#124: Harry Holzer — Former Chief Economist for the U.S. Department of Labor, Professor of Public Policy at Georgetown, Senior Fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution Bring It In | The Future of Work, Jobs, and Education

The United States only spends 0.1% of its GDP on job training and reskilling initiatives, putting us in last place for funding towards job reskilling amongst other developed countries. 

Now, it may be hard to concretely define the effects of this, but let’s look at what we know: only 15% of workers are currently engaged at their jobs, 44% of workers are in bad jobs, and almost 1-in-2 workers is just $400 away from falling beneath the poverty line.

So, that 0.1% GDP spent on job training? It’s probably not helping much.

That’s what today’s guest, Harry Holzer, fresh from testifying before the House Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development, joins us on the podcast to talk about.

Harry is the former Chief Economist for the U.S. Department of Labor under the Clinton Administration, is a senior fellow in Economics at the Brookings Institution, and the LaFarge SJ Professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown. He’s written extensively on economic inequality, with books such as “Making College Work: Pathways to Success for Disadvantaged Students” and “Improving Employment and Earnings in Twenty-First Century Labor Markets: An Introduction.”

So needless to say, Harry knows a thing or two about this. In this episode, we chatted about the intersection of government, the private sector, and educational institutions, and how they can better cooperate and support each other to develop a high-performing and equitable workforce.

This is another episode you’re not going to want to miss, so with that…let’s bring it in!