Senior Research Fellow - Apprenticeship & Workforce Policy

Workforce Intelligence Lab (WIL) is building a research network focused on workforce policy, labor-market measurement, infrastructure workforce capacity, and causal policy evaluation.

We are seeking a Senior Research Fellow — Apprenticeship & Workforce Policy to support current and future externally funded research examining how apprenticeship policy, employer incentives, and workforce-development interventions affect participation, completion, labor supply, wages, and employer demand.

This opportunity is particularly relevant to researchers with experience in registered apprenticeship, labor economics, workforce development, Career Pathways, employer hiring incentives, or state workforce policy.

Current Research Opportunity

WIL is currently developing a quasi-experimental study examining whether state policies that incentivize employers to participate in registered apprenticeship programs produce measurable changes in apprenticeship outcomes and skilled-workforce capacity.

Potential research responsibilities may include:

• refining the research question and causal estimand;
• evaluating treatment and comparison-group design;
• Difference-in-Differences, event-study, synthetic-control, or related quasi-experimental analysis;
• working with RAPIDS / Apprenticeship.gov and other administrative datasets;
• integrating BLS, Census, state workforce, and labor-market data;
• reviewing methodology and threats to identification;
• contributing to grant proposals and pre-analysis plans;
• conducting or supervising empirical analysis if the project is funded;
• contributing to academic manuscripts, research reports, and policy publications.

Ideal Background

We are particularly interested in candidates with experience in one or more of the following:

• registered apprenticeship or apprenticeship policy;
• workforce development or Career Pathways;
• labor economics or applied microeconomics;
• employer hiring or workforce incentives;
• education-to-workforce transitions;
• state or federal workforce policy;
• quasi-experimental policy evaluation;
• administrative labor-market data.

Strong methodological experience may include:

• Difference-in-Differences;
• modern event-study methods;
• synthetic control;
• regression discontinuity;
• instrumental variables;
• panel-data methods;
• causal inference.

Experience with datasets such as RAPIDS, CPS, ACS/PUMS, QWI/LEHD, OEWS, QCEW, or other Department of Labor/Census administrative data is especially relevant.

Requirements

Preferred candidates will have:

• Ph.D. or advanced doctoral training in economics, public policy, sociology, education, statistics, or a related quantitative field;
• demonstrated applied research experience;
• experience working with large administrative or longitudinal datasets;
• proficiency in R, Stata, Python, SQL, or comparable research tools;
• strong written communication and methodological judgment.

Academic affiliation is welcome but not required. We care more about research quality, methodological fit, and the ability to execute rigorous work than institutional prestige.

Benefits

This is a project-based research opportunity, not a guaranteed salaried appointment.

Initial participation may include limited research-design, methodology, literature-review, or proposal-development work. Larger research engagements are expected to be contingent upon external grant or sponsored-project funding.

Depending on experience and project requirements, selected researchers may be considered for roles such as:

• Senior Research Fellow
• Methods Lead
• Co-Investigator
• Principal Investigator / Co-Principal Investigator
• Research Consultant

Any funded role, scope, compensation, institutional involvement, or formal appointment would be established separately.

About Workforce Intelligence Lab

Workforce Intelligence Lab is an independent nonprofit research organization focused on improving how workforce capacity, labor-market change, hiring demand, compensation pressure, and workforce execution risk are measured and understood.

WIL works with researchers, academic institutions, industry experts, and data partners to produce evidence-driven research intended to support public policy, workforce planning, infrastructure development, and better labor-market decision-making.

Researcher Network

Applicants may also elect to be considered for future WIL research, grant, publication, and sponsored-project opportunities aligned with their expertise.