How Do We Shift Work Forward?

Building an Economy Where Workers Thrive

Too often, workforce conversations focus on skills, training, and hiring. But workers need more than a job to succeed. For many workers, the biggest barriers to career success happen outside the workplace. Childcare, housing costs, transportation, access to healthcare. These challenges shape whether people can get a job, keep a job or move forward in their careers. In this episode, we’re joined by Daniel Enemark, Vice President and Chief Economist at the Policy and Innovation Center to discuss the real conditions shaping whether workers can thrive. Daniel will share how his team is approaching these issues in San Diego and the successes and challenges they’ve faced. The conversation will also look at what it takes to build workforce systems that truly support workers. We’ll discuss the role employers can play, why cross-sector partnerships matter, and what happens when communities start designing solutions around the realities workers face every day. Policy & Innovation Center [https://thinkpic.org/]

Unpacked: Empowering Bay Area Workers

The Bay Area’s workforce faces both historic inequities and new challenges—from climate risks to rising job precarity. How can philanthropy move beyond distant grantmaking to actually empower workers and build lasting power in local communities? In this episode, we sit down with Rob Hope, Director at ReWork the Bay, and Brianna Rogers, Initiative Officer at ReWork, to explore how proximate grantmaking is transforming workforce development in the Bay Area. Together, we unpack how this approach brings funding and decision-making closer to the communities it serves, empowering workers to become advocates for job quality and workplace equity. Tune in to hear how ReWork the Bay is building worker power, advancing equitable solutions, and redefining what it means to invest in local communities.

How Do We Shift Work Forward?

2026 is shaping up to be a defining year for the field of workforce development. We’re launching new programs. We have the SHIFT Conference coming up in Albuquerque this September. And across the country, conversations about job quality, worker voice, and racial equity are accelerating. In this special episode of State of Our Workforce, we’re joined by Amanda Cage for a candid conversation about this pivotal moment, and what it requires of all of us. Amanda will discuss the organization’s evolution form a collaborative philanthropic fund into a national catalyst reshaping workforce systems so workers, employers, and communities can thrive together. In this episode, Amanda reflects on that evolution and shares why this moment calls for something bigger. Whether you’re an employer, funder, policymaker, workforce leader, or longtime partner, this episode asks a timely question: How do we shift work forward — together? Listen now and join us in shaping what comes next. Learn more about Shift Work Forward: https://shiftworkforward.org/

BONUS! The Story Behind the Stories feat. Michelle Wilson and Henry Danner

In this special bonus episode, State of Our Workforce producer Josh Enoch sits down with Michelle Wilson and Henry Danner, hosts of State of Our Workforce and Unpacked, to look back at a year of powerful conversations. Together, they revisit standout moments, unpack recurring themes, and explore what those stories reveal about the state of workforce equity. The conversation also digs into why storytelling is more than a communications tool—it’s a strategy for advancing racial equity, challenging entrenched narratives, and reshaping systems so workers, employers, and communities can thrive together. As we look ahead to the year to come, the group reflects on the questions we need to keep asking, the voices we need to keep centering, and what it will take to build a future where every job is a good job.

Episode 46.5 - Unpacked: Middle-Wage Jobs and New York City's Affordability Agenda feat. Judith Smith, Lauren Melodia, and Audrey Jenkins

New York City’s affordability crisis is reshaping the conversation about work, wages, and economic mobility. But what would it take to ensure more New Yorkers can access jobs that truly sustain a family — and build a future? In this episode, we’re joined by Judith Smith, Director of the NYC Workforce Funders Collaborative; Lauren Melodia, Director of Economic and Fiscal Policies at the Center for New York City Affairs at The New School; and Audrey Jenkins, Research Associate at the Center for New York City Affairs. Together, they help us unpack how middle-wage jobs fit into NYC’s broader affordability agenda and what it will take to connect more workers to them.