This report provides an overview of global and regional trends in employment, unemployment, labour force participation and productivity. Key findings are that unemployment is projected to rise after a long period of stability, and that many people are working fewer paid hours than they would like or lack adequate access to paid work. The report also takes a close look at decent work deficits and persistent labour market inequalities, noting that income inequality is higher than previously thought.

The state and local governmental public health workforce plays a critical role in protecting and improving the lives of the individuals it serves. As is the case with state and local employment generally, the workforce in public health is changing. Recruitment and retention of the next wave of employees presents challenges, particularly at a time of continued retirements, low unemployment, and competition from the private sector for talented graduates and other career entrants. To better understand the U.S. public health workforce, this primer describes its current size, expectations for growth, employee demographics, job tenure, and the skill sets most in demand. This description is offered against the broader backdrop of the overall state and local government sector.

This Bureau of Labor Statistics page provides information on correctional officers and jailers. The duties of this job category include guarding inmates in penal or rehabilitative institutions in accordance with established regulations and procedures. Correctional officers and jailers may guard prisoners in transit between jail, courtroom, prison, or other points. It includes deputy sheriffs and police who spend the majority of their time guarding prisoners in correctional institutions.

This Bureau of Labor Statistics page provides information on how probation officers and correctional treatment specialists provide social services to assist in the rehabilitation of offenders in custody or on probation or parole. They make recommendations for actions involving formulation of a rehabilitation plan and treatment of an offender, including conditional release and education and employment stipulations.

The Bureau of Labor and Statistics provides information on the employment situation. Total nonfarm payroll employment fell by 20.5 million in April, and the unemployment rate rose to 14.7 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. The changes in these measures reflect the effects of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and efforts to contain it. Employment fell sharply in all major industry sectors, with particularly heavy job losses in leisure and hospitality. This news release presents statistics from two monthly surveys. The household survey measures labor force status, including unemployment, by demographic characteristics. The establishment survey measures nonfarm employment, hours, and earnings by industry. 

The United States is facing a growing skills gap that threatens the nation’s long-term economic prosperity. The workforce simply does not have enough workers and skilled candidates to fill an ever-increasing number of high-skilled jobs. 7 million jobs were open in December 2018, but only 6.3 million unemployed people were looking for work. As the country nears full employment, businesses face an even greater talent shortage that will have a stifling impact on the economy and global innovation. Several factors contribute to the skills gap: low unemployment, new technologies and competition in the global landscape. The fastest growing sectors of the economy—health care and technology— require workers with some of the most highly specialized skills.

Artificial intelligence and emerging technologies have enabled automation to scale and pose legitimate workforce threats. However, these innovations are creating new jobs and recreating old ones that together shape the building blocks of a future workforce. This dynamic opportunity engine is driven in large part by a fast expanding innovation ecosystem that combines a bevy of thriving, scaling, and nascent startups and their emerging workforce needs.

The nature of work is rapidly changing due to emerging technologies and disruptive forces, such as AI, the gig economy, and more. The exact effect of these and other changes remain unknown, but one thing seems certain: The skills that employers value and rely upon are evolving. In turn, a “skills gap” has developed in which employers struggle to hire appropriately trained workers.

While it will take many groups across the workforce spectrum to address this issue, employers play an important role in identifying related challenges and subsequently creating and refining innovative solutions. As such, exploring how employers experience and respond to these challenges is a valuable part of the larger conversation on workforce development.

There are many reasons to help older Americans stay in the workplace, but the best reason could be that they still want to be there. One indication of their workplace satisfaction is the new American Working Conditions Survey (AWCS), which shows that, overall, older workers report having more meaningful work and more workplace flexibility than their younger peers.

The economic growth that followed the 2008 recession has increased the demand for qualified workers in health care, advanced manufacturing, information technology, and other growing industries. While many employers are finding it difficult to fill key positions, workers without the right skills face a shrinking pool of rewarding job opportunities.

Suburbs are increasingly not just where Americans live, but where they work. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, 32 percent of U.S. employment is in the suburbs of large metropolitan areas—that is, in the medium- and lower-density counties within metropolitan areas that contain at least 1 million people. That is on par with the 32 percent of the population that lives in the suburbs of these metros. (A slight majority of Americans live in suburbs overall, but this analysis looks specifically at suburbs of large metros.)

The latest BLS data show that job growth, like population growth, is faster in these suburbs than in urban counties, smaller metros, and non-metropolitan areas.