2015 was a turning point on PCV’s focus. As an organization we decided that it wasn’t justifiable to focus on job creation alone, and that we would only focus on creating good-quality jobs. But up until now there hasn’t been one authoritative way of defining a quality job that we, or any CDFI, foundation, investor, or policymaker, could use.
After conducting in-depth research and interviews with leading experts in labor issues, impact investing, and the small business sector, among other related fields, PCV identified five core components of a quality job. Given that the specific elements of a quality job vary by industry, business size, job function, and employee demographics, PCV synthesized the first-ever universal and flexible definition.
Moving Beyond Job Creation seeks to answer two important questions at the center of CDFIs and impact investors’ efforts to create quality jobs: 1) What is a quality job, and 2) how can investors measure job quality?
The paper also offers practical steps for investors and others to take to incorporate the measurement of job quality into their existing data collection processes that would support their financing efforts aimed at creating quality jobs.