The COVID-19-driven economic recession has devastated the U.S. labor market and American workers. Real-time data are critical for policymakers to be able to develop strategies to respond to a crisis like the current recession as soon as it begins and can help inform recovery plans. Unfortunately, the United States does not have sufficient data infrastructure to quickly address the policy needs for responding to neither the current workforce crisis created by the pandemic, nor for future crises. A new article by Sean Simone offers recommendations for improving national workforce data collection and dissemination to better address future economic recessions and to allow for the monitoring of state and local economies.

Sean Simone, Ph.D. is Director of Research and Evaluation at the Heldrich Center and Director of the New Jersey Education to Earnings Data System. His paper is part of the Leading Workforce Resurgence series published by the Center for Workforce and Economic Opportunity at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.