Hello Friend,
Labor Day is behind us, but the question at the heart of it should stay with us: What does it mean to honor work if all people who want to work cannot find work that allows them to live with dignity?
Over the past several months, I have carried that question with me all across the country and into conversations about what our economy needs. Soon, that discussion will continue at EARNCon in Washington, DC and APPAM in Boston. I hope to see you there.
Different rooms. Different constituencies. But the same end: people do not simply want to just survive this economy. They want a fair chance to live out their highest and fullest potential with safety and freedom.
At the PolicyLink Summit 2026, I listened to The Institute’s founding director, Darrick Hamilton, joined by Angela Glover Blackwell, Manuel Pastor, Erica Smiley, Saru Jayaraman, and Elizabeth Wilkins (see photo below) for a powerful conversation about the relationship between economic power and democracy. The message stayed with me: democracy cannot be something we experience only at the ballot box. It must also be something people can feel in their wages, workplaces, communities, and ability to build a future.
So I keep asking:
What is economic freedom without the opportunity to work?
What is workforce development if there is no job or promotion for those unemployed and underemployed?
What does innovation mean if artificial intelligence creates extraordinary wealth inequality and environmental uncertainty while workers are left wondering whether they still have a place in the economy?
These questions belong to the young person graduating and searching for a first opportunity; to the older worker still with talent and experience to contribute; to the care worker whose labor makes every other job possible; to the community preparing for a cleaner-energy future; and to the families in urban neighborhoods and rural towns confronting an affordability crisis and asking whether opportunity will reach them.
That is why Good Jobs for All remains our North Star.
It means thinking bigger about AI, climate and energy, the care economy, workforce development, and public investment—not as competing agendas, but as connected opportunities to create useful, meaningful, well-paying work. We need an economic paradigm centered on people, with a serious conversation about the role government and institutions can play in creating meaningful employment for the public good.
As the midterm elections approach, our role is not to tell anyone how to vote. Our role is to keep asking questions every policymaker should be prepared to answer: Who is being left out of our economy? What is the plan for creating good jobs for all? How will new technologies like AI expand human opportunity rather than diminish it? What public investments will allow every community to participate in shared prosperity?
If you believe those questions deserve serious answers, we need your help.
Your support gives NJFAN the capacity to publish research like the Full Count, convene community and policy leaders, build new partnerships, and carry the case for Good Jobs for All into more rooms across the country.
We have continued support. We have momentum. Now we need the resources to match the scale of the work.
Help us build an economy where no one is disposable—and where a good job is not a privilege for the fortunate few, but part of the promise we make to one another.
… because if you think about it, we ALL get to thrive if we center people and the environments in which we live.
For Good Jobs & Peace,
Cortney Sanders
Executive Director
National Jobs for All Network
The Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy
Donate here
Essence Festival of Culture of 2026 in New Orleans, LA
2026 Young Elected Officials (YEO) Convening in Los Angeles, CA
Shelbi Augustus, Deputy Campaign Manager, Yes on Prop 40
Executive Director, Cortney Sanders with
Detroit Future Cities in Detroit, MI – Brown Bag in August 2026.