Why We’re Excited About the Latest Study from Opportunity Insights

A new study by Raj Chetty’s Opportunity Insights lab, released yesterday, offers an unprecedented look at the levers of economic mobility. The study finds that children who grow up in thriving communities—defined as places with high rates of parental employment—experience higher rates of economic mobility than those who grow up in communities with lower parental employment rates. These findings hold true across race and class groups. 

From our perspective, these findings are reaffirming and energizing. At Social Finance, we design and manage new funding models to deliver measurable impact. Through our Talent Finance portfolio, we build better pathways to high-quality jobs for workers across the country. In the past decade, we’ve mobilized more than $250 million in new workforce investments to help people land jobs in in-demand industries, including health care, IT, and skilled trades.  

We assess our workforce development initiatives by tracking and measuring tangible outcomes—how many un-and-underemployed adults have we helped place in good jobs? What are the income gains for graduates of the programs we finance? How do we continue to reallocate resources to invest in effective programs that deliver results? As this study reveals, the impact of a successful jobs program reverberates beyond that which is immediately measurable. When a community has high employment rates, future generations benefit. The effects are real, rapid, and resounding.  

Learn more about our Talent Finance work> 

As we continue to improve and expand our talent finance initiatives, the Social Finance Institute is evaluating what we and our ecosystem partners have learned. Starting this fall, the Institute will partner with Opportunity Insights to expand the evidence base of high-quality workforce programs across institution types, geographic areas, and sectoral programs. Raj Chetty previewed this work at the Institute’s April launch event.

Watch a video of his remarks >