Ex-Commerce Secretary Pritzker on Saving the Future of Jobs

Today, the Council on Foreign Relations–sponsored Independent Task Force released The Work Ahead, a report on the American workforce in the 21st century. It does not make for comforting reading. The Work Ahead portrays a country where automation and other technological advances have rendered the economy unrecognizable--employment is no longer linked to economic security, the labor market is brutally divided between a prosperous tech-savvy elite and the struggling tech-illiterate, and the educational system is ill-equipped to prepare workers to succeed. And yet The Work Ahead does not blame technology per se, but rather a government and society that have consistently failed to adjust to economic reality--leaving workers to navigate a rapidly changing world without sufficient support or guidance. It doesn't have to be this way.