Dean David Weil has been named to a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) Committee on “Contingent Work and Alternate Work Arrangements.” The committee is tasked with reviewing how the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimate the size of the workforce in traditional employment versus those with contingent work, other forms of alternative work arrangements like staffing agencies or what is sometimes called “gig” work.
Weil says, “Work, employment, and labor markets have changed dramatically in the past few decades. I am honored to have been asked to serve on the National Academies panel that will explore how to measure the complicated world of work today so that we can better understand its implications for wages, working conditions, and pathways of opportunity.”
Weil, who previously served as administrator of the Wage and Hour Division at the United States Department of Labor, is an expert in employment and labor market policy. Over the next 18 months, he will work with economists, statisticians, and workplace experts convened by the National Academies from across the country to assess definitions and measures of nonstandard work arrangements and issue a final report.
Weil’s appointment comes as Heller’s Institute on Child, Youth and Family Policy Director Dolores Acevedo-Garcia concludes her appointment on the NASEM “Committee on Building an Agenda to Reduce the Number of Children in Poverty by Half in 10 Years.” She co-authored the report, “A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty,” which was released in February and provides policy and program packages that could cut the child poverty rate by as much as 50 percent.