Since its inception, the Heldrich Center has sought to inform employers, union leaders, policymakers, community members, the media, and academic communities about critical workforce and educational issues that relate to the emerging global economy. To better understand the public’s attitudes about work, employers, and the government, and improve workplace practices and policy, the Heldrich Center produces the Work Trends surveys on a regular basis. The surveys poll the general public on critical workforce issues facing Americans and American businesses. The series is directed by Carl E. Van Horn, Ph.D., Director of the Heldrich Center.

Products:

• U.S. Workers Assess the Impacts of Artificial Intelligence on Jobs: Topline Survey Results (February 2024)
• Workers’ Sour Assessment of the U.S. Labor Market and Inflation Cuts Across Party Lines on the Eve of National Elections in 2024 (December 2023)
• Whipsawed, Precarious, and Pessimistic: Americans’ Changing Views About the Economy and Labor Market During a Decade of Fundamental Change (May 2023)
• Trends in American Opinions about Jobs, 2010 to 2021 (January 2022)
• Impact of Hard Work in a Pandemic (April 2021)
• Thoughts on the Women’s Recession (March 2021)
• Impact of the Pandemic on Americans, Young and Old: Household Finances, Stress, and the Role of Government during COVID-19 (March 2021)
• Assessing the Economic Effects of the Pandemic on Households (February 2021)
• Twin Crises: The Economic Impact of COVID-19 and Americans’ Outlook for the Future (January 2021)
• Healing the Wounded Economy (January 2021)
• What Me Worry? Most Americans Not Concerned about the Impacts of Technology on Jobs (October 2018)
• A Glass Half Full or Half Empty? Americans Agree the Economy is Strong, but Worry about the Future: Media Release (September 2018)
• A Glass Half Full or Half Empty? Americans Agree the Economy is Strong, but Worry about the Future: Topline Survey Results (September 2018)
• Turning Points: Americans’ Growing Confidence in the Job Market, Perspectives on the Presidential Election, and Assessments of Foreign and Immigrant Workers (September 2016)
• Joys and Disappointments of Older Part-time Workers (September 2015)
• A Tale of Two Workforces: The Benefits and Burdens of Working Part Time (June 2015)
• Left Behind: The Long-term Unemployed Struggle in an Improving Economy (September 2014)
• Unhappy, Worried, and Pessimistic: Americans in the Aftermath of the Great Recession (August 2014)
• Diminished Lives and Futures: A Portrait of America in the Great-Recession Era (February 2013)
• Left Out. Forgotten? Recent High School Graduates and the Great Recession (June 2012)
• Chasing the American Dream: Recent College Graduates and the Great Recession (May 2012)
• Out of Work and Losing Hope: The Misery and Bleak Expectations of American Workers (September 2011)
• Voices of the Unemployed (September 2011)
• Unfulfilled Expectations: Recent College Graduates Struggle in a Troubled Economy (May 2011)
• Unemployed Workers and the Great Recession (January 2011)
• Shattered American Dream: Unemployed Workers Lose Ground, Hope, and Faith in their Futures (December 2010)
• American Workers Assess an Economic Disaster (September 2010)
• No End in Sight: The Agony of Prolonged Unemployment (May 2010)
• Healthy at Work? Unequal Access to Employer Wellness Programs (May 2009)
• Distressed American Worker: Fears of Permanent Job Loss Soar (April 2009)
• Anxious American Worker (August 2008)
• Work-Filled Retirement: Workers’ Changing Views on Employment and Leisure (August 2005)
• At a Crossroads: American Workers Assess Jobs and Economic Security Amid the Race for President (October 2004)
• Laid Off: American Workers and Employers Assess a Volatile Labor Market (April 2004)
• Disposable Worker: Living in a Job-Loss Economy (July 2003)
• Restricted Access: Work Trends Survey of Employers About People with Disabilities
 (March 2003)
• Taking Stock of Retirement: How Workers and Employers Assess Pensions, Trust, and the Economy
(May 2002)
• Standing on Shaky Ground: Employers Sharply Concerned in Aftermath of Recession and Terror (February 2002)
• Workplace Divided: How Americans View Discrimination and Race on the Job (January 2002)
• Holding On: Americans Assess a Changing Economic Landscape (March 2001)
• Second Wind: Workers, Retirement, and Social Security (September 2000)
• Making the Grade: What American Workers Think Should Be Done to Improve Education (June 2000)
• Nothing But Net: American Workers and the Information Economy (February 2000)
• Who Will Let the Good Times Roll? A National Survey on Jobs, the Economy, and the Race for President (January 2000)
• Working Hard But Staying Poor: A National Survey of the Working Poor and Unemployed (January 2000)
• Work and Family: How Employers and Workers can Strike the Balance (March 1999)
• Americans’ Attitudes about Work, Employers, and Government (September 1998)