Leaders in the public and private sectors have been trying to plan the future of America’s workforce for decades. Covid-19 certainly complicated matters.

THE BACKGROUND

She also worked to cut taxes, reduce regulations and create the largest infrastructure program in the state's history. Under her leadership, Rhode Island community colleges became tuition-free.

In 2020 with Covid raging, Raimondo announced a $45 million investment to create jobs for thousands of state residents out of work due to the public health crisis. The program “Back to Work Rhode Island” worked closely with private sector companies -- including Bank of America, Microsoft and Salesforce -- to find opportunities for people who had lost their jobs.

Current

As Commerce secretary, Raimondo is trying to change the way the government mobilizes around workforce development. She’s working directly with Labor Secretary Marty Walsh and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to “break down the silos between our departments.” For Raimondo, understanding what jobs businesses are committed to hiring for is the key. “It’s a waste of money to train people for jobs that don’t exist,” Raimondo said. “These things only work if businesses step up from day one and commit to hiring, because once you get them on the hook to commit to hiring ... then they will pay attention to the skills that these people are being trained for because it’s in their business interest.”

As she looks at the challenges related to America’s global competitiveness, Raimondo is focused on making sure there is enough talent with modern skills for the digital economy. Part of that is reshaping the way businesses review job candidates. Her push: for the private sector to be more inclusive of employment seekers re-entering the workforce after having children or for those who have formerly been incarcerated. “To be clear, this is a sea change in the way education will be done, in the way job training will be done, in the way hiring will be done,” Raimondo said, “But it’s necessary if women and people of color are going to have a chance at getting decent and high paying jobs.” She added, “And frankly it’s necessary for businesses to be productive because right now businesses aren’t growing at the rate they need to be growing, because they can’t hire at the rate they need.”

FUTURE

Raimondo is urging increased investment in apprenticeships and job training. That pipeline is key for the business community to have enough skilled workers — in areas such as data analysis and software engineering — to accommodate growth. “You want to have enough labor and make sure it’s not just white guys,” Raimondo said, considering that the majority of people entering the workforce seeking tech and digital jobs will be women and largely non-white in the next 10 years. "It's really heartbreaking for me to see women, women of color especially, concentrated so heavily in the lowest paying, most back-breaking work, like in the care economy. There's no need for it. And the thing is, if we could just help these women to get access to the job training they need, the support they need, they could get these higher paying jobs and be great at it."

Raimondo is also focused on making sure women have access to childcare and transportation in order to compete for those higher-paying jobs. “If you really want to be able to unleash the creative and productive potential of half of America's workforce, which is women, we need to invest in childcare. Period,” Raimondo stated. The last word: “Any time you have to disrupt the status quo, it's really hard. Change is hard and this is easy to say and hard to do. But it's worth it,” she said.