5 Ways Employers can Invest in Untapped Immigrant Talent
At Jobs for the Future's Horizons summit, experts from across sectors offered insights on how to engage, support, and upskill an overlooked talent pool—and boost your company’s bottom line.
With more open roles than jobseekers to fill them, employers in every sector are rethinking how they source, retain, and develop talent. One approach that has delivered strong results is investing in workers from groups currently underrepresented in the workforce, such as veterans, people with disabilities, and immigrants and refugees. Many companies have overlooked these populations and left them out of their talent strategies—leaving business success and social value on the table.
In 2015, one of those populations—immigrants and refugees—contributed nearly $2 trillion to the U.S. GDP, according to a report from JFF. And 18 million U.S.-born people with immigrant parents will join the working-age population between 2015 and 2035, according to a 2019 Pew Research Center report.
Companies can improve their workforces and boost their bottom lines by focusing on pools of untapped talent like immigrants and refugees. But building a diverse workforce requires an intentional approach, and for many companies that means exploring new forms of upskilling as a way to attract candidates from a wider range of backgrounds and unlock the advancement potential of current employees.