On Friday, the U.S. Government released its influential, monthly jobs report, which showed that unemployment rose slightly to 3.7%, but remains close to its recent 50-year low. This simple report–which primarily focuses on the unemployment rate–can cause the stock market to rally or drop, spur a company to offer lower or higher wages, and factor into how the Fed sets interest rates. But the report–like much of our workforce data–hasn’t kept up with the changing realities of the job market, like the explosion of gig work, which goes uncounted. And even though it reports on average wages, it still doesn’t tell us much of what Americans say matters most to them about their jobs: whether the pay is enough to achieve a good quality of life for themselves and their families, if the benefits keep them healthy or let them take a day off when their kid is sick, and if they feel respected and have purpose on the job.
If we don’t reimagine U.S. workforce data (and soon), it could leave the country behind the times. We’d be less equipped to handle major trends that have already caught many policy and business leaders flat-footed, such as the “Great Resignation,” where 98.3 million people quit their jobs in a two-year period, or the recent precipitous decline of mothers and caregivers in the workforce. In a U.S. economy dominated by services that maintains its competitive edge thanks to the talent and innovation of our workforce, accurately measuring worker experiences is not a “nice-to-have”–it’s key to global competitiveness.
A recent report lays out a pathway the U.S. Government and other data providers could follow to reimagine key datasets to paint a more accurate picture of the U.S. economy and job quality. It calls for regular, systematic data that includes anyone who is working (whether you’re a contract or gig worker or an employee earning W-2 wages) and measures all key aspects of job quality, not just pay. It draws on the most broadly-shared definition of what constitutes a “good job,” signed by a group of nearly 250 leaders in business, labor, education, and policy, from Chipotle to the Service Employees International Union, along with workers themselves. A good job enables you to get by, get ahead, and ensures you have a say.
Statistics can make even the most precarious jobs look like success stories if we only take quantity into account and ignore job quality.
As tornadoes, wildfires, and hurricanes sweep the country, Joel Salazar, 35, is part of the current boom in relief services, a growing sector that looks like a win in the jobs report. He cleans up after natural disasters “to give a hand to communities in need and help them rebuild,” he told us. But in bringing 18 communities back from the brink, Joel has faced dangerous safety hazards that put his health at risk, with low pay, and no benefits.
“When I was sick, the money wasn’t enough to get medications, and I didn’t have any health insurance,” Joel says. He has recently begun organizing other disaster workers like him to improve their jobs through the nonprofit Resilience Force.
These are the stories that U.S. labor market data doesn’t capture systematically. The real-life work experience of millions of Americans has a huge impact on employee productivity, a company’s bottom line, national economic health and security, and the well-being of our families and communities.
Now, it is incumbent upon government and private industry to ensure that our workforce data–including the monthly jobs report–tells a fuller story about working in America. In a recent blog post, leaders at the Department of Labor committed to taking action to measure what matters to workers. Their Good Jobs Initiative has already helped to embed powerful good jobs incentives and measurement opportunities into more than $97 billion in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law grants.
There are concrete steps that we can take to update statistical surveys so they are better able to measure key job characteristics such as benefits, schedule stability, worker voice, and whether equal access to opportunity plays out by race, gender, age, disability, or otherwise. Investors and business leaders can pilot scorecards that simplify data disclosure and help them assess how their jobs stack up to industry peers. And influential media voices can start to cover a more holistic jobs story, moving beyond just employment numbers and pay to whether jobs truly offer dignity and mobility.
We will all benefit from better data. Federal policymakers, and the public, can learn whether the trillions of dollars that the federal government is investing in American industry are delivering on their promise to create good, family-sustaining jobs. Employers and investors can understand how a company’s investments in people add up (or don’t) to a decent quality of life, which evidence shows boosts employee productivity, retention, and the bottom line. And workers can more easily seek out opportunities that improve their lives and their economic contributions.
The next time you read the monthly jobs numbers, be sure to ask what’s not included–and what disruptive trend or big idea you might be missing without more insight into the daily realities of work in America. Let’s make 2023 the year we start measuring the true health of the economy: whether jobs are supporting a competitive U.S. workforce that can get by and get ahead.
Rachel Korberg is the executive director and co-founder of the Families and Workers Fund, a coalition of more than 25 diverse philanthropies working together to build a more equitable U.S. economy that uplifts all. Jenny Weissbourd is a program director with the Families and Workers Fund, where she leads policy and programmatic partnerships. Jenny collaborates with governments, nonprofits, and employers at the federal, state, and local levels to support them in improving jobs and delivering equitable, effective public benefits.
The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.
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