Work & economic life
Jobs, remote work, adaptable skills and household resilience.
Why the Cost of Commuting Belongs in Discussions About Work
A developed explanation of why wages alone cannot measure the value or accessibility of a job, considering travel time, work location, transportation choices, and housing affordability.
Economic Security and the Ability to Handle an Unexpected Expense
An explanation of what emergency-savings measures reveal about U.S. households’ financial resilience—and why those measures cannot describe every household’s security.
How Housing Costs Shape the Choices of American Workers
An explanatory essay on how housing expenses affect workers’ budgets, employment choices, and resilience, while examining the limits of the cost-burden measure.
Should Schools Prepare Students for Specific Jobs or Adaptable Skills?
An argument that schools should build adaptable skills as a foundation while offering meaningful, focused career preparation.
Why Job Growth Does Not Automatically Mean Every Worker Benefits
An evidence-based explanation of why expanding occupations do not guarantee that every worker can access a job, meet its requirements, or benefit from its conditions.
Should Career Advice Follow Job-Growth Projections?
Job-growth projections can make career research more focused, but they are not promises of employment. Good advice weighs occupational outlook alongside pay, preparation, location, and personal circumstances.
Should Access to Reliable Transit Be Part of Workforce Policy?
An argument for treating reliable transportation as a workforce concern, with attention to commuting, housing costs, caregiving, rural service, and the limits of transit-only solutions.
Financial Well-Being Is More Than Having a Job
An evidence-based essay explains how earnings, expenses, stability, and emergency resources combine to shape financial well-being in the United States.
Working from Home in the United States: Benefits and Tradeoffs
An explanatory essay weighing the flexibility and commuting benefits of working from home against the limits of job tasks and unequal access to remote work.