Out-of-work Rhode Islanders lean on AI for career direction
In April 2020, Rhode Island's unemployment hit a high of 18.1%, over five times the 3.4% level of just a few months earlier. By May nearly 100,000 had lost their jobs, and the state division charged with helping the legions of new job seekers, the department of labor and training (DLT), was nowhere near ready.
Sarah Blusiewicz, DLT's assistant director of workforce development, said when the pandemic struck, her staff was working on desktop computers and had no videoconferencing capability.
"We are, I would say, a 1998 organization in terms of our technology, that needed to deal with a 2021 problem," Blusiewicz said. They needed a big technology partner like Google to help them build a user-friendly platform that was "above and beyond the DLT homepage."
"The last thing anyone wants is some weird government website that's clunky, looks horrible and doesn't get you what you want," Bluesiewicz said.
The state had already been working for a year with Providence-based non-profit Research Improving People's Lives (RIPL) as part of a National Science Foundation grant to build its reskilling program. In collaboration with Google, they built a platform that incorporates the use of artificial intelligence to help out-of-work Americans find their next jobs.
RIPL data scientists developed AI built on labor data Rhode Island has been collecting for nearly a century that helps them figure out which industries workers have successfully transitioned between in the past.
The program has found, for instance, that people with experience in healthcare often develop skills useful in infrastructure technology. "People in health care, when they switch to technological jobs, succeed at a greater rate than people switching from other occupations," former DLT director Scott Jensen said.
The platform is supported by the Cloud and incorporates Google Meet, Documents and Maps. On the site, job seekers list their skills and areas of interest and submit their resumes. AI uses this information, along with historical data, and current market-level statistics by sector to provide recommendations to users.
It curates a list of job openings that would make a good match for the job seeker and provides information on reskilling courses. Other non-profit organizations do the training, and companies hire the graduates of the training programs. DLT helps cover costs incurred for transportation and childcare while workers complete the short-term programs.
Mintaka Angell, director of policy and communications at RIPL, said RIPL monitors the AI to check for bias in the suggestions and works with "top research scientists to help ensure that our algorithms are fair." She added that the algorithm uses individual skills as data points rather than demographic information like age or race.
In September, Irismar Centeno was diagnosed with Crohn's disease and was forced to leave her job at an Amazon warehouse because she was no longer able to lift heavy items.
"It was really hard for me to find a job where I could maintain a good health and work balance," said Centeno.
She says she applied for at least 75 jobs and tried other means to make up the lost income, like cooking $5 plates of Italian and Puerto Rican food to sell in her community.
Centeno, 24, wants to be an accountant, like her father, but she had no idea where to begin. She happened to read about a banking and customer service training offered through DLT and suspected it was "too good to be true," but decided to enroll in the three-month course in October anyway.
She soon graduated with a certificate that qualified her to be a bank teller. The program's resume workshops and interview preparation that were included in the package enabled her to find a job at Citizens Bank in January. Centeno hopes working as a teller will put her on the path to becoming an accountant and said the training she received helped her learn "how to fit into the banking industry."
Some 1,500 workers have found jobs through the virtual career center and another 3,500 are in various stages of training, according to Jensen. About 90 job coaches staff the platform, a figure that is expected to grow with the support of other local and national non-profits.
Google is talking with several other states about replicating the Rhode Island program, says Mike Daniels, vice president of global public sector at Google Cloud.
Kevin Burgland, 49, owned and operated a small bar and grill near Brown University for almost two decades, but was forced to close his business just before the pandemic. A few months later, Burgland's wife was also laid off from her administrative job at a charter school.
With their savings depleted, Burgland said he picked up shifts at a liquor store to help pay the bills but wanted a "stable career path."
He enrolled in a mortgage data processing course offered through DLT and had two job interviews before the 15-week class was completed. Even if it doesn't lead to a job right away, Burlgnad said the training has given him renewed hope.
"It's definitely been a little bit of an ego boost and has kind of shaken me out of that depression I've fallen into," Burgland said.
After 20 years working in restaurants, Burgland said he doesn't want to be "trapped" in that industry anymore. He hopes to find a mortgage data processing job but if that doesn't work out, he said he'll get a teaching certificate and become a teacher.
"I don't want to be a millionaire," he said. "I just want a stable life."
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