Building America’s Workforce teams are dedicated to exploring and analyzing equitable solutions for people with lower incomes. This “new majority” of workers and learners predominantly comprises systemically marginalized and minoritized populations, such as Black, Indigenous, and Latinx communities. These populations actively acquire knowledge and engage in economic participation as they seek a sustainable future for themselves and their families.

• Apprenticeship: Urban conducts research, develops programs, creates modern tools, and evaluates programs and investments to support quality apprenticeships.
• Technology and the future of learning: Urban researchers explore the intersection of technology and postsecondary education and training, examining how rapid shifts in the labor market affect learners and job seekers confronting barriers to educational and career success.
• Job quality: Urban researchers study the impacts of job quality on worker, employer, and community well-being.
• Education pathways for student parents and young parents: Urban researchers investigate education-to-employment routes for student parents and young parents.
• Youth: Urban researchers analyze effective education and career-oriented programs for young people.
• Employer practices:Urban researchers collaborate with businesses and their partners to understand how to create workplaces where people can thrive and grow.