The Department of Labor is modernizing the nation’s skills‑data infrastructure because a resilient economy starts with a workforce that never stops upskilling. Earlier this month, we co-hosted a summit with the Department of Education, called “Navigating the Skills Frontier.” Our focus: helping workers and employers adapt and thrive as AI reshapes work.
The summit is part of ongoing efforts to gather public and expert input on how best the department should modernize America’s workforce-development websites and skills data infrastructure. Currently, some of these websites — particularly CareerOneStop.org and its related products — are outdated, static, and spread across multiple platforms. They no longer meet the needs of employers and workers.
A core component, the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) Program, also needs a modern upgrade. As a foundational data resource providing detailed descriptions of occupational characteristics nationwide, O*NET must evolve to improve the accuracy, granularity, and relevance of its skills data.
Understanding today’s skills challenges
Today’s labor market is evolving faster than the data systems that support it. Employers are searching for more reliable ways to confirm a job seeker actually has — and can apply—a given skill.
Summit speakers highlighted a consistent theme: employers, workers, and educators all need better data to do their jobs well. Employers need it to craft accurate job descriptions and assess candidates’ skills. Colleges, universities, and training programs need it to build curricula that actually match what employers want. And workers need it to invest in the right skills and land the best jobs—especially as new technologies redefine what skills matter. Speakers frequently raised one persistent challenge: existing data systems don’t connect.
“[W]e have talented people in our system and we have the employers who need them, and we have the education and training providers doing some really important work,” said Acting Assistant Secretary of Education Casey Sacks. “But, too often, the pieces don’t talk to each other — and they certainly don’t always talk to each other in ways that everyone clearly understands.”
Without better translation across data sources and stakeholders, she said, workers face unnecessary barriers to economic mobility.
So what are some things the department can do to remove those barriers--specifically around skills-data relevance and interoperability?
Speakers throughout the summit pointed to significant opportunities to use modern technology — including AI-enabled classification of job postings and worker profiles, enhanced wage records, and crosswalks to private‑sector taxonomies — to build stronger, more responsive skills tools.
Participants also emphasized the importance of ensuring that the public receives information that is trustworthy and actionable.
Building a modern workforce-data infrastructure to put Americans on a ‘Pathway to Prosperity’
Job seekers widely use CareerOneStop.org — the department’s free online hub for job search, career exploration, and training resources — but the experience can feel fragmented. A modernized site could do significantly more: speed up reemployment, sharpen employer-worker matching, and open clearer pathways to higher-wage work.
To fix this, the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) is building a new, federally hosted site—simpler, more guided, and better connected to timely skills and occupational information.
The modernized site will deliver a clean, mobile-first user interface, consolidated resources, AI-powered functionality, and clearer connections to employment and training opportunities.
But a modern career site is only as good as the data behind it.
That’s why the O*NET modernization matters — the effort will help it remain a strong foundational resource for workforce tools and services nationwide. Department administrators outline these efforts in a Request for Information published in the Federal Register on June 9. The public can weigh in through Aug. 10.
The ultimate goal: to do everything possible to put everybody — no matter their race, no matter their ZIP code, no matter their socioeconomic status — on a pathway to prosperity.
Let’s figure out how to map skills to occupations in a regular, more rapid fashion and connect students to the learning opportunities and the appropriate education-level credentials required for the high-paying jobs.
Finally, department administrators plan to issue guidance encouraging states to enhance their wage records. These improvements will unlock richer data for career navigation while helping states combat unemployment insurance fraud.
Together, these efforts aim to deliver a best‑in‑class workforce system — one that provides American workers and employers with the data, tools, and opportunities they need to get ahead.
A legal barrier to skills-based hiring just fell
A major legal barrier to skills-based hiring recently came down, making this modernization work even more urgent. The Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel issued an opinion to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that challenges the constitutionality of “disparate-impact liability” under Title VII. This legal concept previously meant courts could hold employers liable for unequal hiring or promotion outcomes among different groups, even in the absence of intentional discrimination. As a result, many employers grew reluctant to use direct assessments of candidates’ skills, defaulting instead to degree requirements as a safer legal proxy.
The department isn’t just modernizing the data and tools that make skills visible. It’s building the infrastructure of skills-based hiring itself: a system where a warehouse worker’s demonstrated abilities, a veteran’s technical training, or a self-taught coder’s portfolio can open doors once reserved for those with the right degree. Employers can now prioritize merit, excellence, and skills, free from the fear of lawsuits that once held skills-based hiring back.
To read or comment on the Request for Information, visit the Federal Register
Julia Pollak is the chief economist of the U.S. Department of Labor.