Workforce Intermediaries: Generating Benefits for Employers and Workers

Workforce Intermediaries: Generating Benefits for Employers and Workers summarizes the collective work of the Partnership for Employer-Employee Responsive Systems (PEERS), funded by the Ford Foundation. This unique partnership promotes dialogue and joint research among grantees, including Jobs for the Future, of the foundation’s Private Sector Training Related Investments in Low-Wage Workers Initiative.

PEERS developed a broad research question: “What works and does not work with regard to private-sector employers’ ability to access intermediaries to provide education, training, and other employment supports to low-wage workers?” A two-year research effort suggests that both workers and employers benefit when employers use workforce intermediaries to improve or link jobs or to locate or provide skills training and employment supports. However, when employers use workforce intermediaries only for placement or job matching, workers’ wage prospects can be hindered, and it is unclear whether any benefit accrues to employers.