Extreme Heat at Work Report
This report by Urban Institute researchers offers the first nationally representative estimates of how outdoor and indoor workers are affected by extreme heat.
Read the full report
This report by Urban Institute researchers offers the first nationally representative estimates of how outdoor and indoor workers are affected by extreme heat.
Grantmaking and Partnerships
Led by a cross-sector Leadership Board that is ideologically diverse and representative of often-siloed groups, WorkRise invests in research on policies, programs, and practices that have the potential to accelerate economic security and mobility for low-wage workers. We fund analyses and the creation of data that shed light on labor market barriers, trends, and opportunities. And we engage in strategic partnerships that help advance evidence-based solutions in support of our mission. Learn more about our most recent request for proposals and how you can collaborate with WorkRise.
The Latest
Job search and matching
Last updated on September 24, 2024The Prison Credential Dilemma: Insights into Applying for Jobs with Qualifications Earned during Incarceration
Credentials typically help job seekers demonstrate their abilities to obtain better-paying jobs. One study, however, suggests that credentials earned in prison present job seekers with a dilemma: reveal their incarceration and showcase their qualifications or obscure both. Interviews with formerly incarcerated individuals in the United States reveal strategies and tactics deployed to improve labor market outcomes and implications.
View
Skills and training
Last updated on June 18, 2024How to Expand Access to Good Clean Energy Jobs among Women and People of Color
New research shows women and people of color are underrepresented in the potential workforce for high-quality clean energy jobs. Universities, employers, and unions can play a role in creating a more diverse workforce.
View
Skills and training
Last updated on June 04, 2024WorkRise Shorts: Applying AI to Rebuild Middle Class Jobs with David Autor
Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor David Autor asks what artificial intelligence could enable people to do and who could be enabled by this tool.
View
The Latest
Skills and training
Last updated on June 04, 2024
Video
WorkRise Shorts: Applying AI to Rebuild Middle Class Jobs with David Autor
Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor David Autor asks what artificial intelligence could enable people to do and who could be enabled by this tool.
Last updated on June 04, 2024
Employer practices
Last updated on June 04, 2024
Article
Better Business Outcomes: Here are the Basics of LGBTQ+ Workplace Policies and Practices
Business goals and worker well-being can be improved through strong LGBTQ+ workplace policies and practices, which research shows benefit workers’ well-being and firms’ financial performances.
Employer practices
Last updated on May 28, 2024
Video
WorkRise Shorts: Racial and Gender Discrimination in the Temporary Staffing Sector
The temporary staffing industry is a $186-billion industry, widely used across sectors from food processing to product creation. Temp staffing can be used to skirt liability, and staffing agencies and the companies that use them create a second-tiered workforce, says Lorraine Sands, legal organizer at GLOW: Grassroots Law and Organizing for Workers. To advance the process of bettering temp workers’ rights, this research highlighted how racial and gender discrimination is often pervasive in the temporary staffing sector. The report explores the national context but focuses particularly on Harris County, Texas, and Nashville, Tennessee.
Last updated on May 28, 2024
Employer practices
Last updated on May 21, 2024
Research Summary
Challenges to Unemployment Insurance Claims by Some Businesses Limit Access to UI Income Support for Low-Wage Workers
Low-wage workers are less likely to submit a claim for unemployment insurance and more likely to have their claims appealed by their former employers than median-wage workers. New research shows that current UI policies may contribute to these disparities by incentivizing some businesses to appeal UI claims and prevent eligible workers from receiving needed income support, in part by potentially deterring them from applying at all.
Research
Economic context
Report
Last updated on May 14, 2024
Aligning Workforce and Economic Development to Benefit Workers
In this report, WorkRise examines what we know about the impacts of the workforce development and economic development fields and their implications for equitable economic outcomes for low-wage workers, especially Black individuals and other people of color who have faced systematic challenges in economic mobility.
WorkRise Research
Employer practices
Report
December 13, 2023
Temporary Staffing Industry Testing Report
The temporary staffing industry is a $186 billion sector. The National Legal Advocacy Network team used matched-pair testing in Harris County, Texas, and Nashville, Tennessee, to generate evidence on potentially unlawful employment practices in this industry and found widespread racial and gender discrimination in access to work. These tests showed that agencies offered fewer job opportunities, lower wages, and less frequent follow-ups to workers who were women and/or Black than they did to Latinx workers and men.
Grantee Research
Economic context
Report
November 20, 2023
Quantifying the Costs of Rising Unemployment
Rising unemployment brings significant costs to workers, their families, social outcomes, and the economy at-large. The contemporary tight labor market provides a good opportunity for researchers to better understand the benefits of low unemployment and thus the risks of high unemployment.
WorkRise Research
Skills and training
Executive Summary
November 15, 2023
The Workforce Almanac: A System-Level View of US Workforce Training Providers
This working paper describes the Workforce Almanac, a first-of-its-kind effort to understand workforce training at a systemwide level. The Almanac is an open-source directory of nearly 17,000 workforce training providers across the United States. This database offers the most comprehensive view to date of US workforce training providers and includes information such as provider names, locations, and types.
Grantee Research