Description and Background

Primarily used by place-based anchor institutions, hiring pathways are institutional commitments—often in the form of recruitment and hiring or overarching workforce development programs—to create pathways for local residents to access good quality jobs that promote socioeconomic mobility. 

Demographically speaking, most pathway programming targets unemployed or underemployed residents. In August 2024, the unemployment rate in the United States was 4.2%, a total of 7.1 million Americans (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2024). Of those seven million unemployed Americans, the majority were Black and Latinx (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2024). The data are even worse for returning citizens (Wang and Bertram 2022) and veterans (US Department of Labor 2024).  

The United States has also long had an underemployment problem. First articulated by journalist David Shipler in his 2004 book, The Working Poor: Invisible in America, underemployment describes individuals who have one (or more jobs), but are not making the wages they need in order to meet their basic needs. In 2024, underemployment for college graduates in the United States was at a staggering 33% (Hirschfeld 2024). This means that wages in America have not kept pace with the cost of living, making the need for well-paid, dignified work an urgent matter. 

Hiring pathways led by anchor institutions invest directly in these residents in a variety of ways. 

Good pathway programming acknowledges that the opportunity to hire local talent begins with investments in young people and their education. Many anchor institutions dedicated to local hiring ensure that a segment of their work engages opportunity youth, or emerging adults between the ages of 16 to 24 who are not involved in either school or work (Youth.gov n.d.). Further, investments in education—K-12 through higher ed, especially in community colleges—for all people guarantee that individuals will not only be prepared for the jobs of today, but also for the jobs of tomorrow in high-demand industries (Gandal 2024).

Next, hiring pathways—especially those dedicated to serving the most vulnerable and disadvantaged populations—provide not only employment opportunities but wrap-around services in partnership with community partners from faith-based institutions to labor unions and other industry associations to other community-based organizations (US Economic Development Administration 2023). 

Across all pathways strategies, a commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and belonging is of paramount importance. Not only does this ethos promote more progressive recruitment and hiring practices, but also results in workplaces that are dignified, thereby retaining talented workers for years to come. 

Hiring Pathways, Fair Work, and the Community Wealth Building Wedge 

At the surface level, progressive hiring initiatives that promote local recruitment and retention are important because, ideally, they enable individual residents to not only access liveable wages and benefits (e.g. healthcare, childcare, transportation, etc.), but also begin to build wealth for themselves and their families. 

At a deeper level, in a system of wage-labor, a stable income as well as access to employment options that foster economic mobility are critical to access basic needs—from food to housing to healthcare. According to some experts, when everyday Americans have access to fair work, it “[reduces] the need for social assistance, [contributes] to neighborhood stability, [increases] civic participation and volunteerism, [reduces] crime rates, and [strengthens] the revenue base…[these investments in hiring pathways] would also help reduce racial inequities and create more economically diverse and resilient neighborhoods” (Calma and Sayin 2021). Further, when local residents’ access to disposable income increases, so does spending at neighborhood businesses, thereby increasing community wealth (Alvarez et al 2024).

Finally, these pathways provide a significant return on investment for the anchor institutions who design and implement them. Not only are the recruitment, hiring, and retention processes of these employers much more efficient and effective, these pathways have strong spillover effects—in terms of both health and environmental sustainability—-supporting much more resilient communities around the anchors themselves (Zuckerman and Parker 2016).  

Examples

Rutgers University–Camden

The hiring pathway programs at Rutgers University–Camden in New Jersey are an example of how anchor institutions of higher education can make a significant difference for youth—who will make up a city’s future workforce—in their local communities. 

The University’s K-12 Education Partnerships, in particular, focuses on using university resources to create pathways for grade school students to apply, enroll, and successfully complete post-secondary education (Rutgers–Camden 2024). For example, each year, through the Rutgers Future Scholars program, 215 first-generation, low-income students participate in a five-year pre-college program that guarantees tuition-assistance admission into Rutgers University. Once enrolled, dozens of resident-students have the opportunity to work in municipal government through the Chancellor’s Mayoral Internship Program (Rutgers–Camden 2024) or with other preeminent local institutions like the Philadelphia 76ers (Brobeil 2024).

A key component of the University’s strategic plan is also aimed at “expanding partnerships and pipeline programs” to recruit more Camden City residents (Rutgers-Camden 2024), the majority of whom are from low-income communities of color (US Census Bureau 2020). As of January 1, 2024, 286 out of 2,361 total employees—over a tenth of the University’s workforce—were Camden residents.

The university system also offers support in the form of training and technical assistance to small businesses in the region (NJ Small Business Development Center at Rutgers-Camden n.d). Further, by participating in Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s fourth Reinventing Our Communities (ROC) Cohort Program in partnership with the Camden Community Partnership, university leaders are collaborating with the City of Camden to expand employment opportunities for residents that pay a living wage and support economic mobility (Camden Community Partnership 2024).

Step Up to UH

The University Hospitals (UH) of Cleveland, Ohio provide an industry-specific, nationally recognized model for local inclusive hiring and training pathways (University Hospitals 2024). Targeted to support the 50,000 residents of six high poverty areas surrounding the medical campus, UH has partnered with a local nonprofit, Towards Employment, that provides participants with training specifically tailored to open positions at the Hospitals. In response, UH reserves a handful of jobs specifically for cohort graduates. 

Not only does UH enable residents to obtain employment, the hospital system also provides worker-training programs, job coaching, and apprenticeships for current staff, ensuring employee retention and upward career mobility (Zuckerman and Parker 2016).  

Manufacturing Renaissance

With the passing of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in 2021 and the Chips and Science and Inflation Reduction Acts in 2022, the federal government has invested nearly $2 trillion into infrastructure for the growing industries of technology, energy, and manufacturing. However, in order to take advantage of that investment, many industries are beginning to invest in pathway programming to ensure that incoming workers are equitably recruited and appropriately trained (Gandal 2024). 

One organization dedicated to supporting youth from low-income, BIPOC communities to secure and retain career-track jobs in manufacturing is Manufacturing Renaissance in Chicago, Illinois. From 2011 to 2023, MP served 590 program participants, resulting in 189 job placements offering an average of $18.55/hour with an 90-day retention average of 76% (Staley 2024). In 2019, Founder Dan Swinney also worked to build pathways for BIPOC employee ownership of majority white-owned manufacturing firms in the Chicago area (Field 2019). 

Similar programs, like Campus Compact’s College Renaissance Corps, are building on the success of organizations like MR to expand workforce programs in high-demand industries to underserved populations. 

Taking It Forward

As we collectively negotiate the future of work—especially in response to increasing automation—these programs alongside expanding labor unionization will be necessary. 

As such, for anchor institutions interested in building out local hiring pathways rooted in values of inclusion, justice, and belonging, there are several resources available from national groups like the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) and the Anchor Institution Task Force (AITF). Other industry-specific groups include the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities (higher education) and the Healthcare Anchor Network (HAN) (healthcare). There are also resources available from federal agencies such as the Department of Labor, the Economic Development Administration, and the Department of Commerce. Place-based anchor collaboratives like the Denver Anchor Network or the St. Louis Anchor Action Network can also be useful for institutions seeking to develop pathways in accordance with state and local policies. 

Additional Resources 

• A toolkit on expanding inclusive, local hiring for healthcare anchor institutions from the Healthcare Anchor Network (HAN)