Washington, DC
March 25, 2024
Good morning, everybody.
Brad, thank you so much for that introduction and for your leadership here at NAWB.
I'm so glad to see so many of you up so early. Not many people would get up this early to come and talk about our workforce system. And so our country is very, very lucky to have this group.
And it's great to be back at this conference.
Two years ago, when I spoke here, I said that during the Biden-Harris administration we had an opportunity to reimagine what's possible in our workforce system and to think about what it could do not just to connect workers to jobs, but to focus on good jobs.
We hear a lot of talk about the worker shortage, and that's just not how I see it. What we've had in this country for far too long is a good jobs shortage. And today, our challenge is to ensure the jobs that are being created in all communities are good jobs—jobs that will attract the workers that are needed and provide real opportunity and security.
[Applause]
Some would say this issue of the quality of jobs—not this group—that the quality of jobs is outside the scope of the workforce development system.
No way. The workforce system—when it's working at its best—is about connecting people to good jobs that lift up individuals, lift up families, and lift up entire communities. And that's what you all come to work passionate about each day. And it's about helping employers find the talent they need, so when we focus on employers who are doing right by their workers, the workforce system can actually help drive job quality.
And for too long, good jobs haven't been available to all workers. So just as we can't be agnostic about the quality of jobs, the workforce system can also be a powerful force for equity, for connecting those who have been left behind for too long to those good jobs.
And in our country, inequity starts early. I know you all know this, but each time I am reminded of it, I have to stop and catch my breath a little. A few weeks ago, I was with young people in a pre-apprenticeship program in Oregon. And they said to me, "I've always heard of 3D printers but never knew that they were real." Now, that's great. But in some communities, kids are being exposed to 3D printers by the third or fourth grade. And so when people ask me why we should focus so much on equity, it's stories like this.
Opportunity should never depend on the ZIP Code in which you're born in or the circumstances in which you grew up.
[Applause]
Now I know that Governor Wes Moore is going to speak after me, but he has really prioritized, in his state, investments in the workforce system from the state level and making sure that state dollars are making it the local level in a way that truly advances equity across Maryland.
[Applause]
And you all know this, but what we measure determines outcomes.
We've long had data that measured how many workers got jobs after participating in a workforce program. But we started taking a deeper look at the quality of jobs. And it turned out that, when compared to their white counterparts, Black participants systematically landed in jobs where they were paid less.
Two years ago, at this conference, I challenged all of you to focus on equity. And I promised that the DOL would do our part.
So we have made some changes.
First, we made equity a significant measure of success. And today, we're seeing more WIOA grantees embed supportive services, like child care and transportation, into their programs so that we can serve the people who face the greatest barriers to employment.
Second, we've doubled down on our technical assistance, focused on what the workforce system can do to provide critical job-adjacent services. So yesterday, my team held a workshop on how American Job Centers can help people get critical documents, like driver's licenses and birth certificates and provide basic services to individuals before they have an official work authorization.
Third, we launched a campaign called "Yes, WIOA Can." This campaign is designed to give you room to innovate and to let you do what you know needs to be done to serve your communities—to cast aside the many ways WIOA has been interpreted as too restrictive. So "Yes WIOA Can" measure job quality in programs. "Yes WIOA Can" focus on equity in the use of grants.
And fourth, we've created state-by-state Workforce Services Dashboards that track WIOA data by gender, race, and ethnicity. We're sharing that data with you to help you determine where barriers exist in your state, and we hope that the data will help policymakers to have a roadmap about where to focus to make sure we leave no one behind.
And what an opportunity we have in this moment.
Under President Biden's leadership, we are making unprecedented investments in infrastructure, in advanced manufacturing, clean energy, and more. And all of these—as you know well—are opportunities to create good jobs and to fuel economic development in your local communities.
To deliver on that promise, President Biden has designated five cities Workforce Hubs. And local workforce boards are critical to the success of those hubs. Tomorrow, during your closing plenary, my team is going to share what's happening in Pittsburgh, which is the Workforce Hub led by the Department of Labor.
In Pittsburgh, city leaders like Mayor Gainey, the local workforce board led by Rob Cherry, unions, and employers are all focused on building pathways to good jobs—including good union jobs—for people who face high needs and barriers to getting jobs, people like single parents, people like those who have been justice-impacted, youth who are out of school and out of work.
And we're also making significant investments to expand, diversify, and strengthen Registered Apprenticeships. And we're seeing historically high numbers of women, Black, Latino, and Asian apprentices in programs across the country, as well as workers with disabilities getting their shot.
We've also invested in workforce development for critical sectors, not just the ones I mentioned where historic investments are being made as we speak, but existing industries like hospitality, an industry that was decimated by the pandemic. But through innovations—workforce innovations—like the Hospitality Training Academy in Los Angeles, we're expanding labor-management partnerships between union hotels and UNITE HERE to train cooks and housekeepers from LA to Phoenix to Chicago, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. And these programs recruit the hardest to employ individuals and give them a shot at a good union job.
The work that we're doing all across the country is paying off. In the past two years, median wealth for Black households has increased, and the Black-white unemployment gap is the lowest it's been.
To be sure, we still have lots of work to do. But what this shows is that when we commit ourselves to advancing equity, when we're intentional about who and how we serve, we have the power to do transformational things for workers, for communities, and for our country.
Today, I just want to stick with the theme of equity and apply it to the topic of your conference this year, specifically AI. I know there's been lots of conversation about this already.
Artificial intelligence holds extraordinary potential to improve opportunity and prosperity for workers. But those same technologies can also undermine workers' rights and exacerbate inequity, depending on how they're designed and how they're used.
And we see some familiar challenges.
Again, inequity starts early. Just like the 3D printer story, AI is not equitably distributed. That includes digital literacy, and it includes training programs that incorporate AI tools. You're no doubt aware of AI that suggests occupations and reinforces occupational segregation because it suggests jobs based on who already has them.
At a time when we're working so hard to reverse entrenched inequity, Artificial intelligence has the potential to further embed bias and discrimination.
We've seen how inputs determine outcomes. So when AI trains on biased data, we get biased results.
Earlier this month Bloomberg issued a report that one of the best-known and most powerful AI models out there was asked to rank sample resumes. All of the resumes were equally qualified. The only difference was the name at the top of the resume.
I know some of you are nodding because you already know about this. But you know what comes next. They ran this experiment a thousand times, using hundreds of names and combinations. And Black men were 44 percent less likely to be ranked as a top candidate based just on the names alone.
Now, I don't mention this study because it's a new problem. It's not. The point is that we've been talking about bias in AI—particularly in hiring—for years. But even as AI has gotten more advanced and more powerful, its design, development, and testing haven't fixed this fundamental issue.
And we're also already seeing AI making its way into the workplace, because someone decided it was good for productivity or it's profitable, while others—often workers themselves who were directly affected by these changes—were forced to play catch up.
Conversations around AI's development and ethics too often leave out how it will affect workers and people from historically marginalized groups. But business as usual is not going to cut it in the future of work.
So President Biden issued an Executive Order in October on reliable, responsible, and secure AI. And AI is none of these things if it doesn't do right by workers.
Right now, DOL is putting together principles and best practices for AI developers and employers when designing and implementing AI in the workplace. We're also developing recommendations for how workforce agencies can support workers who are likely to be affected by and displaced by advances in AI. And we'll be releasing those soon. That work is going to do—in President Biden's words—make sure that we, "Harness the power of AI and protect us from its perils."
At DOL we're modeling those principles and best practices. For example, we're looking at how AI can help Unemployment Insurance Adjudicators. Now, we know that AI can take on repetitive and time-consuming tasks. And that has the power to free up humans to do the work that only humans can do.
So what if an AI model could help sort UI claims in responsible and trustworthy ways? What if it could reduce unnecessary back-and-forth in evaluating claims? What if it could help people who are out of work get UI benefits faster? The Department of Labor has a pilot program with Stanford University's Reg Lab to explore questions like these.
And we need your partnership on this. Because the impact of AI on the workplace is not a foregone conclusion; it's not inevitable. It will be the result of decisions, of choices that all of us make—technologists, employers, labor, workers, government, and workforce leaders—that will determine if AI ultimately enhances job quality or jeopardizes it, whether it makes life better for workers, or worse, whether it exacerbates inequity, or helps combat it.
It's up to all of us to make sure that as technology leaps forward, people are not left behind.
So some questions for all of you in the work ahead: can you convene employers, unions, educational institutions, government, and community organizations to plan for AI and what it will mean for workforce development in your community?
Are students from all backgrounds in your local schools learning about AI? Is digital literacy part of their curriculum?
Do the people who are already in the workforce have opportunities to get the skills that they'll need in the years ahead? How can AI help to make that happen?
And today, many workforce boards are incorporating AI into their customer service chatbots and self-service applications. How can this be done so that AI complements—rather than displaces—workers? How can AI relieve staff of the most mundane and repetitive work and free humans up for the things that only human ingenuity, creativity, compassion, and connectivity can do?
The questions we ask determine the outcomes we get. And yes, AI is letting us reimagine what is possible. So let's make sure that we are asking how AI can help in our collective commitment to advancing equity? How will AI aid in our goal to make sure, in this moment of tremendous opportunity, that we know who's been left behind and we make sure that this time is different?
None of this is easy. But I know you, like me, are not in your jobs because you thought it would be easy. I look forward to working with you—and all of your tremendous ingenuity, creativity, and compassion—as we continue to reimagine what is possible in our workforce system for workers and for all of our communities.
I hope you enjoy the rest of this conference. I hope you enjoy the interactions with the rest of my team at DOL and thank you so much for all you are doing in this moment of tremendous opportunity.