"We have found that the most common barriers to getting people jobs are reliable transportation, access to affordable childcare, and lack of necessary employment skills," Petrini said.
She sees a healthy job market but consistently lower labor force participation.
"Although the job market has many positive signs in Western Michigan and unemployment is below 4 percent, the labor force participation rate is still stubbornly several points lower than it was before the last two recessions."
Yvonne Rockwell, an Express owner in Santa Clarita, California, agrees.
"Barriers to employment are a reason I see people on the sidelines," Rockwell said. "One of the barriers that I find in my market is transportation. It's huge. Sixty percent of our associates commute 45 minutes to work. Many have to take a train and then a bus. If there was government transportation assistance it would be successful in keeping these people gainfully employed.
"Background checks are another barrier I see in my market. There are some really great people in our community who unfortunately made a poor decision at some point in their past and just need a second chance."
Terri Greeno, an Express office owner in Crystal Lake, Illinois, says that it's not always easy for people dependent on welfare programs to make the transition back into the labor force-and for no fault of their own.
"There is a gap with people who are on different entitlement programs" she said. "Once an entitlement program stops, there's no bridge there. You are either on it or off of it. There needs to be some sort of bridge to fill that gap, skills [training] or otherwise, in order for that person to re-enter the workforce, because truth is they can't cover child or dependent care if they don't have a skillset to apply toward employment."
Getting people off the sidelines can have a powerful impact in their life, as Rockwell further explained.
"We have an associate who was unemployed for just under one year when he first came to us," she said. "By working together, we have been able to keep him gainfully employed. As a result, he was granted sole custody of his four-year-old daughter and continues to be a great employee!"
Identifying strategies to get more people off the sidelines and into the workforce is critical for our country's economic health and vitality, according to Bob Funk, CEO of Express, and a former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.
"There's too much potential on the sidelines, and we want that potential put to work," he said.
All statistics come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and represent data from August 2017, released September 1, 2017. It is available at
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.toc.htm.