“If you look at the headlines on the economy, it suggests that we’re doing OK, and yet there’s a jobs crisis hidden under our noses. Nationwide, prime age employment, one of the key measures of community economic health, hovers around about 80%, but if your community lags that by more than 5%, it’s considered economically distressed. That’s now a third of America’s counties, and there are 50 million people who live in those areas that are economically distressed,” said Derek Kilmer, Senior Vice President of U.S. Program and Policy for The Rockefeller Foundation, a philanthropic foundation founded in 1913 that focuses on the well-being of people across the globe.
To improve the lives of those living in America’s most distressed communities by creating approximately 1.6 million additional good jobs nationally, The Rockefeller Foundation recently launched a Big Bet on Good Jobs for America, a new three-year, $100 million commitment to connect more people to good jobs and adapt to rapid economic and technological change. It was announced during The Rockefeller Foundation’s Big Bets for America – Baltimore event in April, which brought together more than 250 leaders spanning policy, philanthropic, private, and non-profit sectors. The event sought to surface and accelerate philanthropic big bets that are delivering real results for residents of Baltimore and beyond. The Foundation’s new big bet on jobs will be built around four sectors where the Foundation has deep programmatic expertise and where job growth is expected to be strongest over the next decade: healthcare and the care economy; energy transition; food systems; and AI-enabled industries.
“It’s an opportunity to engage with the community to lift up some of the exciting work that’s happening in communities like Baltimore and explore opportunities for collaboration,” said Kilmer, who added some of the goals include supporting private sector job growth, using artificial intelligence to make government function better for people, and modernizing the approach to economic development to create more economic opportunity for more people in more places.
Kilmer added that communities with high unemployment have an erosion of the tax base, which negatively impacts roads, schools, basic utilities, and public health, and AI may put even more Americans’ jobs at risk.
“The primary reason that the Rockefeller Foundation is making this big bet is the recognition that there are too many people in too many places that so far have been left behind, and that no matter where you live, you should have a shot. As we come upon a period of substantial disruption, we’ve got to empower communities to navigate that change, rather than to be victimized by it, and to make sure that that we’re creating more opportunity, not less,” said Kilmer.
One of the primary challenges the Rockefeller Foundation is tackling is that the U.S. has approximately 3,000 counties; however, approximately half of the jobs today are in about 112 of them. Plus, the areas with the highest concentration of jobs also tend to be the most expensive places to live, where affordable housing is not commonplace.
“We’ve got to figure out how to help communities take advantage of the assets they have, so that regardless of what zip code you live in, you’ve got a shot,” he said.
Healthcare is an area where Kilmer sees great potential, as every community needs healthcare workers. “There’s 2 million open healthcare jobs in our country, and we have a lot of people who need jobs. We’re working on creating stronger partnerships within the care economy between workers and employers and training providers to make training more accessible and affordable.”
The Rockefeller Foundation also bestowed a $12 million grant to the Invest in Our Future organization to create more jobs in the very fast-growing clean energy industry. “The clean energy job space is one of the fastest growing in the economy, and there are substantial job opportunities also in healthcare, childcare, food systems, and AI. These are some of the areas where the Rockefeller Foundation has built some knowledge and connection with partners on the ground and communities throughout the country.”
Looking back at the Big Bets for America event in Baltimore, Kilmer noted the optimism shared by one of the panelists, Marisa Flowers from the Greater Washington Partnership.
“She gave some extraordinary examples of work that’s happening in the Greater Baltimore area to connect people to work, how the employer community is partnering for training and trying to create greater pathways into good jobs. The success on those sorts of undertaking is about more than a paycheck. It’s about the dignity of work, and it’s about hope,” he said.