Lost and Found: Pathways from disruption to employment

Executive Summary

In our rapidly changing economy, we face a collective challenge. On one hand, it is essential to enable workers whose jobs may be threatened by disruption to secure gainful employment elsewhere. On the other, it is equally critical to meet the evolving skills demands of local employers so they can remain competitive. In an ideal scenario, these two forces would overlap.

However, traditional responses have not adequately addressed key components of this challenge. While there are many potential alignments between workers looking for jobs and employers looking for talent, a range of barriers prevent workers and employers from becoming aware of, acting on, or successfully realizing those opportunities. This is a labor market failure that hurts both workers and employers.

For people experiencing job loss, the exact pathways from shrinking jobs to growing opportunities are not always readily apparent, even with access to labor market information (LMI). For instance, when firms post open positions with specific job titles, many workers who might be very good candidates given their skills and experience simply do not apply because they find the specific job title unfamiliar or irrelevant to their search.