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Watch: 40 Years Strong

JFF Cofounder Talks JFF’s History

She was a Yale graduate student with no idea what to do next. He was a renowned public opinion researcher mulling over a new venture.

Hilary Pennington found her answer just before graduation in 1983 when Arthur White, who cofounded the legendary market research firm Yankelovich, Skelly, and White, gave a speech on campus. His idea to solve a fast-growing problem in the US economy—how to help workers losing their jobs due to automation—was the inspiration she craved.

Months later, Pennington, 29, tracked down White, 60, for a one-on-one meeting, and together they created what would become Jobs for the Future.

“He took a chance on me,” JFF’s cofounder Pennington told staff during a visit to the Boston office in June. “And I took a chance on him.”

Originally called Jobs for Connecticut’s Future, the organization’s mission was groundbreaking for the time: 1) use the best available research to forecast what the jobs of the future would be; 2) determine what skills people would need to fill those jobs; and 3) reimagine the education and training system to prepare workers for that future.

Between 1984 and 1989, White and Pennington expanded their work into Arkansas, Colorado, Indiana, Mississippi, and Missouri.

Today, as JFF celebrates its 40th anniversary, our mission is arguably more important than ever, with technology and other global forces accelerating the pace of worker displacement and economic change. As the world prepares for the future of work, JFF is focused on transforming the workforce and education systems to create economic opportunity for all.

“JFF was ahead of its time then and it’s ahead of its time now,” Pennington, now executive vice president of the Ford Foundation, told JFF employees crowded into a conference room and watching online.

“You’re really modernizing and reapplying those core founding ideas for a society that has still not figured out these problems and, if anything, has them in an even more serious way.”

Just as she and White “took a chance” on each other, a young woman and a near-retirement-age man, JFF is urging the nation’s employers to consider hiring a broad range of nontraditional employees by tapping the talent of populations most frequently left behind in the economy.

“If you look at the jobs that are most likely to be lost, they are disproportionately occupied by women and people of color,” Pennington said. “This is an organization that has always been one that has stood for something, that has been scrappy and young, that has taken a bet on young people and given them a chance to lead with young ideas and bold ideas.”

Watch co-founder Hilary Pennington speak at our 2016 national summit