What's New

A new report by Adie Tomer, released by the Brookings Institution, examines metro-level data on jobs located near transit, the number of workers within reach of job locations, and how these trends vary across industries and across cities and suburbs.  Mr. Tomer ranks the 100 largest metropolitan areas for how effectively transit gives employers access to the metropolitan workforce.

Supplementary individual metropolitan profiles explain metropolitan transit coverage, labor access rates, and industry trends.  Salt Lake City, San Jose, and Honolulu top the list of areas that provide the best labor access via transit, while Palm Bay, Poughkeepsie, and Riverside are at the bottom and provide the worst access. The report concludes with policy recommendations, calling for public and private sector leaders to shift policy to enhance transit accessibility by: 1) considering job locations in transit investment decisions; 2) using policy levers and governance reforms to enhance access to suburban locations; and 3) investing in data systems to improve decision making.

Access Where the Jobs Are: Employer Access to Labor here.

Amid continuing mixed signals about the economy, one notable bright spot is the revival of U.S. manufacturing.  The Brookings Institution recently released the latest "How We're Doing" index: “Amid Fiscal Uncertainty, Manufacturing Is Up,” by Bruce and Martin Baily, Brookings Senior Fellow in Economic Studies. Bruce and Martin analyze the past five quarters of economic data to explore how growth in manufacturing is helping support the nation's fragile economic recovery. They write, “Amid continuing mixed signals about the state of the economy, one notable bright spot is the revival of U.S. manufacturing. The surprising strength of this once-battered sector holds promise for strengthening the U.S. economy overall, and despite continued troubles in Europe its new vigor may provide a boost to the global economy.”

A new report from Surdna grantee the Transportation Equity Network presents the first-ever compilation of data from all 50 states on their use of on-the-job-training and apprenticeship programs to boost job access for minorities and women in the federal highway construction field. The Road to Good Jobs: Making Training Work finds that most states are doing a poor job of using proven training programs to boost highway construction job access for minorities and women, though unemployment rates for minorities are nearly double those of whites, and female unemployment is ticking up while male unemployment is dropping.

The study finds that:

• Four states—Illinois, Indiana, Connecticut, and Minnesota—succeeded in increasing the percentage of both women and people of color in training programs from 2008-10.
• Only two states had at least 50% women in OJT/apprenticeship programs from 2008-10: Maine (75%) and North Dakota (55%).
• Community organizing by TEN members to push for broad use of OJT and apprenticeship programs led to top rankings and breakthroughs in Missouri, Michigan, Minnesota, and Illinois
• Indiana and Illinois were standout states in terms of the overall increase in the use of OJT/apprenticeships from 2008-10, surpassing more populous states such as California and New York.

The study also provides detailed rankings on which states are using training and apprenticeship programs to make real progress toward equity and diversity in highway construction, and which states are failing to recruit and train women and minorities. The study also describes the steps necessary to improve states’ progress, and provides local, state and federal policy recommendations.

Click the image at the top right of this page to download the report.

Yesterday in Albany New York Governor, Andrew Cuomo, affirmed that energy efficiency retrofits are top job creators, and praised specifically New York’s recently passed on-bill financing law – a policy crafted by Surdna grantee the Center for Working Families. He said “this on-bill financing is a very big deal that I think every region should maximize,” adding that the program deserves more publicity than it's received.