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About Jobs for the Future

Our Vision & North Star

By 2033, 75 million Americans facing barriers to economic advancement will have quality jobs.
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Who We Are

Jobs for the Future (JFF) transforms U.S. education and workforce systems to drive economic success for people, businesses, and communities.

We do this by designing solutions, scaling best practices, influencing policy and action, and investing in innovation.

We forge deep partnerships with employers, investors, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and education and workforce development providers to break down barriers and reimagine what’s possible.


Why We Exist
Our education and workforce systems are broken. They are disconnected, hard to navigate, and filled with barriers to economic advancement.
Statistics

92 million

More than half the U.S. labor force is not in quality jobs and faces barriers to advancement.

2x

The Black unemployment rate has been twice the white unemployment rate for more than 50 years.

14%

Less than 14% of students with low wealth who attend college complete their studies and graduate.

Our North Star

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Our goal is to align education, workforce, and employment changemakers toward a shared North Star:

By 2033, 75 million Americans facing barriers to economic advancement will have quality jobs.

A quality job offers competitive pay, benefits, stability, opportunities for learning and career growth, and a safe, supportive, and engaging work environment.

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Why 75 Million?
Only 38 million people facing barriers to economic advancement had quality jobs in 2023. This includes people without a 4-year degree, people of color and women of all backgrounds even with a 4-year degree, and people with criminal records.

JFF's goal is to roughly double that in 10 years, bringing the number of people with quality jobs to 75 million by 2033.
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Strengthening education and career navigation

Strengthening education and career navigation

The vast world of education and training options is increasingly difficult for learners to understand and navigate.

We will clarify the chaotic learn and work ecosystem and empower people with data and guidance to find, finance, and flourish in personalized, lifelong career pathways.

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Ensuring program quality and efficacy

With myriad new education and training providers emerging, people lack the objective information they need to assess which programs will help them meet their goals.

We will organize and vet the dynamic marketplace, making trusted information about what works widely available to learners, workers, investors, policymakers, and partners and spurring providers to innovate and improve.

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Integrating learning and work

Prevailing models are disconnected and ill-equipped to prepare workers for our rapidly changing economy and meet employer needs.

We will meet unprecedented, ever-evolving labor and education market disruptions with new, integrated lifelong learning models that prioritize real-world work experience.

 

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Building strong regional economies

Inadequate education and workforce systems, isolated from regional economic strategies and innovative national approaches, hamper regional growth and development.

We will apply innovative and proven national practices at the local level to grow agile, resilient, inclusive, and globally competitive regional economies—and scale effective local programs at the national level.


Our Partners

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Our valued partners and collaborators include education and training providers, employers, government institutions, community-based organizations, learners and workers, investors and entrepreneurs, national nonprofits and industry associations, and philanthropies.

The ASA Center for Career Navigation at JFF will help 16- to 24-year-old learners find, evaluate, access, and pay for high-quality education and training programs while helping employers identify workers with skills that match their needs. Our goal is to empower 20 million young learners by 2030. 

Support Our Work

Learn more

Contact us today to learn how Jobs for the Future can support your organization, or subscribe to our mailing list to receive regular updates.