I served as California Employment Development Department director, and today am Counsel with the international law firm of Duane Morris LLP, a Milken Institute Fellow and Fellow with Burning Glass Institute, and research director with the California Workforce Association. My
Lessons From The Unemployment Office
In an increasingly competitive job world, lessons from the unemployment offices of an earlier era.
The “Hard To Employ”: How AI May Lead To Breakthroughs
America's Workforce System has struggled for over 60 years with jobs for the "hard to employ". Now AI offers opportunity for a System reset.
Rage Against The Machine
Fearing job displacements, state legislatures, advocacy groups. and attorneys, are rushing to halt AI uses. They are pursuing exactly the wrong approaches.
The Typewriter Repair Class, AI And The Next Stage Of Jobs
Artificial Intelligence is impacting jobs with unexpected speed in early 2026. How are the professionals in job training and placement responding?
How Direct Support Professionals Find Meaning Beyond Career Ladders
The 1.4 million U.S. workers who support people with autism, cerebral palsy and other medical issues offer lessons on long-term professional relationships.
‘The Queen Of Versailles’: Broadway Through The Entrepreneur’s Lens
The opening of "The Queen of Versailles" on Broadway this week is an opportunity to reconsider one of the most colorful and unusual business stories of the early 2000s.
Dispatch From California’s ‘Upstairs, Downstairs’ Economy
In California, a new form of Upstairs, Downstairs economy is growing: an Upstairs of professionals and knowledge economy workers, and a Downstairs of workers in service.
Labor Day 2025: Navigating The White Collar Crack-Up
White-collar job seekers are facing the most competitive job market in decades. How they can best navigate this crack-up of the white collar economy.
Serious Mental Illness: The Power Of The Job
Can someone with a severe mental illness (schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder, severe depression or anxiety) find a place in the job world? A new job model seeks to show how.
Job Market Challenges Revealed By Closing A California Oil Refinery
Despite generous government funding for retraining, few laid-off oil workers are able to obtain new jobs with comparable wages. Many remained unemployed.