The US economy depends on immigrant workers. Their job quality matters for everyone.

<div class="header alignfull header--article has-background has-tonal-black-background-color"> <div class="header__layout"> <div class="header__content"> <h1 class="header__title has-h2-variant">The US economy depends on immigrant workers. Their job quality matters for everyone.</h1> <div class="header__metadata"><div class="header__metas"><div class="header__meta header__meta--date"> September 3, 2026</div></div></div> <div class="header__metadata"><div class="header__metas"><div class="favorite-block"> <button class="favorite" data-id="316801" data-state="" title="Favorites are not currently available" disabled><span class="favorite__on">Unfavorite</span><span class="favorite__off">Favorite</span><svg class="svg svg--svg-assets-svg-icon-bookmark" role="img" height="15" width="11"><use xlink:href="#svg-assets-svg-icon-bookmark" /></svg></button></div> <div class="header__meta header__meta--taxonomy header__meta--tax-category"> Blog Posts</div> <div class="header__meta header__meta--taxonomy header__meta--tax-program_tax"> <a href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/programs/economic-opportunities-program/">Economic Opportunities Program</a></div></div></div> </div> </div> <figure class="header__media" role="presentation"> </figure> </div> <div class="wp-block-columns alignwide is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-a59044aa wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex"> <div class="wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-container-core-column-is-layout-4333f286 wp-block-column-is-layout-flow" style="padding-top:0;padding-right:var(--wp--preset--spacing--xsmall);padding-bottom:0;padding-left:var(--wp--preset--spacing--xsmall);flex-basis:25%"> <div style="padding-top:0;padding-bottom:0;margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small);margin-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small)" class="post-people"> <div class="post-people__person"> <figure class="post-people__headshot"> <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="200" height="300" src="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/8DF1610B-604F-4854-87C7-DD80CC272B58_1_105_c-200x300.jpeg" class="attachment-mobile size-mobile" alt="" srcset="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/8DF1610B-604F-4854-87C7-DD80CC272B58_1_105_c-200x300.jpeg 200w, https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/8DF1610B-604F-4854-87C7-DD80CC272B58_1_105_c-533x800.jpeg 533w, https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/8DF1610B-604F-4854-87C7-DD80CC272B58_1_105_c-450x675.jpeg 450w, https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/8DF1610B-604F-4854-87C7-DD80CC272B58_1_105_c-451x676.jpeg 451w, https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/8DF1610B-604F-4854-87C7-DD80CC272B58_1_105_c.jpeg 724w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" style="object-position: 50% 50%" /> </figure> <div class="post-people__info"> <h3 class="post-people__name"> <a href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/people/maxwell-johnson/" class="post-people__link"> Maxwell Johnson </a> </h3> <p class="post-people__position"> Senior Research Associate </p> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow" style="padding-top:0;padding-right:0;padding-bottom:0;padding-left:0;flex-basis:50%"> <div class="wp-block-group alignfull is-style-default is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained" style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;padding-top:0;padding-bottom:0"> <p style="margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small);margin-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small);padding-top:0;padding-bottom:0" class="wp-block-paragraph">The future of America’s economic strength depends on immigration. As the US birth rate declines and the median age goes up, <a href="https://www.hiringlab.org/2026/05/14/how-a-shrinking-workforce-ai-and-labor-reallocation-will-define-the-next-15-years/">fewer US-born workers</a> will enter the labor force. It’s a scenario that, left unaddressed, <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-impact-of-immigrants-on-the-us-economy/">would spell</a> a shrinking economy and strained public finances. Immigrants lean younger and are more likely to be in their <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-impact-of-immigrants-on-the-us-economy/">prime working years</a>, helping expand the workforce and ensuring that the economy continues to provide the goods and services we expect. Their tax contributions fill the coffers needed to support an aging population.&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small);margin-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small);padding-top:0;padding-bottom:0" class="wp-block-paragraph">Unfortunately, too many immigrant workers have — like their native-born counterparts — found themselves stuck in low-quality jobs. And too often, immigrants have taken the blame for the declining pay and conditions of those jobs. But an analysis centered on whether immigrants work jobs that others won’t, or whether they undercut wages by working for less, overlooks businesses’ role in determining job quality.&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small);margin-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small);padding-top:0;padding-bottom:0" class="wp-block-paragraph">Employers have long used their leverage in the labor market to drive down wages and labor standards when worker power is weak. The dynamic is especially pronounced in labor-intensive industries, like <a href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/events/driving-the-economy-the-essential-and-undervalued-work-of-truckers/">truck driving</a>, <a href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/essential-workers-exploited-labor-perspectives-on-farm-work-in-the-us/">agriculture</a>, and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/28/opinion/immigration-elder-care.html?eafs_enabled=false">home care</a>. “In many sectors,” <a href="https://dissentmagazine.org/article/immigrants-didnt-kill-your-union/">observed</a> the labor scholar Ruth Milkman, “immigrants entered low-wage jobs in substantial numbers only after pay and conditions had been degraded to such a degree that US-born workers exited the impacted occupations.” The immigrant workers who fill employers’ self-imposed labor shortages, in turn, become the scapegoats for the latter’s impropriety.</p> <h2 id="h-most-farm-workers-have-little-agency" class="wp-block-heading has-h5-variant">An Economy of Immigrants</h2> <p style="margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small);margin-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small)" class="wp-block-paragraph">Immigration has always been an economic necessity for American capitalism. And the exploitation of immigrant labor has long been economic reality. The turn of the twentieth century saw the US transform from a rural economy into an urban, industrial one built on mass production and powered by millions of <a href="https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/essays/immigration-and-migration">immigrant workers</a> and their <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2760060/">descendants</a>. The jobs were often brutal and poorly paid.&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small);margin-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small)" class="wp-block-paragraph">In the pre-New Deal years, workers were granted few protections under law. But the prospect of new opportunities, in an era of loosely regulated immigration, drew an influx of <a href="https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/essays/immigration-and-migration">newcomers</a>, mostly from poor and distressed regions of Europe. For most native-born white workers, however, there was <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2760060/">little appeal</a> in the burgeoning industrial centers. (African Americans similarly migrated from the Jim Crow South, but the inescapable mark of race stood a stubborn barrier in the search for a better life.)</p> <p style="margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small);margin-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small)" class="wp-block-paragraph">The sociologists Charles Hirschman and Elizabeth Mogford estimated in <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2760060/">their study</a> of turn-of-the-century industrial immigration that first-generation immigrants and their children comprised fully 53% of manufacturing workers in 1920. “It would seem that, generally speaking, the foreign born population is engaged in more laborious, disagreeable, and probably, less skilled and less remunerative work than are the native born white,” explained one contemporary observer, quoted by Hischman and Mogford.&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small);margin-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small)" class="wp-block-paragraph">Immigrant workers didn’t accept poor working conditions sitting down. They banded together in early unions and joined in mass organizing efforts, the effects of which would eventually transform vast swaths of manufacturing employment into the engine of postwar, middle-class prosperity.</p> <h2 id="h-laws-without-enforcement-are-just-pretty-words-on-paper" class="wp-block-heading has-h5-variant">The Lessons of Packingtown</h2> <p style="margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small);margin-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small);padding-top:0;padding-bottom:0" class="wp-block-paragraph">The story of the meatpacking industry offers a case in point. The abuses of the early-20th stockyards were immortalized in Upton Sinclair’s 1906 muckraking <a href="https://talkpoverty.org/2019/01/10/sinclair-jungle-immigrant-narrative/index.html">masterwork</a> <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/140/pg140-images.html"><em>The Jungle</em></a>. The novel follows the struggles of the fictional Lithuanian immigrant Jurgis Rudkus, who crosses the Atlantic, only to find himself casting about in the chaos of Chicago’s Packingtown, never achieving sure footing. A composite character, Rudkus represented the stories Sinclair heard when undertaking field research for his novel.</p> <p style="margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small);margin-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small);padding-top:0;padding-bottom:0" class="wp-block-paragraph">&nbsp;“[O]n Christmas Eve Jurgis worked till nearly one o’clock in the morning, and on Christmas Day he was on the killing bed at seven o’clock,” Sinclair <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/140/pg140-images.html#chap08">wrote</a> of meatpacking workers’ grind. “For after all the hard work a man did, he was paid for only part of it. Jurgis had once been among those who scoffed at the idea of these huge concerns cheating; and so now he could appreciate the bitter irony of the fact that it was precisely their size which enabled them to do it with impunity. One of the rules on the killing beds was that a man who was one minute late was docked an hour; and this was economical, for he was made to work the balance of the hour — he was not allowed to stand round and wait. And on the other hand if he came ahead of time he got no pay for that.”&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small);margin-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small);padding-top:0;padding-bottom:0" class="wp-block-paragraph">But over time, conditions began to change in the meatpacking industry, thanks <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2005/01/24/blood-sweat-and-fear/workers-rights-us-meat-and-poultry-plants">in large part</a> to the efforts of the Congress of Industrial Organizations and its affiliates. A series of <a href="http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/943.html">organizing drives</a>, not all successful, brought a degree of solidarity between skilled and unskilled workers from immigrant backgrounds, and between white immigrants and the growing number of African Americans entering the meatpacking workforce. Union contracts eventually covered the <a href="https://mitsloan.mit.edu/sites/default/files/2024-04/A%20Background%20Note%20on%20Unskilled%20Jobs%20in%20the%20United%20States.pdf">majority</a> of meatpacking workers nationwide. With stronger bargaining power, meatpacking workers secured wages that were <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2005/01/24/blood-sweat-and-fear/workers-rights-us-meat-and-poultry-plants">significantly</a> <a href="https://www.epi.org/publication/the-h-2b-visa-program-has-ballooned-without-being-fixed-expanding-it-to-year-round-jobs-like-meatpacking-would-lower-wages-and-revenue/#_ref18">higher</a> than the manufacturing sector average by the 1960s.</p> <h2 id="h-farm-workers-deserve-better-job-quality-and-there-are-organizations-striving-to-make-that-happen" class="wp-block-heading has-h5-variant">End of an Era</h2> <p style="margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small);margin-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small);padding-top:0;padding-bottom:0" class="wp-block-paragraph">As the country entered the Reagan years, a changing economy and an increasingly anti-union national mood spelled <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2005/01/24/blood-sweat-and-fear/workers-rights-us-meat-and-poultry-plants">the decline</a> of meatpacking unions. Automation and corporate consolidation increased, industry dispersed to isolated rural locations, and companies increasingly employed hardline union-busting tactics.&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small);margin-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small);padding-top:0;padding-bottom:0" class="wp-block-paragraph">Meatpackers then heavily recruited workers from <a href="https://www.epi.org/publication/the-h-2b-visa-program-has-ballooned-without-being-fixed-expanding-it-to-year-round-jobs-like-meatpacking-would-lower-wages-and-revenue/#_ref18">immigrant communities</a>, including <a href="https://www.hcn.org/issues/57-9/on-the-kill-floor-how-migrants-are-exploited-for-profit/">undocumented workers and refugees</a>, <a href="https://www.hcn.org/issues/57-9/on-the-kill-floor-how-migrants-are-exploited-for-profit/">who are vulnerable</a> to labor abuses because of their tenuous economic and legal status. By 2024, <a href="https://www.epi.org/publication/the-h-2b-visa-program-has-ballooned-without-being-fixed-expanding-it-to-year-round-jobs-like-meatpacking-would-lower-wages-and-revenue/#_ref18">less than 15%</a> of the nation’s half million meatpacking workers would belong to a union.&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small);margin-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small);padding-top:0;padding-bottom:0" class="wp-block-paragraph">Largely free from accountability to their workers, meatpacking companies have sped up cutting lines, to <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/09/18/line-speeds-increase-meatpacking-workers-are-ever-more-danger">ever</a> <a href="https://investigatemidwest.org/2025/08/13/faster-lines-less-federal-oversight-and-rising-risks-at-us-pork-and-poultry-plants/">faster</a> and more wearing tempos, while skimping on safety protections. Average wages sit <a href="https://mitsloan.mit.edu/sites/default/files/2024-04/A%20Background%20Note%20on%20Unskilled%20Jobs%20in%20the%20United%20States.pdf">below</a> their 1960s level, after inflation. And amid <a href="https://www.epi.org/publication/testimony-prepared-for-the-u-s-senate-committee-on-the-judiciary-for-a-hearing-on-ensuring-the-safety-and-well-being-of-unaccompanied-children/">claims</a> of post-pandemic labor shortages, the industry even pushed states to loosen child labor laws, despite a string of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/16/us/perdue-jbs-slaughterhouses-child-labor.html?eafs_enabled=false">child labor</a> scandals.</p> <h2 id="h-like-all-workers-farm-workers-should-be-able-to-live-full-lives" class="wp-block-heading has-h5-variant">What’s Good for Immigrant Workers is Good for All Workers</h2> <p style="margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small);margin-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small);padding-top:0;padding-bottom:0" class="wp-block-paragraph">Today’s immigrant workers need what all workers do: the ability to organize and make their voices and needs heard. That’s difficult for those with uncertain status, like refugees, DACA recipients, people on guestworker visas, and undocumented workers. Providing these workers a path to <a href="https://www.epi.org/publication/the-h-2b-visa-program-has-ballooned-without-being-fixed-expanding-it-to-year-round-jobs-like-meatpacking-would-lower-wages-and-revenue/#epi-toc-14">permanent legal status</a>, a policy <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/712289/americans-support-immigration-down-strong.aspx">favored</a> by most Americans, would better position them to stand up for their rights. It would also limit employers’ ability to create a two-tiered labor market that undermines all workers’ livelihoods. </p> <p style="margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small);margin-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small);padding-top:0;padding-bottom:0" class="wp-block-paragraph">Public policy must also recognize the historically high <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/694472/labor-union-approval-relatively-steady.aspx">public support</a> for labor unions and <a href="https://www.epi.org/publication/the-case-for-tripling-union-membership-how-rebuilding-union-power-would-strengthen-workers-the-economy-and-our-democracy/">make it simpler</a> for workers to organize and hold wayward employers to account. Nearly a century ago, the CIO’s United Packinghouse Workers of America brought together a coalition of meatpacking workers in the fight for decency, demonstrating that worker organizing that includes immigrant workers can transform bad jobs into liveable ones. Indeed, workers in the industry — many from immigrant backgrounds — launched the first <a href="https://apnews.com/article/jbs-meatpacking-union-deal-e41f4f8ffbe03c6942c0e863b444beb3">meatpacking strike</a> in decades in Colorado last April, securing a wage increase in the process.&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small);margin-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small);padding-top:0;padding-bottom:0" class="wp-block-paragraph">Finally, we have to enforce the labor laws already on the books. The Department of Labor needs adequate resources to do so, yet its funding pales beside that dedicated to immigration enforcement. For every dollar spent on immigration enforcement, little more than a penny is spent on labor law enforcement, <a href="https://aflcio.org/reports/workers-rights-iced-out">according to the AFL-CIO</a>. Reallocating even a fraction of that money to protecting the rights of the nation’s 160 million workers would mark significant progress in the face of decades-long stagnation in DOL capacity.</p> <p style="margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small);margin-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small);padding-top:0;padding-bottom:0" class="wp-block-paragraph">We know what it takes to make the economy work for all workers. Immigration built the country we know today and is instrumental in shaping our expectations of the American Dream, and Americans <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/712289/americans-support-immigration-down-strong.aspx">continue to view</a> newcomers as a boon to the nation. But if we are to stay true to the nation’s promise, we must ensure that all workers are afforded the same respect and dignity, no matter where they are from.&nbsp;</p> </div> </div> <div class="wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-top is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow" style="padding-right:var(--wp--preset--spacing--xsmall);padding-left:var(--wp--preset--spacing--xsmall);flex-basis:25%"> <div class="wp-block-group alignfull is-layout-constrained wp-container-core-group-is-layout-c6a4094c wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained" style="padding-right:0;padding-left:0"> <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/> <div class="wp-block-group alignfull is-layout-constrained wp-container-core-group-is-layout-d862d3ad wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained" style="padding-top:0;padding-right:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small);padding-bottom:0;padding-left:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small)"> <h2 class="wp-block-heading has-text-align-left has-h6-variant" 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wp-container-core-group-is-layout-b533ec50 wp-block-group-is-layout-flex" style="padding-right:0;padding-left:0"> <div class="card-slider alignfull has-grid-spacing-small"><div class="card-slider__nav"> <h2 id="h-more-from-the-economic-opportunities-program" class="wp-block-heading has-h4-variant">More from the Economic Opportunities Program</h2> <button type="button" class="card-slider__go card-slider__go--back" aria-label="Previous"> <svg class="svg svg--svg-assets-svg-icon-arrow-left" role="img" focusable="false" height="0" width="0"><use xlink:href="#svg-assets-svg-icon-arrow-left"/></svg> </button> <button type="button" class="card-slider__go card-slider__go--forward" aria-label="Next"> <svg class="svg svg--svg-assets-svg-icon-arrow-right" role="img" focusable="false" height="0" width="0"><use xlink:href="#svg-assets-svg-icon-arrow-right"/></svg> </button> </div> <div class="card-slider__content"><div class="dyn-card"> <div class="dyn-card__wrap"> <div class="dyn-card__media"> <figure class="dyn-card__image"> <a class="dyn-card__image-link" href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/the-workforce-of-the-future-starts-with-adult-basic-education/" tabindex="-1"> <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1081" height="681" src="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Screenshot-2026-09-15-at-4.53.41-PM.png" class="attachment-large size-large" alt="The Workforce of the Future Starts with Adult Basic Education" style="object-position:46% 5%" /> </a> </figure> <div class="dyn-card__label"> <span class="has-meta-variant">Blog Posts</span> </div> </div> <div class="dyn-card__content"> <h2 class="dyn-card__title has-h5-variant"><a href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/the-workforce-of-the-future-starts-with-adult-basic-education/">The Workforce of the Future Starts with Adult Basic Education</a></h2><div class="dyn-card__excerpt">To create a future-ready workforce system, we must move beyond outdated credentials and analog processes to one that is skills-first, transparent, data-driven, and aligned with the evolving needs of workers, educators, and employers.</div><p class="dyn-card__meta dyn-card__date"><button class="favorite" data-id="319204" data-state="" title="Favorites are not currently available" disabled><span class="favorite__on">Unfavorite</span><span class="favorite__off">Favorite</span><svg class="svg svg--svg-assets-svg-icon-bookmark" role="img" focusable="false" height="15" width="11"><use xlink:href="#svg-assets-svg-icon-bookmark"/></svg></button><time>September 16, 2026</time></p><ul class="dyn-card__meta dyn-card__people"><li class="dyn-card__person"><a href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/people/haley-glover/">Haley Glover</a></li><li class="dyn-card__person">Sharon Bonney</li></ul> </div> </div> </div> <div class="dyn-card"> <div class="dyn-card__wrap"> <div class="dyn-card__media"> <figure class="dyn-card__image"> <a class="dyn-card__image-link" href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/publications/foundational-skills-early-insights-from-employers-and-providers/" tabindex="-1"> <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1001" height="1500" src="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/GettyImages-626469398-1001x1500.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large" alt="Foundational Skills: Early Insights from Employers and Providers" style="object-position: 50% 50%" /> </a> </figure> <div class="dyn-card__label"> <span class="has-meta-variant">Publications</span> </div> </div> <div class="dyn-card__content"> <h2 class="dyn-card__title has-h5-variant"><a href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/publications/foundational-skills-early-insights-from-employers-and-providers/">Foundational Skills: Early Insights from Employers and Providers</a></h2><div class="dyn-card__excerpt">This publication examines how fragmented skills, credentialing, and workforce data systems limit the potential of skills-based hiring and advancement, and outlines a shared vision for building the interoperable infrastructure needed to create a connected skills ecosystem that benefits workers, employers, educators, and governments.</div><p class="dyn-card__meta dyn-card__date"><button class="favorite" data-id="318971" data-state="" title="Favorites are not currently available" disabled><span class="favorite__on">Unfavorite</span><span class="favorite__off">Favorite</span><svg class="svg svg--svg-assets-svg-icon-bookmark" role="img" focusable="false" height="15" width="11"><use xlink:href="#svg-assets-svg-icon-bookmark"/></svg></button><time>September 14, 2026</time></p><ul class="dyn-card__meta dyn-card__people"><li class="dyn-card__person"><a href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/people/chelsea-miller/">Chelsea Miller</a></li></ul> </div> </div> </div> <div class="dyn-card"> <div class="dyn-card__wrap"> <div class="dyn-card__media"> <figure class="dyn-card__image"> <a class="dyn-card__image-link" href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/videos/how-tax-policy-can-help-employers-expand-access-to-learning/" tabindex="-1"> <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1280" height="720" src="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/UpSkill-Nick-Greif-Interview-Card.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large" alt="How Tax Policy Can Help Employers Expand Access to Learning" style="object-position: 50% 50%" /> </a> </figure> <div class="dyn-card__label"> <span class="has-meta-variant">Podcasts</span> <span>Videos</span> </div> </div> <div class="dyn-card__content"> <h2 class="dyn-card__title has-h5-variant"><a href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/videos/how-tax-policy-can-help-employers-expand-access-to-learning/">How Tax Policy Can Help Employers Expand Access to Learning</a></h2><div class="dyn-card__excerpt">In this interview, Chelsea Miller of Upskill America speaks with Nick Greif of InStride about how employers can design education benefits that are more accessible, strategic, and aligned with workforce goals.</div><p class="dyn-card__meta dyn-card__date"><button class="favorite" data-id="318780" data-state="" title="Favorites are not currently available" disabled><span class="favorite__on">Unfavorite</span><span class="favorite__off">Favorite</span><svg class="svg svg--svg-assets-svg-icon-bookmark" role="img" focusable="false" height="15" width="11"><use xlink:href="#svg-assets-svg-icon-bookmark"/></svg></button><time>September 8, 2026</time></p><ul class="dyn-card__meta dyn-card__people"><li class="dyn-card__person"><a href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/people/chelsea-miller/">Chelsea Miller</a></li></ul> </div> </div> </div> <div class="dyn-card"> <div class="dyn-card__wrap"> <div class="dyn-card__media"> <figure class="dyn-card__image"> <a class="dyn-card__image-link" href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/the-us-economy-depends-on-immigrant-workers-their-job-quality-matters-for-everyone/" tabindex="-1"> <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1500" height="1000" src="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/GettyImages-2273658083-1500x1000.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large" alt="The US economy depends on immigrant workers. Their job quality matters for everyone." style="object-position: 50% 50%" /> </a> </figure> <div class="dyn-card__label"> <span class="has-meta-variant">Blog Posts</span> </div> </div> <div class="dyn-card__content"> <h2 class="dyn-card__title has-h5-variant"><a href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/the-us-economy-depends-on-immigrant-workers-their-job-quality-matters-for-everyone/">The US economy depends on immigrant workers. Their job quality matters for everyone.</a></h2><div class="dyn-card__excerpt">The future of America’s economic strength depends on immigration. As the US birth rate declines and the median age goes up, fewer US-born workers will enter the labor force. </div><p class="dyn-card__meta dyn-card__date"><button class="favorite" data-id="316801" data-state="" title="Favorites are not currently available" disabled><span class="favorite__on">Unfavorite</span><span class="favorite__off">Favorite</span><svg class="svg svg--svg-assets-svg-icon-bookmark" role="img" focusable="false" height="15" width="11"><use xlink:href="#svg-assets-svg-icon-bookmark"/></svg></button><time>September 3, 2026</time></p><ul class="dyn-card__meta dyn-card__people"><li class="dyn-card__person"><a href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/people/maxwell-johnson/">Maxwell Johnson</a></li></ul> </div> </div> </div> <div class="dyn-card"> <div class="dyn-card__wrap"> <div class="dyn-card__media"> <figure class="dyn-card__image"> <a class="dyn-card__image-link" href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/videos/metrics-that-matter-improving-financial-analysis-of-cdfi-small-business-lenders/" tabindex="-1"> <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1500" height="1000" src="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/GettyImages-2203913963-1500x1000.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large" alt="Metrics that Matter: Improving Financial Analysis of CDFI Small Business Lenders" style="object-position: 50% 50%" /> </a> </figure> <div class="dyn-card__label"> <span class="has-meta-variant">Podcasts</span> <span>Videos</span> </div> </div> <div class="dyn-card__content"> <h2 class="dyn-card__title has-h5-variant"><a href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/videos/metrics-that-matter-improving-financial-analysis-of-cdfi-small-business-lenders/">Metrics that Matter: Improving Financial Analysis of CDFI Small Business Lenders</a></h2><div class="dyn-card__excerpt">This is the final event in our Job Quality in Practice series. In this conversation, hosted by the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program on May 7, 2026, we hear from the Institute’s Job Quality Fellows who are embedding job quality into their work across a range of contexts and strategies — from employee ownership models that give workers a direct financial stake in their company&#8217;s success, to apprenticeship programs that create structured pathways to higher-wage careers, to worker advisory committees that bring employee voice into business decision-making.</div><p class="dyn-card__meta dyn-card__date"><button class="favorite" data-id="316631" data-state="" title="Favorites are not currently available" disabled><span class="favorite__on">Unfavorite</span><span class="favorite__off">Favorite</span><svg class="svg svg--svg-assets-svg-icon-bookmark" role="img" focusable="false" height="15" width="11"><use xlink:href="#svg-assets-svg-icon-bookmark"/></svg></button><time>September 2, 2026</time></p> </div> </div> </div> <div class="dyn-card"> <div class="dyn-card__wrap"> <div class="dyn-card__media"> <figure class="dyn-card__image"> <a class="dyn-card__image-link" href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/nonprofits-need-better-jobs/" tabindex="-1"> <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1500" height="785" src="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/GettyImages-1138234373-1500x785.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large" alt="Nonprofits Need Better Jobs" style="object-position:58% 37%" /> </a> </figure> <div class="dyn-card__label"> <span class="has-meta-variant">Blog Posts</span> </div> </div> <div class="dyn-card__content"> <h2 class="dyn-card__title has-h5-variant"><a href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/nonprofits-need-better-jobs/">Nonprofits Need Better Jobs</a></h2><div class="dyn-card__excerpt">This brief shares key lessons and takeaways that could be used to implement internal job quality practices to strengthen CDFIs and other small business support organizations. </div><p class="dyn-card__meta dyn-card__date"><button class="favorite" data-id="280429" data-state="" title="Favorites are not currently available" disabled><span class="favorite__on">Unfavorite</span><span class="favorite__off">Favorite</span><svg class="svg svg--svg-assets-svg-icon-bookmark" role="img" focusable="false" height="15" width="11"><use xlink:href="#svg-assets-svg-icon-bookmark"/></svg></button><time>September 2, 2026</time></p><ul class="dyn-card__meta dyn-card__people"><li class="dyn-card__person"><a href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/people/bryn-morgan/">Bryn Morgan</a></li></ul> </div> </div> </div> <div class="dyn-card"> <div class="dyn-card__wrap"> <div class="dyn-card__media"> <figure class="dyn-card__image"> <a class="dyn-card__image-link" href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/adult-working-learners-vote-with-their-feet-what-employers-are-learning-about-foundational-skills/" tabindex="-1"> <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1500" height="1000" src="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/GettyImages-2182998150-1500x1000.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large" alt="Adult Working Learners Vote With Their Feet: What Employers Are Learning About Foundational Skills" style="object-position:56% 42%" /> </a> </figure> <div class="dyn-card__label"> <span class="has-meta-variant">Blog Posts</span> </div> </div> <div class="dyn-card__content"> <h2 class="dyn-card__title has-h5-variant"><a href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/adult-working-learners-vote-with-their-feet-what-employers-are-learning-about-foundational-skills/">Adult Working Learners Vote With Their Feet: What Employers Are Learning About Foundational Skills</a></h2><div class="dyn-card__excerpt">Putting people at the center of the systems we are building means accepting that career paths are rarely linear. It requires us to build infrastructure that accommodates life transitions, recognizes informal learning, and values a worker&#8217;s agency over their own data. </div><p class="dyn-card__meta dyn-card__date"><button class="favorite" data-id="308996" data-state="" title="Favorites are not currently available" disabled><span class="favorite__on">Unfavorite</span><span class="favorite__off">Favorite</span><svg class="svg svg--svg-assets-svg-icon-bookmark" role="img" focusable="false" height="15" width="11"><use xlink:href="#svg-assets-svg-icon-bookmark"/></svg></button><time>September 1, 2026</time></p><ul class="dyn-card__meta dyn-card__people"><li class="dyn-card__person"><a href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/people/chelsea-miller/">Chelsea Miller</a></li></ul> </div> </div> </div> <div class="dyn-card"> <div class="dyn-card__wrap"> <div class="dyn-card__media"> <figure class="dyn-card__image"> <a class="dyn-card__image-link" href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/economic-opportunities-program-monthly-digest-august-2026/" tabindex="-1"> <div class="dyn-card__image-placeholder"> <span class="a11y">Placeholder</span> </div> </a> </figure> <div class="dyn-card__label"> <span class="has-meta-variant">Blog Posts</span> </div> </div> <div class="dyn-card__content"> <h2 class="dyn-card__title has-h5-variant"><a href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/economic-opportunities-program-monthly-digest-august-2026/">Economic Opportunities Program Monthly Digest — August 2026</a></h2><p class="dyn-card__meta dyn-card__date"><button class="favorite" data-id="314192" data-state="" title="Favorites are not currently available" disabled><span class="favorite__on">Unfavorite</span><span class="favorite__off">Favorite</span><svg class="svg svg--svg-assets-svg-icon-bookmark" role="img" focusable="false" height="15" width="11"><use xlink:href="#svg-assets-svg-icon-bookmark"/></svg></button><time>August 31, 2026</time></p> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="wp-block-group alignfull has-primary-light-background-color has-background is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained" style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--medium);padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--medium)"> <h2 class="wp-block-heading has-h4-variant" id="h-about-the-economic-opportunities-program">About the Economic Opportunities Program</h2> <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The Aspen Institute <a href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/programs/economic-opportunities-program/">Economic Opportunities Program</a> advances strategies, policies, and ideas to help low- and moderate-income people thrive in a changing economy.</p> </div> <p>The post <a href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/the-us-economy-depends-on-immigrant-workers-their-job-quality-matters-for-everyone/">The US economy depends on immigrant workers. Their job quality matters for everyone.</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org">Aspen Institute</a>.</p>