Then and Now: The Changing Landscape of Education Outcomes and Funding in the 21st Century (Part 2 of 3)

This is part two of a three-part series that brings 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 some sections include additional years to shape a complete story. Part two looks at policy interventions related to unemployment, health care insurance, and retirement savings. The charts illustrate the mixed experiences of workers over this period. The "Then and Now" series explores 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 to serve as a visual depiction of how workers 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 regressing.