Making Apprenticeships Work

Recent economic data suggests the nation’s economy has recovered, with steady employment growth and falling unemployment. But these trends obscure a deeper structural skills gap in the labor force that will only widen with automation and globalization.

According to the National Federation of Independent Business, 54 percent of small-business owners reported difficulty finding qualified workers. There are a quarter- million job openings for software developers and half a million unfilled jobs that require tech skills. The rise of artificial intelligence is raising similar concerns -- even if the robots don’t take our jobs, we do not currently have the infrastructure to prepare the workforce for the millions of new and modified jobs that AI will create.