A.D. Q&A on the future of work in Illinois A.D. Q&A with A.D. Quig

If you read Crain’s, you’ve probably spent a good amount of time thinking about the future of work – e-commerce, automation and telecommuting. Even if you don’t spend much time thinking about it, it’s abundantly clear that covid has rapidly accelerated those trends. Remote schooling and telehealth became necessities. Online shopping that might’ve been limited to clothes or homewares pre-covid exploded, with more people getting things like groceries delivered much more often. And there’s a heightened awareness of the importance of lower-wage work classified as “essential” during the pandemic. That’s why last year, the Illinois General Assembly created the “future of work” task force – a mix of current and former state officials, union folks and business representatives – to look into “how the state can best produce a broad-based post-pandemic recovery, confront the worsening crisis of poverty and create high-quality jobs for all.” A.D. Quig's two guests this week participated in the task force’s work: Professor Bob Bruno, director of the Labor Education Program at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and Harish Patel, from the advocacy group Economic Security for Illinois. They discuss the findings of the report, including the highs and lows of the state’s current labor market, whether we might see more union agitating to boost conditions for frontline workers, and whether the business groups that participated in this task force think the recommendations are a good idea.