A new effort to better track which jobs are “good jobs” received guidance from three Upjohn Institute experts. The Job Quality Measurement Initiative brought together nonprofits, the U.S. Department of Labor and experts across the public and private sectors to develop recommendations on how to measure the core elements of a quality job in a concrete way.
The initiative produced a report, Reimagining Job Quality Measurement, released by the Families and Workers Fund, with recommendations on how to better collect and use data to tell a fuller story about the economy.
Among the 38 working group members were the Upjohn Institute’s Susan Houseman, who co-chaired the working group on federal statistical data, Brad Hershbein, a member of the commercial/employer data group, and Aaron Sojourner, a member of the performance data group.
Houseman presented at a Nov. 8 virtual event to mark the report’s launch.
Upjohn Institute research fellow Erica Groshen, a member of the federal statistical data working group, said she often fielded questions about how many new jobs were good jobs when she served as Commissioner of Labor Statistics. “A dynamic, inclusive economy is based on good jobs, so we need a measure to help us gauge challenges and progress,” Groshen said in a news release.
“The Job Quality Measurement Initiative answers this critical need with a serious, comprehensive approach that can help inform discourse and policy through the challenging times ahead.”
Selected Upjohn Institute research on job quality and measurement:
- “Contract Work at Older Ages” by Katharine Abraham, Brad Hershbein and Susan Houseman
- "The Independent Contractor Workforce: New Evidence on its Size and Composition and Ways to Improve its Measurement in Household Surveys" by Katharine Abraham, Brad Hershbein, Susan Houseman and Beth Truesdale
- “Monopsony in the U.S. Labor Market” by Chen Yeh, Claudia Macaluso and Brad Hershbein
- “The New Hires Quality Index: A Wage Metric for Newly Hired Workers” report and the interactive New Hires Quality Index database, both by Brad Hershbein.
- “Measuring Alternative Work Arrangements for Research and Policy.” National Academies, Susan Houseman, chair of Committee on Contingent Work and Alternative Work Arrangements panel
- "What’s the Inside Scoop? Challenges in the Supply and Demand for Information on Employers" by Jason Sockin and Aaron Sojourner
- "Balancing Data Privacy and Usability in the Federal Statistical System" by V. Joseph Hotz, Christopher R. Bollinger et al.
- “Wage Inequality and Labor Rights Violations” by Ioana Marinescu, Yue Qiu and Aaron Sojourner