Across the public workforce system, the ground is shifting. Federal agencies are signaling priorities around integration, outcomes, and employer engagement, even as formal guidance and legislative details continue to evolve. States are exploring consolidation to concentrate federal workforce funds for greater impact. These changes create uncertainty in the field and raise questions about local control.
Workforce Development Boards (WDB) are technical entities established by federal law (currently the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act or WIOA) that governs how they (and the system they operate in) act. The organizations that house and partner with WDBs are independent corporations that exist to fulfill their organized purpose. Some are nonprofit, some are for profit.
It is a complicated and wonky system that intersects with education, community development, economic development, and the business community. Sometimes (maybe too often) these workforce organizations find themselves stymied by oversight and compliance doctrine that gets in the way of innovation. And sometimes they get in their own way after years of “this is just how we do it” business practices.
Leaders in this system acknowledge that there is room for improvement. Employers get frustrated by the systems’ bureaucracy and job seekers find their options limited by too few resources. Since the release of the America’s Talent Strategy, I have participated in many conversations with Workforce Development Board leaders and partners focused on how to operationalize emerging federal direction.
These discussions are energized, thoughtful, and sometimes difficult. They are grounded in a shared commitment to get this right for employers, job seekers, and communities, even as we navigate ambiguity and make sense of what this moment is asking of the public workforce system.
The degree to which local leaders are nimble, able to tell their impact story, and convene and align partners could influence how they navigate through the changes that are coming. Change is inevitable. At the same time, there is a steadiness in how the field is showing up. WDBs are continuing to convene regional partners, align systems, and make thoughtful decisions grounded in labor market demand and public purpose.
They do this with a clear understanding that employers are central to the work. By engaging employers early, WDBs are able to identify current and emerging workforce needs, understand how roles evolve within industries, and shape career pathways that support skill development and mobility for job seekers over time.
Our public workforce system reflects years of collaboration and sector partnership, built by design to respond to change. Led by local WDBs, this work has long connected education, training, workforce programs, and community wrap-around support in ways that strengthen regional economies and support mobility. The system was built to adapt, pause, and shift as conditions change. That adaptability is not new. It is a defining feature of how the public workforce system has always operated, shaped by experience navigating evolving funding structures, policy priorities, and community needs.
This is an active period of construction for the public workforce system. It is also a moment for our industry to decide how we show up. Federal partners are asking us to work with them, to share what is working in our regions, to challenge assumptions, and to help shape what comes next. Across the MUS membership, we are actively working through what that invitation means, supporting one another in interpreting emerging federal direction and grounding it in practice.
MUS Members are lifting up real examples from our communities that show how employer engagement, system alignment, and support for job seekers come together. As this work continues, MUS members are also preparing to bring these perspectives directly to policymakers, including a planned advocacy visit to Capitol Hill this February, to ensure the voice of the public workforce system is centered to shape what comes next.
As federal guidance continues to take form, the public workforce system is being asked to operate with greater alignment, clearer outcomes, and deeper employer partnership. This moment calls on Workforce Development Boards and their partners to translate national direction into regional action, using data, employer-defined competencies, and proven models like apprenticeships and earn-and-learn pathways.
By working with employers as co-designers of talent strategies, focusing on the quality and relevance of training, and aligning systems around real jobs and advancement, WDBs can meet this moment with confidence. Not by starting over, but by building forward in partnership with federal and state leaders, grounded in experience and strengthened through intentional collaboration. The work of workforce development continues.
