The Weekly Exchange: Session 5
Topic: How a Recession May Impact the Future of Work: 21st Century Skills
Facilitators: Raysheema Rainey, Director of Member Relations; Elisabeth Babcock, President & CEO

Future Topics
5/5: Supporting Staff and Participants with Grief
5/12: Maintaining Boundaries
5/19: COVID-19 as a public health concern with Dr. Charlie Homer

What are people experiencing regarding unemployment and job loss? What are your concerns?

Job losses in a wide variety of fields and industries including but not limited to:

• Customer service
• Food services
• Hospitality
• Rideshares, taxi drivers, bus drivers, parking attendants
• Bar tenders & restaurants
• Cleaning companies
• Farming,
• Wedding industries
• Construction

Characteristics of those losing jobs:

• Single moms (unable to get childcare)
• Undocumented immigrants
• Women
• Those with limited education
• Second jobs being lost
• Teens looking for part-time work for teens

Issues and Concerns:

• Lack of childcare
• Those who are unemployed or laid off will not get hired back
• Stores will not reopen or recover
• Restrictions will continue to impact hospitality industry
• Access to technology if working or schooling remotely
• People are unable to catch up on bills
• Undocumented immigrants may not be eligible for much needed financial assistance
• People will fall behind in paying off their debts
• Less capacity for jobs and customers
• Government will not be able to address everyone’s needs
• At the community level there will be a need to coach people to support them in moving forward
• Effects on education class sizes and social distancing

How do we come back to the new normal post COVID-19 in a way that allows people to move to economic independence?

The below 3 key trends in the field as seen by researchers have been going on for some time:

1. Impact of automation, robotics, AI, computers, technology are eliminating traditional jobs and are reshaping how we work.

- 46% of jobs are considered ‘highly automation susceptible’ – job losses and major job shifts over the next decade.
- The automation shift is happening fast (shifts to online retail, automation of food services, etc.).
- These automation shifts impact jobs in a major way. This will have a displacing effect on workers, disproportionately impacting women, minorities, and lower paid workers.

2. Shift away from demand in marketplace for people with a particular training or credential, trained/experience in retail or installing security systems, to a demand for people with 21st Century Skills.
   

- Highest growth and knowledge of AI and machine learning.
- 21st Century Skills are essential human skills that computers struggle with. These include EF skills, problem solving, creative thinking, innovative, reacting to new circumstances, leading teams, good interpersonal skills, etc.
- Employers are getting savvy at screening applicants for executive function and self-regulation skills.

3. Decreased length of time that a vocational skill or routine (ex. STEM skills) allow you to work without additional training.
   

- Research shows that individuals that go into an AA degree or training program are half as likely to be employed five years from now compared to those who have been more broadly trained in skills.
- Jobs and skills are being replaced at such a fast rate, that credentialing or skills need to be retrained or re-skilled.
- Impacts those with an AA or credential in STEM, vs. a bachelor’s degree, or training in specific program or skill, vs. broad skills.

• Massive job loss for people in the lower ends. Those without 21st Century Skills will also find it difficult to connect into the workplace and remain connected.
• The gap between rich and poor will grow, and the path to get out of poverty becomes more difficult to navigate.

What next? How do we move forward?

• Coaching and the Mobility Mentoring® model is designed to build the very skills that are needed in the labor market, EF, self-regulation, building resilience, self-confidence, problem solving, interpersonal relationship skills, navigating problems, etc. Look creatively at the world of work itself
• Use tools like Career Compass™ to explore what jobs pay a family sustaining wage, to explore job options, etc.
• Some organizations are also creating strong partnerships with large employers in their area, creating a pipeline, to hire participants.

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Referenced Resources

Career Compass from EMPath aims to reduce stress, simplify options, and make it easier for people to choose their path. This tool is available to Level 2 Exchange members with their portal access. Level 1 Exchange members can purchase access to this tool as an add-on to their membership.

The Growing Importance of Social Skills in the Labor Market (NBER Working Paper No. 21473), by David Deming, demonstrates that high-paying, difficult-to-automate jobs increasingly require social skills.

Education for Life and Work: Developing Transferable Knowledge and Skills in the 21st Century from the National Research Council of the National Academies of Science describes the important set of key skills that increase deeper learning, college and career readiness, student-centered learning, and higher order thinking.