Labor

Skills advocates and digital inclusion advocates frequently ask National Skills Coalition for examples of how their peers are collecting, analyzing, and using data for advocacy. We’re happy to highlight several reports that use data about digital skills in creative ways. 

This study investigates the relationship between online learning activities for educational, professional, or personal purposes and employment likelihood using the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Usage Survey conducted by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TSI) between 2015 and 2023. Utilizing a nationally representative survey, we analyze (1) online course enrollment and (2) online learning engagement (self-learning and communication-based learning activities) and their relationship with being employed.

This annual report on the U.S. Microbusiness Activity Index (MAI) provides an update on microbusinesses, incorporating data up to March 2024. It covers the national, states, metropolitan areas, and counties. Highlights include:

On September 10, 2024, the House Commerce Committee's Communications and Technology Subcommittee held an oversight hearing focused on the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program. BEAD was established with $42.5 billion by Congress in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Congress charged the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) with implementing BEAD which provides grants to states to deploy broadband in unserved and underserved areas.

There has been a strike by 17,000 union members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) against AT&T that started on August 16. Like most strikes that last for more than a week, there is some rhetoric flying from both parties accusing the other side of negotiating in bad faith. Telecommunications strikes have been part of the history of the industry.

Vecima announced that their its American-made broadband electronics for use in anticipated Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program networks are now available. Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information and NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson said, "The Biden-Harris Administration is determined to create good jobs in the U.S.—and keep them here.

One goal of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is to connect every household in the United States to high-speed internet. The law created the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program, to take that $42 billion and allocate a portion to each state, as well as several territories.

Minnesota is undertaking a multibillion investment to expand reliable high-speed internet access to hundreds of thousands of homes, businesses, farms, schools, and other community institutions.

Will a big flurry of Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) grants encounter any big bottlenecks that will slow down the implementation of grant construction? My response is yes, but maybe not the bottlenecks most people expect. I expect some of the following:

I write to request a detailed update on the major administrative delays in the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program that have resulted from unlawful red tape imposed by your agency [the National Telecommunications and Information Administration]. Despite the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (NTIA) three-year-old clear statutory mandate to bring the internet to the unserved, your agency has failed to connect a single American. What NTIA has done with the money so far is create a nearly billion-dollar slush fund to “administer” the program. Speci