Policy Recommendations

Ensuring our workforce development system effectively offers career services to all workers, including gig workers, is critical to building an inclusive economy in which everyone has a chance to succeed. Since lawmakers last reauthorized the workforce development system when the gig economy was still fairly new, more action is needed to ensure the system is responsive to the gig workforce and helps each gig worker pursue their long-term career goals. Lawmakers should consider taking the following steps:

Workforce development professionals reported not having access to data on gig workers and their professional development needs, and not having sufficient insight on how to serve these workers. Including gig worker perspective on workforce boards offers one way of addressing this gap. Under WIOA, state and local workforce boards are responsible for deciding how to spend federal funding allocations, determining the career services and types of training programs that will be available to jobseekers, and administering American Job Centers, among other functions. The majority of board members must be representatives of the business community, but there is currently no requirement to include representatives of jobseeker or workers on the board, let alone gig worker representatives. Having gig worker perspectives represented on state and local workforce boards would ensure their perspectives are taken into account and promote greater focus on their needs.

Lawmakers can address this as part of WIOA reauthorization by requiring boards to reserve a seat for organizations representing and advocating on behalf of gig workers, such as worker centers and gig worker advocacy organizations like Gig Workers Rising, Gig Workers Collective, and Jobs with Justice. For example, the Workers Justice Project (WJP, or Proyecto Justicia Laboral) is a New York City worker center that operates across the five boroughs, doing grassroots organizing of low-wage workers and empowering them to fight for fair wages and safe working conditions. The WJP was instrumental in supporting food delivery workers who recently secured greater rights and protections approved by the New York City council, including minimum payments per trip and guaranteed access to restaurant bathrooms.¹

Lawmakers should promote connections between American Job Centers and worker centers or other nonprofit community-based organizations that advocate for and support low-wage workers and immigrants, including gig workers. These partnerships can build the capacity of all organizations to advance the well-being of workers. For example, when a gig worker turns to a worker center and expresses an interest in making a career transition, the worker center could connect them to an American Job Center where they can access career services. On the flip side, American Job Center staff can connect gig workers with worker centers that advocate for improved working conditions, that provide workers with access to support and resources, and that build worker power by connecting workers with one another. American Job Centers can also learn from worker centers, becoming better positioned to inform workers of their rights and to focus more heavily on worker well-being and job quality.

These partnerships can also make career services more accessible to immigrants, who make up a substantial portion of the gig workforce. The Aspen Institute has found that the workforce development system struggles to serve immigrants, yet there are many community-based organizations and worker centers that already serve this population, such as WJP.² By partnering with and learning from these organizations, American Job Centers can build their knowledge and capacity to serve immigrants more effectively. This would not account for the fact that WIOA Title I services are only available to immigrants with work authorizations, however.

Finally, Congress should direct USDOL to provide information to workforce boards on resources offered by the Small Business Administration that may be useful for American Job Center customers who are interested in starting their own businesses. Strengthening these connections will build the capacity of the workforce development system to serve gig workers.

Across the workforce system, there is a great deal of uncertainty about how to serve gig workers. For example, workforce development professionals expressed uncertainty about how gig workers can meet eligibility requirements for WIOA programs. As part of WIOA reauthorization, lawmakers should clarify how workforce boards can use their WIOA formula dollars to serve gig workers. Alternatively, lawmakers could direct USDOL to provide this guidance to workforce boards. Lawmakers should also consider establishing funding for pilot projects that could build our knowledge of effective strategies for serving this workforce.

The workforce system is diverse, and across workforce boards there exists a range of experience with and approaches to serving and interacting with gig workers. During interviews, workforce development professionals expressed an interest in learning from one another about how to serve this population most effectively. To make it easier for workforce boards across the country to learn from one another, lawmakers should direct USDOL to identify best practices for serving gig workers and share those best practices through live, virtual events. These could include workshops and meetings where boards could present to one another on effective strategies and ask each other questions.

Because gig workers are excluded from the unemployment insurance (UI) system, workforce development professionals lack rich data on them, making it difficult to serve this population. Lawmakers should permanently expand unemployment benefits and UI wage records to include gig workers and people who are self-employed.

Lawmakers should also explore ways to provide workforce boards with access to 1099 data on gig workers and people who are self-employed. To build knowledge about current data silos and generate solutions, representatives from the Departments of Treasury and Labor could host a joint roundtable discussion with state and local workforce boards, data and data infrastructure experts, and providers of employment software currently used by state and local workforce agencies. The roundtable could be tasked with creating a plan to expand access to data on gig workers within the workforce system, including their employment and earnings outcomes.

Some workforce boards coach gig workers on how to translate their skills and experiences into prospective employment opportunities. Lawmakers should direct USDOL to identify and disseminate best practices for this coaching to encourage more workforce boards to provide it. Lawmakers could also direct USDOL to, in coordination with the U.S. Department of Education, adopt or create digital badges or other credentials that workforce development professionals can use when providing this coaching to gig workers. These badges could document the skills people acquire in the course of working in the gig economy or freelancing, such as adaptability, customer service, and safe food handling practices. Gig workers could display these credentials on resumes or LinkedIn profiles, allowing them to use their experiences as gig workers to reach their next desired step on the career ladder. Lawmakers should also explore ways to support ongoing efforts to develop next-generation transcripts and e-portfolios so all workers can easily display the skills they have mastered or projects they have completed to potential employers, education providers, and clients.³ Finally, lawmakers should ensure workforce development professionals have opportunities to learn how to help gig workers translate their skills and experiences into prospective employment opportunities.

Lawmakers should explore ways to modify existing performance metrics so they are compatible with gig work, or create new metrics for gig work. For example, a new performance measure could indicate whether a person engages in gig work after exiting the WIOA system and whether that aligns with the person’s long-term goals. Alternatively, lawmakers could direct USDOL to provide guidance to workforce boards on how current performance metrics can align with gig work by providing examples, holding workshops, or maintaining an FAQ on the subject on the USDOL website. Guidance could help case managers and other workforce development professionals determine whether a gig worker should be considered employed two and four quarters after exiting the WIOA system.