There's long been a need for our government agencies to collect more timely and better data on the the forces impacting jobs and work.
The study is titled Information Technology and the U.S. Workforce: Where Are We and Where Do We Go from Here?. It's from the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.
Most people will not want to wade through this lengthy study, nor pay $66 to do so.
But the good news is the study authors also wrote an article for Nature - Track how technology is transforming work - that nicely summarizes the study findings. Key quote:
“much of the data needed to spot, understand and adapt to workforce challenges are not gathered in a systematic way, or worse, do not exist. The irony of our information age is that despite the flood of online data, decision-makers all too often lack timely, relevant information.”
Another recent academic study focuses in on the lack of data on the gig economy.
NBER's Measuring the Gig Economy: Current Knowledge and Open Issues* looks at the various sources of government data on the gig economy and finds them lacking. Key quote:
"Recognizing the limitations of each of the individual available sources of data, our major conclusion is that efforts to develop linked data sets that combine household survey data, employer survey data and, potentially, naturally occurring private sector data are likely to have a high payoff, permitting greater insight into the changing nature of work than is possible using any single data source."
One of the more interesting specific findings of this study is that the way government surveys ask about employment leads to an under counting of the self-employed, and especially those holding multiple jobs.
Key quote from the study:
One clear message conveyed by the findings is that probing to ask about possible gig employment leads to higher estimated employment rates and higher multiple job-holding rates ... In summary, there has been growing recognition that standard household survey questions may miss some individuals’ primary work activities if the survey respondent does not think of those activities as a job.
We changed our survey questions so they probe about possible gig employment about a decade ago. We did this because our interviews back then showed traditional survey questions about "jobs" simply didn't work.
We're glad that government agencies are catching up. But these studies highlight a big and growing problem.
Government agencies and regulatory bodies at all levels aren't moving nearly as fast as changes in the economy are happening. And outdated data collection methods and approaches are one of the key reasons.
Both studies call for new data collection approaches and methods. Key quote from Track how technology is transforming work:
A rational public strategy for managing the jobs revolution calls for a clear and comprehensive picture of the changes. Obtaining that picture will require three things. First, we must find ways to collect data and statistical summaries from diverse sources, including private organizations. Second, a trusted broker is needed to protect data privacy, access, security, anonymity and other rights of data providers, and to provide summaries for the public (much as the US Census and other statistical agencies currently do). Third, we need ways to integrate data from sources that reflect different statistical sampling skews and biases, normalizing the data where possible and flagging any remaining biases.
We certainly agree. But we're not confident this will happen.
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