Businesses of all sizes are struggling with skills gaps that threaten their growth, while millions of Americans are locked out of jobs by a paper ceiling. How do we build a skilled, fair workforce that meets the needs of employers and helps people reach their economic potential?
By 2055, it is estimated that 50 percent of today’s work activities will be automated. This means that some work will be automated within certain professions, while other professions may completely cease to exist. It means a glaring need for new jobs and a new conception of “work.” It means reorganized industries and reorganized landscapes. What else does it mean? Which jo...
With the power of a text message, the advice of a health worker fits in the palm of your hand. With innovative entrepreneurship, care becomes accessible where it previously was not. With the skill of a midwife, the pregnant woman in need of a champion thrives. Health systems may be complex, but what powers them is simple—the human beings at their backbone who are critical...
A healthcare worker shortage is today’s reality, putting safe, quality healthcare at risk for everyone. According to the US Surgeon General's Advisory on Building a Thriving Health Workforce, the realities are that many of our health workplaces and practices are exhausting and demoralizing for our talented, caring, and overworked healthcare professionals. The emotional, ph...
The health care industry is one of the largest employers in the United States, and the need for skilled health workers has grown to crisis proportions as the population ages and lives longer. How can we provide career ladders for lower-level workers, such as home health care aides, and create decent jobs with benefits and growth potential? Hear from experts who are reimagi...
If young adults need a college education so badly, why are recent college grads so disproportionately unemployed? Experts tell us that two-thirds of jobs in the US by 2020 will require post-secondary credentials of some sort. Ironically, the pace of change is such that identifying the jobs that will come available in five years is hard to predict, creating questions ab...
The average American will spend a third of his or her life working. What is the secret to achieving happiness because of our work and not in spite of it? How can we make a job into a vocation? David Brooks and Arthur Brooks have both studied and written about these questions, and they argue that in all kinds of work the answer is to find meaning. In this conversation, the...
“Our people are our most important asset” is a common refrain from the C-suite — but does the walk match the talk? For decades, working Americans have seen rising living expenses and flat paychecks, resulting in widespread financial stress among American families, communities, and the nation. What constitutes a “good job”? What roles should business and government play in...
As the 2016 presidential election approaches, the economy is a tale of two realities. On one hand, employment numbers, housing prices, and corporate profits have rebounded substantially since President Obama took office nearly eight years ago at the height of the financial crisis. At the same time, the nature of work is shifting, leaving many behind, long term unemployment...
Long-range forces are changing the nature of work and how jobs will be created; they are also changing what kinds of jobs will be created. With tech and automation coming so quickly, which jobs will be replaced by machines? For those of us who will be hired, what skills should we possess? In this new, highly digitized economy, what kind of training will prospective employe...
More than 6 million youth are out of school and out of work, a situation that will have dire consequences for the nation’s economy and the fate of a generation. Meanwhile, the rise of the so-called “gig economy” has fundamentally altered the landscape of modern work, giving rise to a broad new sector of part-time, self-employed, and temporary workers and with them, a new s...
How should progress be defined for communities, individuals, and groups too long left out of the economic mainstream? Inequality and poverty challenge the dynamism of our and other advanced economies. While public policy choices are critically important, so too are the decisions of companies as generators of jobs and in shaping job quality and economic opportunity. People...
Entrepreneurs view the world differently. Where others see challenges, they see opportunities. In an age of globalization and hyperconnectivity, a new class of visionaries is tackling the world’s challenges through disruptive innovation. In a conversation with the Aspen Institute’s Peggy Clark, Care.com founder, chairwoman, and CEO Sheila Lirio Marcelo shares how her exper...
The recent frenzy around NFTs and cryptocurrency have thrust blockchain into the spotlight. But is the true promise of the technology more profound? Joe Lubin, co-creator of Ethereum and one of the original pioneers in blockchain, joins Financial Times’ Gillian Tett to discuss the state of cryptocurrency and the implications of decentralization for the global economy.
Featured Ideas Festival Scholar includes Carlos Pierre. Over the past several years, responsible investing has evolved from an alternative concept to a mainstream approach. Investors ranging from pension funds to large asset managers to individual investors are increasingly focused on integrating environmental, social, and governance factors into investment decision makin...
Join us for an interactive evening of presentations, small group discussions, performances, and opportunities to engage with other participants. Featuring Harold Green, Jonathan Greenblatt, Neal Katyal, Jon Lovett, Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, Manoush Zomorodi, and more. (Participants must be ages 14 – 24.) NOTE: Tickets are NOT available on aspenshowtix.com. Visit aspenideas.com...
The US is aging – between 2012 and 2050, the number of adults over age 60 will jump from 43 to 84 million, representing about 20 percent of the population. Meanwhile, smaller and more scattered families will mean greater numbers of people growing old alone. Fostering the social connections and cross-generational interactions that are so essential to healthy aging has becom...
The impact of A.I. on the job market is debatable, as it has the potential to both automate tasks and displace workers but also the potential to create new economic opportunities and enhance productivity. How do workers, employers, and educators need to prepare for this brave new world?
The American economy motors on, with unemployment near record lows, incomes outpacing rising prices, the debt default averted, the stock market showing surprising strength, and the much-predicted recession still not in sight. Using the charts he brings to MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” and his New York Times op-eds articles, Steven Rattner will attempt to square why, then, American...
There is an overwhelming tendency to see economic goals in terms of metrics like GDP, unemployment, or in terms of very specific policies or policy strategies — like populism versus centrism. Yet, this can reflect a confusion of means and metrics with ultimate end goals in terms of what matters most for raising human well-being. If increased job polarization, potential job...