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MARK R. WARNER, cer nited States Senate 0 WASHINGTON, DC 20610-4606 October 26, 2017 The Honorable Alexander Acosta Secretary USS. Department of Labor 200 Constitution Avenue, SW Washington, DC 20210 Dear Secretary Acosta: L write today regarding a recently published report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) that examines the characteristics of gig workers and the work they perform, the types of skills and training they need to be successful, and how federal programs and investments could better serve them. Thank you in advance for your attention to this important matter. In November 2015, I requested that GAO explore a series of questions, including what types of workers are participating in the gig economy, what skills they need to be successful, and what challenges they face in navigating employment and training opportunities. Specifically, I wanted to know what the federal government is doing to facilitate training opportunities and ake other employment resources available to these workers, and where there are areas for improvement. The resulting report (GAO-17-561) identified one such area for improvement that I trust you will agree is commonsense and should be implemented as soon as possible. As you know, the Department of Labor (the Department) maintains a database of promising practices and helpful resources, called WorkforceGPS, that aims to communicate with the public workforce system and help develop its capacity to innovate. Some of these resources are relevant to gig ‘workers but are not easily accessible: often requiring multiple searches, not consistently yielding relevant results, not cross-referencing information on self-employment, etc. | am glad that your staff agree with GAO's recommendation that the Assistant Secretary of the Employment and ‘Training Administration should take steps to make these resources more readily available, and that they are already “reviewing options” to this effect. I respectfully request that you identify and implement these improvements as soon as practicably possible and keep my staff apprised of progress in this pursuit. The same GAO report includes observations from interviews with officials at state and local workforce boards. These officials varied in their interpretation of federal and state policies concerning their ability to list gig employment opportunities at job centers: “ Officials from five local boards said that their job centers could list opportunities with gig companies, but they were not always sure if the job centers did so. State and local board officials in two states, however, cited federal and state provisions as the reason why they required a traditional employer-employee relationship to list jobs at their centers. DOL officials said that the department does not set requirements for the types of {jobs that states can post in their job centers, other than certain nondiscrimination requirements. They said that states might impose their own limitations, but most states aim to increase the number of businesses listing jobs with their job centers.” Given this lack of consistency, I respectfully request that the Department provide additional guidance to state and local officials as to what federal requirements pertain to employment listings posted in job centers, and a more specific accounting of which states have implemented policies that may diverge from the federal approach. Particularly in areas that are economically depressed or experiencing a surge in gig employment opportunities, it strikes me as counterproductive to unnecessarily restrict the range of available jobs that are presented to workers. I urge you to provide clarity to ensure that job centers are appropriately interpreting federal requirements and providing jobseekers with the full scope of their employment options. ‘The GAO report also references findings by the Workforce Information Advisory Council, a Department of Labor advisory committee, that the nation needs a way to “define, measure, and assess the impact” of contingent work, especially with regards to labor market information. Such information is critical for legislators, researchers, and the general public as we seek to better understand the implications of the gig economy on wages, benefits, and labor force participation, Over the past two years, I have spent significant time exploring the range of these issues. Federal policymakers and agencies have made strides in identifying specific gaps in datasets concerning the independent workforce, and are taking steps to fill them. However, we still have work to do in holistically integrating information about these ‘workers—the size of the population, the nature of their employment relationships, and their ‘employment arrangements” impact on compensation, including benefits—into existing labor market data, I applaud the Bureau of Labor Statistics for recently fielding a contingent worker survey that will contribute to our understanding of these issues, and hope that you will continue to prioritize such investments in the future. As I work in Congress on legislative approaches such as the Portable Benefits for Independent Workers Pilot Program Act (S. 1251), I hope you will consider me a partner in these endeavors and keep me apprised of additional areas where we might work together in support of independent workers nationwide. ‘Again, thank you for your consideration of this request and for your commitment to providing gig workers with the resources they need to navigate this expanding segment of the economy. Should you or your staff have any questions or concerns, please contact Lauren ‘Marshall at Lauren_Marshall@wamer.senate.gov or (202) 224-2023. Sincerely, Wok. © Meme, Mark R. Warner United States Senator

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