Reimagining Workforce and Economic Development in the South
From The Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program — Events and Interviews by The Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program
April 17, 2026 · 1h 20m
About this episode
The episode discusses the need to redefine job quality in workforce and economic development, focusing on strategies that enhance worker security and mobility.
For decades, economic and workforce development systems have measured success primarily through job creation — the number of positions filled, the businesses recruited, the unemployment rate reduced. Yet for many workers, especially those in low-wage industries and economically distressed communities, job creation alone has not translated into economic security or mobility. More economic and workforce development leaders have begun to reckon with this gap, recognizing that traditional approaches are falling short — not for lack of effort, but because the systems were never fully designed with job quality as a goal. In response, a growing number of practitioners are experimenting with strategies that go beyond placement and retention to ask a more fundamental question: what makes a job worth having? Job quality strategies — which address wages, benefits, scheduling, worker voice, and pathways to advancement — are increasingly finding their way into the toolkits of a range of organizations. In this conversation, hosted by the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program on April 1, 2026, we hear how the Institute’s Job Quality Fellows are embedding job quality into their work…
People in this episode
Host: Matt Helmer
Topics covered
- workforce development
- economic development
- job quality
- low-wage industries
- economic security
Keywords
- job creation
- worker voice
- apprenticeship programs
- employee ownership
Mentioned in this episode
Places: South
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