How California can turn workforce data into actionable steps
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State leaders must consider how workforce-related data can identify not only pain points but also solutions, one expert says.
California is starting to see humble reductions in its statewide unemployment rate following years of steady increases since the pandemic. Building on that momentum, state officials are launching a new workforce development tool aimed at linking more people with good-paying jobs through skills-based hiring.
Under the Career Passport initiative, the state is developing an online tool where residents can share their skills, work and education history with potential employers. Such records include data like high school and college transcripts, credentials or certifications obtained outside of school and other qualifications like proof of military service, state officials announced last month.
“The Career Passport is designed to make trusted information about a person's learning and experience easier to use wherever decisions are being made,” a spokesperson for the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency told Route Fifty in an email. “[E]mployers increasingly want a more complete understanding of what candidates can do, but the broader goal is to help Californians carry verified records of their achievements throughout their lives.”
Currently, California is conducting a pilot demonstration of the tool that will last until Aug. 24, during which the state is evaluating vendor solutions. Next month, a final vendor will be selected based on real user feedback and technical performance data, according to the announcement.
“We are also working with early implementation partners, education providers, workforce organizations and community partners so that the broader ecosystem of credential issuance and verification tools is ready,” the spokesperson explained.
The Career Passport tool underscores a growing push in the public sector toward skills-based hiring as leaders increasingly recognize that people who may have the capacity to succeed in a job could be overlooked for the opportunity simply due to not having a four-year degree. Amid ongoing workforce shortages in state and local governments, expanding the candidate pool could be a critical step toward filling vacant seats.
In 2025 alone, nine states adopted skills-based hiring in some way, bringing the national total to 32 states currently practicing the hiring model, according to the nonprofit Opportunity@Work.
“California’s Career Passport is a promising step toward a more skills-based labor market,” said David Palter, vice president of civic impact for the nonprofit Silicon Valley Leadership Group, in an email to Route Fifty.
Skills-based hiring is particularly important at a time when “AI is changing work primarily at the level of tasks and skills within jobs,” he said. “Workers therefore need better ways to show what they can actually do, not simply where they studied or what titles they have held.”
But singular projects like this are not likely to make significant change by themselves, Palter said, adding that “the Career Passport can make skills more visible and portable, but it cannot create employment opportunities by itself.”
Such projects must be developed as part of larger policy or programming efforts to create more pathways to hiring, he said. The passport project, for example, can help build upon the state’s ongoing workforce development efforts, such as the recently launched AI-Unemployment Tracker.
When implemented together, he added, “the AI employment tracker can help [policymakers] answer, ‘How is work changing?’ The Career Passport can help answer, ‘What can this worker do, and what does this person need to learn next?’”
Beyond data collection and analysis, state leaders could also foster more collaboration between colleges and employers to “identify how AI is changing work within particular industries and translate those changes into relevant curriculum and training,” he said.
“The state should establish shared data standards and open APIs so employers, educators, workforce boards and state agencies can use the same task-and-skill information. This would help align public training investments more closely with real-time changes in employer demand,” Palter explained.