ATLANTA – May 4, 2023 – Responses from more than 29,000 U.S. hourly wage earners to Employbridge’s 2023 Voice of the American Workforce Survey portray a workforce pinched by economic pressures yet determined to advance and define their roles on their own terms. While better pay has been a consistent desire among workers for more than a decade, this year respondents place higher priority on job security and learning opportunities than in recent years and show substantial interest in joining the gig economy and in supporting app-based work. This year’s findings from the nation’s largest and longest running workforce study, point to what may be a new “social contract” emerging within the workplace – one that assumes more control of how people engage with work and create their own pathways for advancement. The impetus is especially strong among younger workers. Employbridge CEO Billy Milam said, “Major forces of societal change, including the pandemic, inflation, and a generational workforce shift, are transforming the fabric of the workplace. Wage earners are increasingly digitally savvy, eager to gain skills for an automated world, and desirous of schedules that allow them to flex their time to add more work or balance personal demands. Employers, facing an ongoing worker shortage, have a prime opportunity to evolve to thrive in this new paradigm.” Industry sectors surveyed include clerical, hospitality, logistics, manufacturing, and transportation, and for the first time app-based workers following Employbridge’s recent Bluecrew acquisition. While a full report and video presentation of 2023 findings is available, this year’s leading survey statistics include: