The pandemic has laid bare many truths about our country’s racial health and wealth gaps, and gaping inequities in work and employment are at the top of the list. Low-wage workers, and employees who are already economically vulnerable, are by far the most susceptible to sudden shifts in the economy and job market, and have the fewest resources to cushion the blow if employment disappears. As business in food service, hospitality and retail has dried up, employees in those sectors, largely people of color from under-resourced communities, are among the hardest hit.

Even before COVID-19 began ravaging sectors of our economy, market and workforce experts predicted that at least 40 percent of the country’s workers would need to reskill by 2030 in order to keep pace with automation and other technological transformations that displace human employees. The pandemic has sped up that timetable by nearly a decade. And it’s becoming increasingly clear that many jobs, especially those involving significant social interaction, won’t return any time soon—as many as 42 percent, according to Brookings, may be gone for good. Again, that leaves behind a workforce that is predominantly Black, Latinx, and female.

These challenges, which impact tens of millions of American families and destabilize the economy as a whole, do seem overwhelming. But with thoughtful, intentional effort we can surmount them. Employment and career training organizations have pivoted job readiness programs, reorienting them toward growth industries and local employers’ skill demands, and rapidly transitioned training to online instruction.

Even when COVID no longer has the world in its grip, we will need to be strategic in paving the way for low-wage workers to get from A—any job—to C—the kind of fulfilling and life-sustaining career that also contributes to a healthy economy and society.

Read the full article about the coronavirus' impact on low-wage workers by Laura D'Alessandro at LISC.