The Job Reports Real Warning Is About Education and Workforce Policy, Not the Economy
Goldy Brown
January 12, 2026
When I read the jobs reports in recent months showing consistent labor shortages, I don’t react like an economist. I react like a former classroom teacher, K–12 principal, who most recently served as a professor of education. After 25 years of watching students move—or fail to move—from school into work, the signal is clear: this is not primarily an economic slowdown. It is the result of how we govern education and workforce preparation.
Employers still cannot find workers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey shows millions of unfilled jobs in health care, construction, manufacturing, logistics, and skilled trades. In a normal downturn, vacancies fall quickly. They haven’t. That contradiction tells us the problem is a mismatch, not a collapse.
