October 27, 2026 / Workforce

A Motivated Public Sector Workforce Faces Significant Retention ChallengesImage

Public Servant Pulse, a first-of-its-kind national survey by The People Lab at Harvard Kennedy School, examines the experiences of 4,792 state and local government employees across all 50 states. The findings reveal a workforce motivated by public service but facing significant challenges, including burnout, workplace harassment, and turnover risk. They also highlight the importance of workplace relationships and organizational practices for employee well-being.

Key Findings:

  • More than 1 in 4 public servants intend to leave their jobs within a year. Another 20% are unsure whether they will stay.
  • 35% of public servants experienced workplace harassment in the past year. This includes bullying, threats, attacks, or harassment from coworkers, supervisors, residents, or the media.
  • State government employees report worse workforce outcomes than city and county employees. Their workplace satisfaction score is 58 out of 100, compared with 71 for city and county employees, and 38% intend to leave their jobs versus 26%.
  • Workplace belonging is strongly associated with employee satisfaction and engagement. Employees who feel they belong report satisfaction scores 29 points higher and engagement scores 22 points higher than those who do not.
  • Supportive workplace practices are associated with lower burnout. Among employees who say their organization encourages innovation, satisfaction scores are 23 points higher and the likelihood of experiencing burnout symptoms is 31% lower.
  • Most public servants are motivated by public service. Two-thirds say the public sector is the best place to make an impact, and 63% say a desire to serve the public or make a difference motivated their career choice.

Read the press release here.

October 27, 2026 / Workforce

6 in 10 U.S. Workers Still Lack Quality JobsImage

The 2026 American Job Quality Study, led by Jobs for the Future (JFF) and its research partners, examines job quality across the U.S. workforce using a nationally representative survey of more than 18,000 workers. The findings highlight persistent gaps in job quality and its relationship to employee retention, with implications for workforce development and economic mobility.

Key Insights:

  • 6 in 10 U.S. workers still lack quality jobs. The share remained at 60% for the second consecutive year.
  • Workers in lower-quality jobs are nearly twice as likely to change employers. In 2025, 15% of workers in non-quality jobs changed employers one year later, compared with 8% of those in quality jobs.
  • Gen Z workers experience lower job quality and higher turnover. Nearly 1 in 4 (23%) changed employers in the past year.
  • People with incarceration records are less likely to have quality jobs. Only 31% of workers with records of incarceration had quality jobs, compared with 36% of those with records of arrest or incarceration.
  • AI benefits at work are unevenly distributed. Among employees who use AI at least weekly, 52% held quality jobs, compared with 32% of those who never use it.

Read the full study report here.

September 29, 2026 / Eviction, Housing

In Atlanta, 100 Addresses Account for 15% of All EvictionsImage

Eviction Lab’s May blog post highlights what its latest data reveal about Atlanta’s eviction crisis, including the concentration of eviction filings among a small number of properties. The data also helped guide Capital B’s reporting on Hunter Ridge, showing how eviction data can identify patterns and places for deeper investigation.

Key takeaways:

  • In Atlanta, landlords for just 100 addresses account for 15% of all evictions filed. More than 22,000 eviction filings were associated with these properties in 2025.
  • One Atlanta-area housing complex had 491 eviction filings in 2025, more than any other complex in the five-county region. The data led Capital B reporters to investigate conditions at Hunter Ridge.
  • Atlanta recorded 144,000 eviction filings in 2025, or one filing for every 25 renter households. More than 60% of those evictions disproportionately affected Black renters.
  • Some tenants face repeated eviction filings from the same landlord. One Hunter Ridge resident faced 13 filings in less than two years, with hundreds of dollars in additional fees each month.
  • Eviction data helped prompt action beyond the initial reporting. Following Capital B’s investigation, county code enforcement issued dozens of violations at Hunter Ridge, while local officials and media outlets took a closer look at the complex.
August 27, 2026 / General

KIDS COUNT Data: Georgia Ranks 39th for Child Well-Being. Education and Health Are Falling Behind.Image

The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s annual KIDS COUNT Data Book tracks child and youth well-being across four domains—Economic Well-Being, Education, Health, and Family and Community—using 16 indicators. The 2026 edition introduces an enhanced index with both state rankings and scores, allowing comparisons across states while also tracking changes since 2019, the last full year before the pandemic. The latest data show uneven progress: seven indicators improved, seven worsened, and two remained unchanged, highlighting how the conditions where children grow up continue to shape their opportunities.

Key takeaways:

  • Georgia ranks 39th in the nation for overall child well-being, with a score of 466. Its overall standing is stable compared with 2019, but performance varies across domains: economic well-being and family and community improved, while education and health worsened.
  • Education and health are Georgia’s weakest areas. Georgia ranks 32nd in education and 45th in health, with both domains declining since 2019. This reflects a broader national trend, particularly in education, where 47 states saw their scores worsen over the same period.
  • The strongest national gains are concentrated in economic and family indicators. Child poverty, parental employment, teen birth rates, and the share of children living in high-poverty neighborhoods all improved between 2019 and 2024.
  • Where children grow up still matters. The new scores make the differences between states more visible than rankings alone, underscoring the role that state-level policies and conditions play in shaping children’s well-being.
July 17, 2026 / Mental Health

Economic and Housing Pressures Are Driving Mental Health Challenges Across Metro AtlantaImage

The Atlanta Women’s Foundation, with research conducted by Advantage Consulting, LLC, released The Status of Women and Youth Mental Health in Metro Atlanta 2026, a regional assessment of mental health needs across Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton, and Gwinnett counties. Drawing on surveys, interviews, focus groups, and existing data, the report examines the prevalence of mental health challenges, the factors driving them, and barriers to accessing care.

Key findings:

  • Mental health needs are widespread and growing. Behavioral health providers identified anxiety (90%), depression (83%), trauma (76%), and suicide or self-harm risk (38%) as the most common concerns affecting women and youth across the region.
  • Economic and housing instability are central drivers of poor mental health. All providers identified housing costs, food insecurity, and unemployment as contributors to emotional distress, while more than half of renters across the region are housing cost-burdened—rising above 60% in Clayton and Gwinnett Counties.
  • Access to care remains fragmented despite growing demand. More than half of nonprofit staff reported clients experience delays or canceled appointments because of provider shortages, long waitlists, insurance limitations, transportation, and childcare barriers. Only 23% of providers offer integrated, one-stop services.
  • Women and youth face distinct barriers that traditional services often fail to address. The report highlights the mental health impacts of caregiving responsibilities, social media pressures, language barriers, stigma, and the shortage of culturally responsive providers, particularly for low-income families.
  • The report calls for coordinated solutions that address both mental health and its underlying social drivers. Findings point to the need for integrated services that connect behavioral health with housing, economic stability, childcare, and other community supports.
June 29, 2026 / Equity, Policy

More Than a Century of Public Policy Helped Shape Racial Inequities in Fulton CountyImage

This new Harm Report from the Fulton County Reparations Task Force documents how public policy, taxation, land use, labor practices, and government institutions contributed to the extraction of wealth and opportunity from Black residents in Fulton County over more than 170 years. Organized across seven themes and drawing on historical records, tax rolls, court cases, property assessments, and government archives, the report traces how slavery-era wealth extraction evolved into later forms of exclusion through housing, voting, education, healthcare, and public investment decisions.

The report is intended to provide an empirical foundation for future reparations discussions and policy recommendations in Fulton County.

Some takeaways:

  • Black residents often contributed financially to public systems from which they received unequal benefits. The report documents disparities in taxation, public spending, school funding, library investments, and healthcare access despite comparable tax contributions.
  • Forced labor continued long after slavery formally ended. Convict leasing and chain gang systems supplied unpaid labor for roads, bridges, sanitation systems, and other public infrastructure projects throughout the county.
  • Land loss and displacement contributed to intergenerational wealth losses. Case studies such as the displacement of the Black community in Bagley Park illustrate how eminent domain, rezoning, and redevelopment removed property ownership opportunities from Black families.
  • Political exclusion was maintained through multiple mechanisms over decades. Poll taxes, literacy tests, racial gerrymandering, and at-large election systems limited political participation and representation.
  • Racial violence functioned as a mechanism of social and economic control. The report documents patterns of lynching, intimidation, and organized White supremacist activity aimed at suppressing land ownership, labor organizing, and civic participation.

Read the full report here.

June 29, 2026 / Basic Needs, Equity, Inflation

Affordability in Georgia Fell from 65% to 52% in Just Two YearsImage

Brookings Institution recently launched its new States of Affordability series, which examines where and why households across the country struggle to make ends meet. Using county-level cost-of-living estimates combined with post-tax income data from the American Community Survey, the report compares affordability across states, races, and household types to better understand the growing gap between incomes and the cost of basic necessities such as housing, food, child care, transportation, and health care.

Key insights:

  • Nearly half of Georgia households are struggling to make ends meet. In 2024, only 51.8% of Georgia households earned enough to cover basic living costs, down sharply from 64.7% in 2022, erasing much of the progress made over the previous decade.
  • Affordability challenges vary dramatically by race and household type. While 58.2% of white households in Georgia could make ends meet in 2024, that figure fell to 44.0% for Black households and 38.8% for Hispanic households. The numbers are even lower for families with children: only 28.4% of single-parent households could cover basic costs, compared to 50.1% of two-parent households.
  • Hispanic single parents face the steepest affordability challenges. Just 17.8% of Hispanic single-parent households in Georgia earned enough to make ends meet in 2024, making them one of the most economically vulnerable household groups identified in the analysis.

See the full report here.

May 28, 2026 / Aging

As Metro Atlanta Ages, Isolation and Mobility Challenges Are GrowingImage

The Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC)’s latest Regional Snapshot highlights key trends shaping healthy aging across the 11-county metro Atlanta region during Older Americans Month. Using regional demographic, health, and social data, the snapshot examines how aging intersects with access to preventive care, food security, mobility, and social connection as the region’s older adult population continues to grow.

Key insights:

  • Preventive care access has expanded dramatically: Today, 98.5% of adults age 65+ in metro Atlanta have health insurance. About 75% access preventive care through Medicare.
  • Social isolation is rising alongside population aging: More than 162,000 adults age 65+ in the 11-county region now live alone, increasing risks tied to isolation and reduced social connection.
  • Food insecurity remains a concern for older adults: The number of senior households receiving SNAP benefits has steadily increased since 2015, yet nationally only about 47% of eligible older adults are enrolled.
  • Mobility challenges are increasing: As the share of older adults in the region grows, so has the number of seniors with ambulatory disabilities, creating additional barriers to physical activity and healthy aging.

See the full slide deck here.

March 30, 2026 / Education

Georgia’s Top Education Issues Highlight the Need for Systemwide AlignmentImage

The Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education’s Top 10 Issues to Watch in 2026 is its 22nd annual, nonpartisan policy brief outlining priority education and workforce challenges across the state. The report organizes 10 issue areas into three themes—investing in talent, optimizing local strategies, and aligning priorities and investments—offering a roadmap for how state and community leaders can address immediate needs while building long-term systems that improve student outcomes and quality of life.

Key insights:

  • Systems alignment is central: 10 priority issues are grouped into 3 cross-sector strategy areas, signaling a shift from isolated interventions to coordinated education, workforce, and health solutions.
  • Talent pipeline gaps start early: Early learning, career pathways, and teacher quality are identified as the core levers to close long-term skills gaps and improve workforce readiness.
  • Local outcomes drive statewide progress: Attendance, literacy, healthcare access, and rural investment are highlighted as place-based challenges requiring coordinated community-level action alongside state policy.

Read the brief here.

February 24, 2026 / Equity

Black entrepreneurship is strong in Atlanta, yet firm size and payroll trends signal challengesImage

The Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) Research & Innovation team revisited its analysis of Black-owned employer businesses in the metro area for February 2026, building on last year’s research and incorporating the latest data from the Census Annual Business Survey (ABS). This analysis spans trends from 2017 to 2023 and compares the Atlanta MSA with national averages and peer Sunbelt metros like Charlotte, Houston, and Miami. By tracking both the number of businesses and their economic footprint, the report highlights where Black entrepreneurship is thriving and where gaps in representation and business scale remain.

Key insights:

  • High ownership share: 10.7% of all employer businesses in metro Atlanta are Black-owned, far above the national average of 3% and leading peer Sunbelt metros (Charlotte 6.5%, Houston 5.9%, Miami 5.4%).

  • Representation gap persists: Black residents make up 34% of the metro population, meaning business ownership still trails population share despite high absolute numbers.

  • Stable business scale: Black-owned firms in Atlanta employ an average of just over 6 people, slightly below the national average, with average annual payroll around $35,500—rising steadily since 2017 but still slightly under the U.S. average.

Read the full post here.

February 24, 2026 / Education, Equity

Connecting students to tailored supports delivers measurable gains from middle school to adulthoodImage

In a publication in December 2025, Opportunity Insights, this study analyzed the impacts of the Communities In Schools (CIS) model, which places site coordinators in high-poverty schools to connect students with personalized academic and non-academic supports such as tutoring, mentoring, food, housing, and health services. Using longitudinal education, Census, and tax data, the paper evaluates how these coordinated supports affect academic outcomes and long-term economic mobility.

Key findings:

    • Personalized supports drive measurable gains: Students connected to tailored services see improvements in test scores, attendance, behavior, and discipline — outcomes that compound over time.

    • Relationships amplify the impact of resources: Having a trusted adult to coordinate services helps students overcome logistical and personal barriers that often limit engagement with school programs.

    • Long-term mobility improves: Multi-year exposure to supports increases high school graduation, college enrollment, and earnings, indicating lasting effects beyond the classroom.

    • Non-cognitive skills matter as much as academics: Improvements in attendance and behavior explain a substantial share of long-run gains, underscoring the importance of whole-student supports.

    • Personalization is efficient at scale: Students receive different mixes of services but achieve similar long-term benefits, suggesting flexible support models can be both effective and scalable.

    • Strong return on investment: Relatively modest per-student costs generate sizable increases in lifetime earnings, making coordinated supports a high-value intervention.

Read the full summary of the publication here.

February 24, 2026 / Basic Needs, Housing

A Major Share of Local Homelessness Is Hidden in Extended-Stay HotelsImage

A January 2026 countywide assessment led by the Single Parent Alliance & Resource Center (SPARC), in partnership with the Georgia State University’s Center on Health and Homelessness and School of Public Health, set out to document and better understand families living in extended-stay hotels across DeKalb County. Through door-to-door enumeration, surveys, and analysis of living conditions, the project captures a population largely excluded from traditional homelessness counts, providing new evidence on the scale, drivers, and daily realities of this form of housing instability, and revealing critical gaps that have implications for policy, funding, and service delivery.

Key findings:

  • A hidden population far larger than official counts: An estimated 4,664 people — including 1,635 children — are living in extended-stay hotels, far exceeding Continuum of Care and school system counts, revealing a major gap in how homelessness is measured.

  • Hotels as de facto long-term housing: Extended-stay properties are functioning as permanent housing because existing systems offer few pathways into stable, affordable homes.

  • Economic shocks drive displacement: Evictions, rising rents, and job disruptions — not individual failings — are the primary reasons families end up in hotels, pointing to structural drivers of housing instability.

  • Families pay more for less stability: Monthly hotel costs often exceed local apartment rents, meaning families are paying above-market prices for a single room without tenant protections or long-term security.

  • Most families are working but blocked by barriers: Despite high employment rates, upfront costs, income thresholds, and credit requirements prevent families from securing leases, trapping them in a cycle of temporary housing.

  • Implications for planning and resource allocation: Excluding these families from official counts risks underestimating need and misdirecting funding, while the new data provide a stronger foundation for targeted housing strategies and prevention efforts.

Read the full report here.

January 27, 2026 / Housing

Housing Supply Lags Far Behind Low-Income Need in GeorgiaImage

The Builders Patch Housing Count Dashboard tracks the scale of the rental housing shortage nationwide and in Georgia, pairing hard numbers with local housing news to ground the data in real-world context and show where affordability pressures are most acute.

Key takeaways:

  • Across the U.S., there is a severe shortage of affordable rental housing for the lowest-income households, with 25 states facing critical gaps, 82% of households earning under 50% of AMI rent-burdened, and an estimated nationwide shortage of 5.1 million affordable units

  • Housing strain is most concentrated among the lowest-income renters, underscoring that affordability challenges are not evenly distributed across income levels

  • In Georgia, housing affordability remains out of reach for many low-income renters, with only 76 affordable units available for every 100 low-income renter households

  • The state faces a shortfall of more than 80,000 rental units affordable to households earning 60% of AMI or less

  • Renters make up 35.5% of Georgia households, while 40.7% are low-income and 46.0% are rent-burdened, highlighting how closely housing cost pressures align with income insecurity

Explore the data dashboard here.

January 27, 2026 / Equity, Workforce

Burnout, Backslides, and Barriers: Inside Women in the Workplace 2025Image

Lean In published its 2025 Women in the Workplace report. It shows that after years of slow progress, many companies are pulling back on their commitment to women’s advancement. Fewer organizations are prioritizing gender equity, workplace flexibility is shrinking, and women—especially women of color—are facing growing barriers early and late in their careers. Together, these trends risk locking in inequality at every level of the corporate pipeline.

Key insights to know:

  • For the first time, women are less likely than men to say they want a promotion (80% vs. 86%), with the gap especially wide at entry and senior levels—likely reflecting burnout and stalled opportunities, not lack of commitment.

  • Women continue to be promoted to manager at lower rates than men, and disparities are stark for women of color.

  • Six in 10 senior-level women report frequent burnout, and many feel their gender makes advancement harder and job security shakier.

  • Women who work remotely are less likely to be promoted or sponsored, while men see no such penalty. At the same time, companies are rolling back remote and hybrid options at record rates.

  • While most companies still say diversity and inclusion matter, fewer are backing it up with training, resources, or tailored career development.

  • Employees value respectful and fair workplaces, but many entry- and mid-level women still don’t feel supported or comfortable speaking up, meaning organizations are leaving talent on the table.

Read the full report here.

December 17, 2025 / General

Federal Data Agencies Have Lost Up to 30% of Their WorkforceImage

A new December 2025 report from the American Statistical Association warns that the U.S. federal statistical system is facing a severe erosion of capacity at a moment when demand for trustworthy data is growing. Staff losses, declining purchasing power, leadership instability, and weakening public trust are limiting agencies’ ability to deliver the objective, timely statistics that underpin economic policy, democratic accountability, and public understanding.

Key findings:

  • Most federal statistical agencies have lost 20–30% of their staff since FY2009, and 8 of 13 have seen purchasing power fall by at least 16%, leading to data delays, cancellations, and reduced detail.

  • Public confidence in federal statistics declined between June and September 2025, including trust in data accuracy, privacy protections, and data-sharing for decision-making.

  • Cuts to funding and innovation capacity are weakening coordination across agencies, impairing the production of interconnected datasets like GDP and slowing modernization efforts needed to meet future data needs.

Read the full report here.

December 17, 2025 / Commuting, Safety

Traffic Deaths Now Exceed Homicides Across Metro Atlanta’s Core CountiesImage

A new story map, The Human Cost of Mobility: 2024, reveals that traffic crashes have become one of the deadliest—and least visible—public safety crises in Metro Atlanta. Across five core counties, roadway deaths now surpass homicides, with fatalities concentrated in historically disinvested communities and along a small number of high-risk corridors, underscoring how transportation policy choices continue to shape who is most at risk.

Key takeaways:

  • In 2024, traffic crashes killed 425 people across Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton, and Gwinnett counties—more than the 410+ homicides recorded in the same area.
  • Traffic deaths are deeply inequitable: predominantly Black neighborhoods make up 43% of census tracts but account for more than 61% of all traffic fatalities.
  • A small share of infrastructure drives a large share of harm: just 1.2% of roadways account for nearly 11% of fatal crashes across the five-county region.

Read the full report here.