Creating A More Equitable Workforce System: Opportunities for Governors and States

State workforce systems play a key role in creating equitable workforce systems by ensuring all jobseekers can access training and employment via an accessible, coordinated workforce system. Governors have a unique opportunity to emphasize and prioritize equity as a driving value of these systems. Providing workforce services to address these disparities is an economic and moral imperative. Research (literature reviews and data analysis) shows that a more diverse workforce leads to higher economic growth, more participation in the consumer market, a more qualified workforce, and more creativity and innovation in business. To advance equity, workforce systems should examine institutional structures and barriers to participation that contribute to inequities across age, gender, race, ethnicity, ability, economic status, educational attainment, immigration status, industry sector, and worker classification. The brief provides current examples of equity initiatives from the following states: Illinois, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Oregon, Minnesota, Montana, Washington, Delaware, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Alabama, Maryland, California, South Carolina, New Jersey, Tennessee, and Vermont.

(This resource is 10 pages long.)

The eight strategies the report authors recommend states should use are:

1. Launch a task force, initiative, or cabinet-level position to drive sustained action toward shared equity goals.
2. Create a definition of equity to apply to goals, programs, evaluations, etc.
3. Develop a goal to achieve equity in service delivery and drive action toward shared success metrics.
4. Gather and analyze data to identify gaps in service delivery and track outcomes.
5. Target reemployment, training, and support services to populations most in need.
6. Engage stakeholders to inform decisions and gather feedback on policies and programs.
7. Examine policies and procedures that may contribute to inequity and modify them to make programs more accessible.
8. Create or strengthen partnerships to reach more populations and leverage expertise and resources that can assist in reaching these groups.

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2021
• Author(s): Baddour, K; Ash, K.
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Justin Venneri
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies