The National Fund for Workforce Solutions: The Impact and Challenges of Its Workforce Partnership Model

The recent economic recession and equally anemic recovery have dramatically changed the job outlook for low-wage workers and disadvantaged youth in America. In addition, the Great Recession has accelerated the long-term trend toward requiring workers to have a higher skill set to obtain jobs that pay family-supporting wages. The recession also highlighted the fact that workers need both sector- and firm-specific skills as well as connections to employers in order to obtain jobs that pay reasonable wages. However, as middle-skill jobs (e.g., welders, paralegals, radiology technicians, and machine operators) have become more modernized, workers would likely have had to assess and adjust their skills to obtain these types of positions despite the recession.