Despite rapid gains in the public’s general access to technology, many workers and jobseekers—especially those who are economically marginalized—still do not have reliable access to technology and the internet. The pandemic exacerbated this issue as libraries and community centers with publicly available computers could not adequately serve the technology needs of marginalized workers and their families. In addition, some workers and jobseekers may not have had easily accessible opportunities to gain the crucial digital literacy skills needed to navigate jobseeker tools and other online resources or may find the tools and resources overly generic, intimidating, unintuitive, and/or cumbersome to use.

Addressing this challenge requires thoughtful development of technology tools and strategic planning to ensure they are integrated with human-centered supports.  This includes:

• Developing a deep understanding of how those workers and jobseekers gain access to information and designing technology tools that will reach them.

• Focusing tool development on what workers and jobseekers say they really need rather than on building overly complex tools that require digital literacies that not all workers and jobseekers have.

• Working with case managers, counselors, and representatives of community organizations who have the most contact with workers and jobseekers to ensure they have the digital literacies necessary to use the technology.

• Presenting information in the tool personalized by user type so each group (jobseeker, counselor, researcher, community activist) has access to the information they need.

• Creating alternative means of accessing information for those who the technology simply will not serve.