Manufacturing is critical to the American economy. One in 12 US workers currently work in the manufacturing sector, and a total of 19 million people work in supply chain occupations, including manufacturing, transportation, or warehousing jobs. Historically, manufacturing jobs provided good wages and job security, but this is not always the case today. As the United States heavily invests in this sector with new federal- and state-level funding, the manufacturing industry has opportunities to center its workforce for improved worker economic security and well-being, family-sustaining wages, business performance, and long-term national success.
WorkRise has invested in several projects that provide data-driven solutions for policymakers, employers, advocates, and practitioners committed to revitalizing US manufacturing jobs. These initiatives aim to generate meaningful mobility, particularly for younger workers, people of color, and women, who face low wages and systemic barriers to opportunity in this critical field.
One in 12 US workers currently work in the manufacturing sector, and a total of 19 million people work in supply chain occupations.
WorkRise Grantee Projects
Manufacturing Resilience through Partnership with Intermediaries
Researchers: Nichola Lowe, Sophie Kelmenson, and Jenna Myers
Description: This report will enhance awareness and understanding of the role of manufacturing intermediaries with small- and medium-sized manufacturers (SMMs) to facilitate better outcomes for workers and businesses. It examines how to support the relationship between employers and workers through case studies of local intermediaries working with 10 manufacturing companies across the United States. In these examples, the manufacturing companies can advance positive reforms in technological upgrading, business succession, and environmental sustainability through partnerships with intermediaries that center worker voice. The case studies describe how involvement from these intermediaries encouraged businesses to consider the value of worker collaboration on their business outcomes and how worker-centered practices also increased worker earnings, ownership, empowerment, and control over the business.
Advancing Economic Mobility in Manufacturing
Grantee: Manufacturing Advocacy and Growth Network (MAGNET)
Researchers: Ethan Karp, Gregory Brown, Jill Rizika, Nikki Glazer Stoicoiu
Description: The Advancing Economic Mobility in Manufacturing (AEMM) program in Northeast Ohio pairs manufacturing career training and wraparound services for returning citizens and unemployed young people (ages 18-24). Through this intervention, manufacturing employers can inform program curricula for their hiring needs, receive technical assistance for employee retention best practices, and connect to potential employees. Researchers will scrutinize both program outcomes and the factors potentially driving previously observed retention disparities between Black and white workers. The findings will inform workforce development service providers, especially those working with youth and returning citizens, industry intermediaries, and employers seeking to diversify their workforces and retain employees, including young workers.
Other Partner Stakeholders: Towards Employment, PolicyBridge, New Growth Group
What Emerging Trends in the Transportation and Warehousing Sector Mean for Noncollege-Educated Black Workers
Grantee: John Jay College
Researcher: Michelle Holder
Description: This research study seeks to examine whether the post-pandemic transportation and warehousing sector has created more job opportunities for Black workers without college degrees, and whether those jobs are durable, quality jobs with respect to wages, working conditions, and risks of automation and displacement. The project may also engage union workers in this sector to provide greater context to findings and uncover potential implications for how to shape accessible, sustainable, and quality jobs and working conditions.
Other Partner Stakeholders: New York Amazon Labor Unions and John Jay College
Employee Experiences of Fair Workweek Ordinances
Grantee: University of Chicago
Researchers: Susan J. Lambert and Julia Henly
This project gathers data on employee experiences with fair workweek ordinances, which are designed to provide workers with more control over their work schedules. Through an online survey of workers in retail, food service, hospitality, and warehousing in Chicago, New York City, Philadelphia, and Seattle, the project lifts up worker voices that will inform ongoing policy debates about the efficacy of fair workweek laws in strengthening workers’ economic security and well-being, and identify whether and how these laws can be effective tools in creating more racial equity and economic mobility in the labor market.
State of the Manufacturing Workforce: Impact of Manufacturing Jobs on Low-Wage Worker Mobility and Well-Being
Researcher: Felipe Juan
This issue brief highlights the current state of the US manufacturing sector, including job quality, worker demographics, and the presence of organized labor across manufacturing industries and geographies. The research examines factors that advance or prevent worker mobility within the manufacturing sector and how the sector’s trajectory over recent decades has broadly shaped low-wage worker mobility. The brief will also include an analysis of best practices for economic development and industrial policies that can foster better job quality and worker mobility.
WorkRise Research Projects
Warehousing Market Power and Implications for Worker Safety
Researcher: Oluwasekemi Odumosu
This report explores whether one or a few companies have disproportionate power in the warehousing labor market and how market power dynamics impact worker safety and other aspects of job quality. The results have implications for employers across the supply chain, federal policymakers, and worker advocates.
Working Knowledge Posts
- A National Industrial Policy Could Strengthen a Manufacturing Resurgence Underway
- WorkRise Shorts: Overcoming Racial Disparities in Manufacturing Recruitment and Training Programs
- Who Transitions from Dirty to Green Jobs?
- Tighter Labor Markets Boost Occupational Mobility for Workers in Low-Quality Jobs
- Green Energy Jobs Are Growing and Could Unlock Opportunity for Workers
- People Experiencing Short-Term Unemployment May Benefit the Most from Publicly Subsidized Training Programs
- Evidence from Sector-Focused Training Programs Shows Significant and Persistent Earnings Gains
- Shifting Narratives and Policies to Support Black Workers’ Advancement: A Q&A with Bill Spriggs