Research
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Worker Voices Special Brief: Self-Employment, Dreams Versus Reality
Worker Voices participants described weighing the tradeoffs of self-employment from the independence it gave to its income generation potential. This research found that participants were pushed or pulled into self-employment for a variety of factors and their experiences did not align with their expectations of this work.
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Worker Voices Special Brief: Pursuing Advancement through Personal Investment
Worker Voices participants described their persistence in taking steps to improve their employment outcomes. They pursued skill-building opportunities and were more willing to leave lower-quality jobs, sometimes to pursue self-employment instead. However, their efforts were met with mixed results.
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Worker Voices Special Brief: Barriers to Employment
Worker Voices participants described the challenges facing individuals without a four-year degree as they navigated the job market during a global pandemic. Common barriers to work included an evolving labor market, individual attributes, work-family conflicts, and concerns regarding individual well-being.
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Worker Voices Special Brief: Perspectives on Job Quality
For Worker Voices participants, a quality job checks five boxes. Workers with a quality job are adequately compensated, treated well, secure in their position, given flexibility around hours and location, and engaged with the work.
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Worker Voices: Shifting Perspectives and Expectations on Employment
Worker Voices provides a unique view into how job seekers and workers in lower-wage roles navigated the labor market at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and through recovery—and how it changed what they expect from a job.
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Worker Voices: Shifting Perspectives and Expectations on Employment—Executive Summary
The Federal Reserve held focus groups with workers and job seekers with less than a bachelor’s degree, seeking to understand their perspectives and expectations on employment. Here’s what we heard.
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Worker Voices: Shifting Perspectives and Expectations on Employment [2023]
How did workers in lower-wage jobs experience employment during the pandemic? The Federal Reserve held focus groups with workers and job seekers aged 20–55 years with less than a bachelor’s degree to find out.
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Worker Voices: Shifting Perspectives and Expectations on Employment—Methodology
Have questions about Worker Voices? Get to know the methodology, coding approach, community-based participatory research principles employed, and limitations; statistics on participant demographics; and the facilitation guide questions used.
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Worker Voices: Shifting Perspectives and Expectations on Employment—Acknowledgments [2023]
We are grateful for everyone who contributed to Worker Voices. Thank you.
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Opportunity Occupations Offer More Than One Path to Good Careers
Get insights about opportunity occupations, jobs that pay a good wage without requiring a four-year college degree, in 121 metro areas.