The Industrial Age factories that once dominated the Greater New Haven economy, producing guns, tools, machinery, and other goods for markets around the world, provided an abundance of entry-level jobs that required little academic schooling. What a worker needed to know could be learned on the job, and there was a good chance that job could support a family. Those days are long gone.
For most people, earning enough money to support a family now requires education beyond high school. The job landscape is fragmented across multiple sectors. Job skills that were once valued are now obsolete. And in the past five years, job seekers have faced the most competitive employment market seen in a generation.
In this difficult economic climate, jobs have become a central issue of our time. Local business and political leaders recognize that a workforce educated and trained to meet the demands of the 21st century economy is crucial to the sustained vitality of the region. And access to family-sustaining work is the best anti-poverty measure of all. Throughout Greater New Haven, innovative programs are helping people across the workforce spectrum access the skills they need to compete.
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