Your Future of Work

Your Future of Work was a problem identification consultation in partnership with the NJ Future of Work Task Force. The project engaged New Jersey’s workers to better understand the ways in which a changing economy and technology were impacting their jobs. This work was executed as part of the SmarterNJ Initiative.

Challenge

As part of the Future of Work Task Force’s efforts to determine how technology was changing New Jersey’s economy and how to prepare the state for those shifts, the Task Force needed to understand how workers perceived the impact of new technology, including their concerns and their hopes.

Innovation In Action

Over three weeks in early 2020, the New Jersey Future of Work Task Force, with the help of 40 advocacy and interest groups around the state, asked New Jersey’s workers and employees to share their greatest concerns with regard to the impact of new technology on three policy areas: lifelong learning and skills, rights and benefits for workers, and workplace health and safety. Using a digital tool, the project team was able to quickly engage thousands of New Jersey workers. This engagement leveraged a platform, called All Our Ideas, that allows survey designers to present a seemingly simple choice between two options, but behind the scenes, a powerful algorithm analyzes these individual responses to produce insights that allow for the comparison of hundreds of choices.

Impact + Metrics

• In just three weeks, the project team was able to hear directly from over 4,000 workers and gain critical insights that helped the State create new programs to help them.

Status

• The project concluded in February of 2020 and its findings informed the Future of Work Task Force’s final report and recommendations.

Resources and Additional Reading

• Future of Work Task Force Report: Read more about what workers had to say about the greatest challenges they face in the Future of Work Task Force’s report (page 99).
• NJ Spotlight News: Workers fear losing full-time jobs, no training, corporate surveillance
• Medium: What We Learned About the Future of Work from 4,000 Workers in New Jersey
• Medium: How New Jersey Asked Workers About the Future of Work

Partners

• NJ Future of Work Task Force
• NJ Economic Development Authority
• NJ State Department of Labor
• NJ State Office of the Secretary of Higher Education

Last updated on 10/26/23