Thread by @bencasselman

With the unemployment rate near a 50-year low, companies are increasingly looking outside the labor force for workers. That’s giving new opportunities to people with disabilities, criminal records or other barriers to employment.
nytimes.com/2019/09/05/bus…

Companies have talked for years about “seeking out new sources of talent.” But that often meant little more than spending a bit more on recruitment or advertising that they were a “family-friendly workplace.”

Now, though, many companies are going further — actively recruiting from outside the labor force and, crucially, adapting workplace policies to make jobs available to more people.

Many are offering flexible schedules or work-from-home options to attract recent retirees, full-time students or, especially, stay-at-home patents looking to return to the labor force.

They are easing up on education and experience requirements, and offering training so they can hire workers who don’t have the requisite skills. (H/t @juliaonjobs @ZipRecruiter for data on all this.)

I visited @Dell’s HQ to see how they’re recruiting veterans, parents returning to the workforce and people with autism. For them it’s a business imperative: They need workers.

I met Kate, a woman with a master’s degree in chemical engineering who couldn’t get a job because of her autism. She got hired through Dell’s program and is on her way to being a star.

The obvious question: What happens when the economy weakens? Dell says it’s in it for the long haul, but many economists expect most of these programs to disappear quickly. That’s what happened in 2001.

But for the individual workers, it’s a different story. Now that Kate is at work, she’s more likely to stay there. The skills workers learn through training programs won’t disappear just because the unemployment rate rises.

That’s a key argument for keeping the expansion going as long as possible — more workers like Kate getting opportunities they can only get in a tight labor market.

Jay Powell has been making that argument increasingly explicitly. At Jackson Hole he talked about employers providing training and “offering second chances to people who need one.”

One thing I’ve seen in my reporting recently is that workers *know* they have leverage right now.

I went to two classes last week offered by @austinccea, one for truck drivers and one for HVAC repair. Students were asking recruiters whether they’d hire people with criminal records, work around family obligations/class schedules, etc, and recruiters were saying “yes.”

Still, as @marthagimbel pointed out, there are still steps that employers are reluctant to take, such as offering child care. And of course wage growth remains disappointing. Which suggests there’s still room for further improvement.

Sorry, this thread got long. Read the story! nytimes.com/2019/09/05/bus…