State of Our Workforce

What could workforce systems accomplish if contracts were designed around the results they aim to achieve, rather than simply the activities they fund? And how can workforce leaders make sure those results translate into better opportunities and outcomes for job seekers?

In the latest episode of State of Our Workforce: Unpacked, Henry Danner is joined by Kier Scott, Policy and Performance Manager at Aspyr, Shift Work Forward’s Network Partner in Columbus, Ohio, to explore the possibilities of results-driven contracting. Together, they’ll take a closer look at how workforce systems can define meaningful outcomes, use data to understand performance, identify what’s working and where adjustments may be needed, and create incentives that encourage high-quality results.

What can workforce leaders learn from experimenting with new approaches to contracting, performance, and accountability?

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 Work Action Lab at United Way of the Greater Triangle in North Carolina. Henry Danner sits down with Will Dorsey Eden, director of Future at Work, to learn more about the Action Lab’s work across the Research Triangle and what brought the organization to the Shift Work Forward Network.

We'll learn how the Action Lab is bringing employers, educators, funders and public partners together around shared workforce challenges, from better understanding employer needs to coordinating investments and creating stronger pathways from high school to quality jobs. He also discusses what the Action Lab hopes to learn from and contribute to the Shift Work Forward Network as a new Network Partner, particularly around closing the gap between research and implementation, and looks ahead to a more connected region where workforce systems help produce measurable gains in economic mobility.

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 local economy, why small businesses and entrepreneurs are central to that work, and what the organization hopes to accomplish in the years ahead.

They also talk about what brought Prosper into the Shift Work Forward network and how collaboration across communities can help turn local ideas into lasting systems change.

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 to improve job quality in early childhood education as part of the Shifting the Childcare Industry initiative. From launching new partnerships to building on existing successes, this conversation explores what it takes to create lasting change for childcare educators, providers, and families.

Guests include Kate Bennett of United Way of Central Iowa, Karen Yarbrough of the University of Illinois Chicago's Collaborative for Young Children and Families, and Marlo Nash of the Maryland Philanthropy Network.

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Got a question? Send it our way for an upcoming listener mailbag episode using this link or on the State of Our Workforce webpage.

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 episodes recorded during Shift Work Forward's June 2026 Childcare Cross-Site Meeting in Chicago, leaders from three communities participating in our Shifting the Childcare Industry initiative share how they're working to improve job quality in the childcare sector. You'll hear how they're strengthening partnerships, engaging employers and providers, and building momentum for systems-level change that benefits educators, businesses, families, and children alike.

Guests include Thomas Williams Jr. of Thrive by 5 Louisville, Bonny Yeager of Partner4Work in Pittsburgh, and Maria Spencer of the Early Childhood Resource Center in Akron, Ohio.

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Got a question? Send it our way for an upcoming listener mailbag episode using this link or on the State of Our Workforce webpage.

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 some of the industry's most pressing challenges.

Linda will discuss how the project elevated worker voice and shares lessons from the effort, including policy challenges that surfaced and the strategies being used to sustain momentum for long-term systems change. This conversation offers a closer look at what becomes possible when workers are treated not just as participants in workforce systems, but as partners in redesigning them.

Read "Breaking the Triple Bind:" https://shiftworkforward.org/breaking-the-triple-bind/

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 Daniel Enemark, Vice President and Chief Economist at the Policy and Innovation Center to discuss the real conditions shaping whether workers can thrive. Daniel will share how his team is approaching these issues in San Diego and the successes and challenges they’ve faced.

The conversation will also look at what it takes to build workforce systems that truly support workers. We’ll discuss the role employers can play, why cross-sector partnerships matter, and what happens when communities start designing solutions around the realities workers face every day.

Policy & Innovation Center

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 grantmaking is transforming workforce development in the Bay Area. Together, we unpack how this approach brings funding and decision-making closer to the communities it serves, empowering workers to become advocates for job quality and workplace equity.

Tune in to hear how ReWork the Bay is building worker power, advancing equitable solutions, and redefining what it means to invest in local communities.

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 this pivotal moment, and what it requires of all of us. Amanda will discuss the organization’s evolution form a collaborative philanthropic fund into a national catalyst reshaping workforce systems so workers, employers, and communities can thrive together. In this episode, Amanda reflects on that evolution and shares why this moment calls for something bigger.

Whether you’re an employer, funder, policymaker, workforce leader, or longtime partner, this episode asks a timely question: How do we shift work forward — together? Listen now and join us in shaping what comes next.

Learn more about Shift Work Forward: https://shiftworkforward.org/

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 storytelling is more than a communications tool—it’s a strategy for advancing racial equity, challenging entrenched narratives, and reshaping systems so workers, employers, and communities can thrive together.

As we look ahead to the year to come, the group reflects on the questions we need to keep asking, the voices we need to keep centering, and what it will take to build a future where every job is a good job.

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 New York City Affairs at The New School; and Audrey Jenkins, Research Associate at the Center for New York City Affairs.

Together, they help us unpack how middle-wage jobs fit into NYC’s broader affordability agenda and what it will take to connect more workers to them.

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 attending to workplace culture is a catalyst for meaningful change, how to release old patterns to make room for the new, and what it looks like to trust the expert within ourselves. This is an episode designed to meet anyone who works where they are. Not with another to-do list, but with space. With breath. With the reminder that sustaining systems change and advancing equity requires tending to our own humanity.

Settle in. Take a moment. This is your pause.

Liberation Toolkit: https://www.socidlab.com/liberation-toolkit

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 those systems. Andre joins us to talk about how SkillWorks is reimagining English language learning as workforce infrastructure, and why centering immigrants’ experiences is essential to building a more equitable economy.

Commonwealth Beacon: Funding Was the Start – Now We Need To Build Out Systems To Help Our Immigrant Workforce Learn English

Advancing Workforce Equity in Boston: A Blueprint for Action

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 makes workforce data effective and equitable. We discuss how strong data ecosystems drive better outcomes, and what it takes to build one that truly serves workers, businesses, and communities.

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 KentuckianaWorks is keeping it going.

We’re joined by Aleece Smith, Director of Employer Programs at KentuckianaWorks, and Carrie Felton, Director of Worker Success at the National Fund to unpack how human-centered design is helping Louisville build stronger connections to rural communities. We’ll dig into why listening and adapting to the people you serve can spark deeper, longer-lasting change in workforce systems.

Career Navigation Journey Maps: https://nationalfund.org/explore/career-navigation/

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 equitable systems to ensure every worker can thrive? Michelle Rafferty, Chief Program Officer at the National Fund for Workforce Solutions; Melissa Johnson, Chief of Policy and State Strategies at the National Skills Coalition; and Tameshia Bridges Mansfield, Founder of Beloved Praxis Consulting, will explore what’s working, what’s not, and where the greatest opportunities for creating meaningful change lie.

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 workers and creating a culture of transparency, trust, and shared success. Ale’ will also highlight how Optimax is equipping employees to grow their skills and shape the future of the business. Tune in for a real-world example of how engagement strategies can drive equity, innovation, and long-term success.

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 Rachel Merfalen, Founder and Senior Adviser at Good Future, Krisi Schell, Executive VP of Human Resources at SRC Holdings, and Tom Strong, Director of Employer Activation at the National Fund to explore how this bold idea is becoming a practical strategy for improving workplaces and how workforce development practitioners can support it.

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 Bishara Addison, Director of Workforce Innovation, Fund for Our Economic Future in Northeast Ohio, who are helping restaurants reimagine what’s possible through our Centering Workers in Job Design initiative.

Together, we explore how they’re engaging restaurant employers to co-design jobs with their employees and how this human-centered approach is improving retention, boosting worker satisfaction, and strengthening business performance. We’ll also dig into what it really takes to build trust with employers, sustain partnerships, and equip workers with the skills and information they need to take a more active role in shaping their work and their futures.

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 personal choices, create and reinforce barriers that make it harder for people to succeed in the workforce. We discuss how to address those barriers by changing policies, building local partnerships, and designing workforce programs that actually meet people’s real needs. Because when we rebuild the system the right way, we don’t just help individuals, we strengthen communities, businesses, and the entire economy.

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