What do you see when you encounter a person on the street begging for money? Do you see a homeless person, a con artist, a grifter, a nuisance, a danger, an untouchable to be ignored? Adjust your focus a little and what you will see is an unemployed person who has fallen through the rather spacious cracks of the system. At this extreme end of the spectrum are a lot of hard problems to solve. Some people will never be able to hold a job and take care of their own needs. Fortunately, this is not the case for the majority of unemployed persons in a given city.
In some cities, there is simply not enough work that can support the needs of a person taking care of a family. In some places, the problem is a lack of higher education in the workforce. Part of the reason for unemployment could be that we tend to not think of gainful employment as a human right. People who find and can keep it are lucky while people who can’t are on their own. We can do better. Here’s how:
Better Work Gear
Sourcing work gear is not just a matter of uniforms and logos. That said, there are many jobs that require an artificially high level of work attire that alienate people who do not possess that level of wardrobe. Providing work uniforms could solve most of this issue and make more jobs available to more people who are more than capable of doing them. Socio-economic hardship should not separate a person from a good job they are able to perform. Other examples of better work gear are as varied as the job descriptions. For example, if a job includes processing sensitive data on a computer, someone should be looking at laptop reviews and VPN reviews to make sure that this can be done efficiently and confidentially.
At a municipal level, uniforms are not the only democratizing gear to be considered. In industrial and warehouse settings where heavy lifting is done, powered exoskeletons could be provided that augment operator strength without restricting freedom of movement to boost productivity while dramatically reducing injuries. This type of thing would clearly have positive implications for worker safety. In the same way a hard hat is assigned to everyone on a construction site, the city can assign the type of gear that makes good jobs available to more people. We don’t expect workers to supply their own forklifts before they can take on a job involving the movement of heavy pallets. Imagine how few people would be able to do those jobs. Better gear means more opportunity. Companies like Sarcos are reimagining the future of work. And that future is more inclusive.
Better Education Opportunities
Cities can exert a lot of influence in the realm of education. Employees who go to work for the city can get tuition vouchers for major universities in the area and free access to community college. Even now, free community college is on the legislative agenda. That will make it a lot easier for all Americans to attain an Associate’s degree. That, alone, will mean more people will qualify for better opportunities in the workforce. It will also make it more affordable and accessible to go from there to a 4-year degree since only two years would need to be financed. Making higher education available to more people will change the face of work as we know it.
Better Transportation
What if public transportation was free for people commuting to work? Not everyone can drive a car. That should not be the gating factor for whether or not they can get a job. The city could provide workers with vouchers for public transportation, and even an allowance for ride-sharing services for those times when public transportation is insufficient. Some cities have no public transportation at all. Those cities are especially challenging for people with disabilities who simply have no access to a car. In such places, bike lanes are unheard of and sidewalks are rare. If you are not driving, you are not commuting. This type of policy leaves many people with no way to maintain a job because they have no reliable way to get to work. All cities can and must do better than that.
The city municipality has a lot more tools at its disposal than the average business owner. Many of those tools can be deployed to get more people gainfully employed. Among those tools are better gear, better education, and better transportation. The good news is that even now, advances in those areas are already in the works. We can do better. We must do better. And thankfully, we are already starting to do better.
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