In 2005, the Institute launched the first of several initiatves on integrating immigrants in the workplace. Information on this work may be found here.
Latino Technology Association: Latino Entrepreneurship in High Technology
The Institute for Work and the Economy and the Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame are conducting a research study for the Latino Technology Association on Latino entrepreneurship, especially in high technology, and the related educational and training performance of Latinos.
The research will expand our understanding of:
The participation of Latinos in major high technology industries in Illinois and how that compares to that of the United States
The participation and performance of Latino entrepreneurs in Illinois, especially in high technology, and the factors that contribute to their success
The barriers faced by Latino entrepreneurs in Illinois and the extent to which these barriers create lost opportunities
The performance of Illinois Latinos in primary, secondary and higher education, and the consequence of that performance on future success.
The aim is to establish the foundation for a broad effort to increase the participation of Latinos in high technology industry jobs and new enterprises. Consequently, it is essential to know where matters stand now, the factors that influence Latino participation, and the policies and practices that will expand overall participation and success. The project touches on all three of these knowledge areas, but the primary focus must necessarily be on knowing where matters stand now.
The project, an 18-month initiative of the Great Lakes Employment and Training Association and Midwestern state workforce agencies under the leadership of the Workforce Development Division of the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, looks forward to the collective future workforce needs of the Midwest in order to align the area’s human resources development strategies with research and development investments, innovations in core industries, and with business investments that further the region’s global competitive advantages.
The goals are to:
Maximize the competitive advantages of the region;
Instill a culture of entrepreneurship and investment in R&D;
Establish a virtuous cycle of regional investment and economic growth with workforce development as a lead element.
This initiative will produce:
Gatherings to help inform a regional development strategy;
Working collaborations of local and state economic and workforce development agencies;
A consortium of policy research institutions to support strategic development.
Work products include:
A report on the overall regional economy;
A comprehensive overview on investments in R&D and innovation;
A summary of existing workforce investment initiatives from all funding sources;
A strategy for matching up new and existing investments to create a virtuous cycle of regional investment and economic growth.
The project will:
Support local, sub-regional and state efforts to serve dislocated, disadvantaged and other workers;
Brief elected officials, and civic and opinion leaders on strategies for collective action;
Establish and fund an ongoing regional leadership collaborative to integrate local workforce and economic development into a Midwestern development agenda.
The work will be accomplished through a series of commissioned papers, regional conferences and workshops drawing on experts from the Midwest, on research by universities and research organizations in the region, on projects such as Great Lakes Economic Initiative of the Brookings Institution, and on experts around the globe. Every commissioned project must involve at least two institutions from different states. It also will consult with and engage the Midwest’s local and state workforce and economic development systems and political and civic leadership through direct outreach.
The Initiative is led by the Great Lakes Employment and Training Association – GLETA, the Midwest regional association of local workforce agencies in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio and Wisconsin, by the corresponding state agencies through the leadership of the Workforce Development Division of Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (MnDEED). The grant recipient is MnDEED and the fiscal agent is the Hennepin-Carver Workforce Investment Board. The Institute is responsible for all project management. The Midwestern Legislative Conference of the Council of State Governments is affliated with the project. The affiliation of the Midwestern Legislative Conference expands the geographic reach to include North Dakota and South Dakota. Funding is provided as a dislocated worker pilot project by the Employment and Training Administration of the U.S. Department of Labor. The initial phase of the project will run through June 2010.
On the Drawing Board: Kitchen Table Forum on Working and Earning
The Kitchen Table Forum on Working and Earning (KTF), is proposed as an ongoing, independent, non-partisan regional initiative on the work-related challenges faced by middle income earners and those who are working to reach the middle. The KTF is unique in that it will speak directly to working families. The KTF will capture the challenges that they face at work and in the economy, offer sound analyses and explanations, and provide solutions, from broad policies to strategies that they can employ on their own on how to meet these challenges. Our aim is to mobilize the public to demand action that supports the needs of working men and women through education, training, job support and economic development by all levels of government, the education system, and the private sector. The target audience for the KTF is the public, and through the public, policy makers.
The kitchen table is where families share information, impart knowledge and values, communicate beliefs, make plans, solve problems and dream about the future. It is a place where families face new challenges together. Ordinary, hard working people face new economic conditions that they can meet head-on with the right resources, policies and programs at hand. A forum, as defined in Webster, is “a public meeting place for open discussion.” It draws its meaning from the open market places of ancient Rome, but now includes both virtual and real venues. The Kitchen Table Forum on Working and Earning seeks to link these two places by providing families earning a middle income or less with the resources to engage in a public discussion on how to survive – and thrive – in a quickly evolving economy.
The KTF is needed now. Reauthorization of the Workforce Investment Act has languished for several years and may be completely re-written by the next Congress. The State of Illinois and adjoining states comprising the Chicago metropolitan area have shrunken their collective investment in workforce development and the region as a whole is poorly positioned to help residents move forward and climb up in challenging economic times. Businesses are showing signs of pulling back on their investments in training. Unless the public demands otherwise, investments in workforce development will continue to be threatened. Now, more than in prior years, a new vision is needed for a workforce system that takes full account of the needs of middle-income earners. Good, middle income jobs can no longer be taken for granted – and, the people who fill those jobs need the resources to be successful.
The KTF will:
Describe in plain language the needs of earners, businesses and the Chicago-area economy
Frame the issues in workforce development and education, and in so doing, articulate the needs of earners and employers in ways that lead to constructive discussion and action
Bring balance to ongoing policy discussions by examining issues from the perspectives of earners, their families and communities as well as from those of businesses
Create a public discussion among advocacy groups, public agencies, educational institutions, unions, businesses and business organizations to join in that discussion
Explore issues without being constrained by the public workforce system and open discussion to new investments by state and local governments, foundations, and other private institutions.
Challenge conventional wisdom in order to open the workforce development and education communities to new views and solutions
Partner with organizations to establish the linkages between workforce development, neighborhood and community investment, business investment and growth, housing, transportation and the metropolitan economy
Put forth new “design criteria” for workforce and education systems – public and private – that address challenges and issues faced by earners and their employers
Empower earners and their employers by educating them on these criteria
Set forth strategies to sustain and grow opportunity, the economy and community.
On the Drawing Board: Human Capital, Demography and Labor Mobility in North America -- Regional Labor Market Integration
Two recent trends affect public policy and strategy in addressing both the investment priority for education in Mexico and the labor absorption policies for new market entrants in Mexico, the United States, and Canada.
The first is the increasing labor market premium for workers in Mexico with partial or complete secondary education. Education inequality correlates strongly with income inequality. Although education services have been improving in Mexico, a strong implication is that changing technology is changing the skill profile of higher earning jobs (thus the premium for workers with the necessary education level) faster than the improving education distribution is raising education profiles.
The second is the slowing of demographic increases in the younger cohorts (0-14 years; 15-24 years) affecting both the feasibility of improving the distribution of education and improving quality and the ability of Mexico to absorb increasing percentages of each age cohort in its domestic labor market. The growth rate of the 15-24 years age cohort is slowing and will begin to decline within the next five years both in absolute numbers and as a percentage of total population.
As Canada and the United States will increasingly rely on Mexican-born workers to meet the labor demand in a broad range of low and high-skilled occupations, they also will be called to maximize the development of such workers and facilitate their integration into their own labor markets. A related issue is the access for Mexican migrant workers to quality education and life-long learning in the United States and Canada.
The challenge to Canada, Mexico and the U.S. is that these countries share a common need for a skilled, well-educated workforce. In the case of Canada and the U.S., the need is fairly immediate and it is becoming critical for their competitiveness; in the context of Mexico, investment in human capital will be also critical for ensuring high-paid jobs and thus better prospects for economic growth and development.
These needs are manifested in a context of growing labor market interdependence. This clearly is the case between Canada and the U.S., especially with respect to workers in high skill occupations. The volume and velocity of labor movements between Mexico and the U.S. suggest that many workers and businesses regard the labor markets of the two countries as de facto integrated. Our project starts with the proposition that the labor markets of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico are connected inextricably. We then seek to determine the educational, workforce and economic development policy consequences that flow from this proposition.
Our approach is to ask a diverse group of researchers, public policymakers, business and union leadership, senior educators and demographers, and representatives of foundations and funding agencies from Mexico, the U.S. and Canada to address economic and workforce development in North America. They will be asked to examine the likely scenarios over the next decade or two of expected trends in the demographic size and education profile of young workers as well as of economic and technologic changes affecting productivity and competitiveness in both countries.
