Then and Now: Key Trends and Transformations in the 21st Century Labor Market (Part 1 of 3)

The US labor market has experienced significant changes since the turn of the century. Some of the most profound changes were driven by technology, others shaped by business, policy, and shifting social norms. Two enormous economic shocks, the Great Recession of 2007–2009 and the pandemic recession of 2020, also drove changes in the economy and labor market. At the time of this writing, the Federal Reserve has been working to bring down inflation rates that last year reached a 40-year high. These major developments have transformed the nature of work and opportunities for American workers. For some workers with advanced education and technological skills, these changes brought enhanced opportunity and increased ability to weather economic disruptions. For some workers with less formal education and skills training, their ability to obtain stable, family-sustaining jobs became more challenging. In this three-part series, we bring together labor market, workforce, occupational, and educational trends since 2000 to tell a story of American workers through data. This is primarily a decennial retrospective, but in some sections we include additional years to shape a complete story. We explore these data broadly and granularly with a demographic lens, recognizing that general trends are not experienced universally across groups. We identify where opportunities for some workers have improved and where there may be a need for additional efforts to increase opportunities for enhanced economic mobility. This is a story told primarily through charts and tables that serve as a visual depiction of how workers, on average, are experiencing the labor market. We bring together two decades of data and hope this informs workforce practitioners, policymakers, business leaders, and others as they double down in areas where the trends show positive signs of improvement and continue as change agents in areas where the trends are stagnant or regressive.