As industries across the country struggle to fill positions in construction, clean energy, manufacturing, healthcare, and transportation, I believe that we are overlooking one of the nation's largest and most motivated talent pools: justice-impacted individuals. According to the Prison Policy Initiative, nearly 2 million people are incarcerated on any given day, more than 600,000 return home from prison each year, and roughly 70 million Americans, about one in three adults, have a criminal record. This is not a small population. It is our workforce reality.
Yet the unemployment rate for formerly incarcerated people hovers around 27 percent, higher than the national unemployment rate during the Great Depression. Data from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics show that more than 60 percent of individuals released from prison are rearrested within three years. Employment is one of the strongest predictors of reduced recidivism. When work is stable, structured, and linked to advancement, outcomes improve for individuals, families, and communities.
Employers who have leaned in are seeing meaningful results. Research conducted in partnership with the Society for Human Resource Management and the Charles Koch Institute found that 82 percent of managers say employees with criminal records perform as well or better than those without records, and nearly 70 percent report equal or higher retention rates. Many of these employees show up with something powerful: resilience, loyalty, and a determination to prove they are more than the worst thing they have ever done. If we are honest, that is something we all understand.
As I consistently write and talk about the effects of us building effective workforce systems to develop skilled talent pipelines in growing occupations and create "Good Jobs", those with family-sustaining wages, benefits, and career mobility, I maintain that this approach presents a clear opportunity before us. Earn-and-learn models, particularly Registered Apprenticeships supported by the U.S. Department of Labor, have always made sense. They allow employers to tailor training to real labor market demand while apprentices earn wages from day one, gain new occupational skills, and earn industry-recognized credentials.
For justice-impacted individuals, this model does even more. Living wages reduce immediate barriers to employment. Structured skill development builds confidence and credibility. Employer engagement strengthens retention. And research from the U.S. Department of Justice consistently links stable employment to lower recidivism. Done correctly, apprenticeship and earn-and-learn strategies meet business demand, expand equitable access to opportunity, reduce public system costs, and build the skilled workforce our economy urgently needs.
Registered Apprenticeship allows us to address multiple workforce and family stabilization priorities simultaneously. When we consider both economic mobility and workforce demand, it is a strategy that simply makes sense.
