• Nationwide, 51 percent of job tasks across all industries can be automated. This means that 78.5 million jobs are at risk of being automated.

• The industries with the greatest vulnerability to automation include accommodation and food services, administrative and waste management services, real estate, retail trade, and transportation and warehousing. More than 60 percent of job tasks in these industries can be automated and approximately 31 million jobs are likely to be impacted.

• Latinx immigrant workers face the highest level of automation risk at 66 percent. Comparatively, white immigrant workers face an average automation risk of 43 percent.

• Jobs requiring no more than a high school diploma are most vulnerable to automation, with an average risk of 80 percent. This rate drops to 20 percent among jobs requiring a bachelor’s degree.

Major technological advancements throughout history have altered the way work gets done, shaping markets, occupations, and industries by making certain jobs obsolete, changing and expanding others, and creating entirely new roles across industries and fields. However, not all workers and occupations are impacted equally. Historical practices, such as racial segregation and policies that banned women and people of color from accessing education and higher-paid professions, and ongoing factors like biased hiring practices, inadequate childcare support, and disparities in wealth have forced historically marginalized people into occupations that are undervalued and vulnerable to automation and computerization. Without strong policies to protect the interests of workers, the tremendous wealth generated by technological innovations has been inequitably concentrated, exacerbating racial and economic inequalities.

• Invest in robust, disaggregated data collection and reporting systems and utilize granular insights on differential outcomes to drive systems change.

• Grow new good jobs by making smart investments in infrastructure projects, supporting economic development strategies to grow high-opportunity industries, and helping entrepreneurs of color start and scale up their businesses.

• Reduce employment barriers for people with records by "banning the box" — eliminating questions about conviction history on job applications (for private as well as public employers).

• Connect unemployed and underemployed workers to the jobs created by new development through targeted local hiring, community workforce agreements, and community benefits agreements.

• Invest a portion of infrastructure investments in job training.

• Implement sector-focused workforce training and placement programs and apprenticeships that create pathways to good jobs for workers with barriers to employment.

• Invest in innovative training and credentialing models that democratize the economic benefits of a bachelor’s degree to a wider swath of the workforce, such as paid-on-the-job training and portable, stackable credentials and microcredentials to facilitate upward career transitions.

• Enact strong language access policies requiring interpretation and translation services for English-language learners and facilitate naturalization among green card holders.

• At the federal level, institute a federal jobs guarantee, dedicate 1 percent of infrastructure investments to a fund for inclusive job and contracting supports, set aside a share of public contracts for businesses owned by people of color to mirror area demographics, reform the Community Reinvestment Act to expand access to fair financial products and services for entrepreneurs of color, and ensure that releases from federal prison receive essential identification documents to support job attainment.

• Reports: Race and the Work of the Future: Advancing Workforce Equity in the United States; How Covid-19 Is Affecting Black and Latino Families’ Employment and Financial Well-Being; 10 Principles for a Federal Job Guarantee; Exploring Targeted Hire; Despite Continued Job Growth, Long-Term Unemployment Persists; Hiring Bias Black And Latino People Face Hasn't Improved In 25 Years
• Data: Opportunity Insights Economic Tracker (Low-Income Employment); Metro Monitor; State of Working America; Understanding Long-Term Employment