Background
Foundations
New technologies are shifting the foundations of the U.S. economy, with implications that may ultimately affect nearly every industry. But unlike previous waves of technological change, when gains mostly accrued to the most educated or most privileged among us, this time could be different. There is a real opportunity for good-paying jobs that do not require a four-year degree to build these technologies and keep them running. These are not hypothetical jobs of the distant future. This next generation of hands-on technical roles will build on a legacy of blue-collar opportunity in sectors like construction, energy, and manufacturing, even as the jobs themselves are constantly changing.
However, to make these opportunities real, the country will need to make different choices about education and training. That means renewed attention to community colleges, technical schools, and apprenticeships, and more employers stepping up to help train people, not just hire them. It also means rethinking what is asked of each of them in this next chapter of the American economy.
The New American Frontier tells this story through the experience of regions where new technologies have landed first. From small modular nuclear reactors in Idaho to AI data centers in Virginia to batteries in Michigan, the book follows the projects bringing these technologies to life, the day-to-day work that keeps them going, and the pathways into these jobs. Starting with places where economic change is already underway, The New American Frontier offers a new blueprint for human capital development in the next technological age.
Key Lessons
Demand starts upstream
01
Vendors and construction are the leading edge of frontier workforce demand.
Public attention goes to the marquee technology companies, but the more accessible jobs often show up first in the trades and in the supply chain, where designs are translated into physical systems.
Your customers' workforce problems are your problems.
Most workforce development focuses on bringing direct competitors together. An overlooked alternative is to organize vertically, with large companies supporting workforce efforts across their own supply chain — much of which is employed by vendors and contractors.
R&D institutions as workforce anchors.
Major research institutions employ skilled technical workers well beyond the PhDs they're known for and can build training pipelines that benefit an entire region. This works best when their workforce investment is grounded in a lab's own operational hiring needs rather than community engagement.
Designing programs that survive volatility
02
Frontier industries are volatile, so build for transferability
Workers trained for one frontier industry should be able to move into related opportunities if demand shifts.
Expand at the edges
The strongest regional approaches build from existing strengths in adjacent technical fields rather than launching new programs from scratch, giving learners real placement options regardless of how the frontier technology evolves.
Beware the “shiny penny.”
New investment tends to attract attention and resources while existing employers get overlooked, and in some cases talent is directly poached.
What it takes to attract and keep learners
03
Wages are the gatekeeper.
Pipelines for new industries cannot be sustained if the jobs do not pay competitively with the alternatives available to learners.
Hire and pay, not train and pray.
The most effective pitch to young people is straightforward: we will hire you, pay you to train, and there will be a guaranteed job on the other side.
The institutional infrastructure
04
The power of a long-term state strategy.
A long-term, bipartisan state commitment to a strategic industry, paired with a sector-specific intermediary, allows a “big bet” to stay on course across business and political cycles.
Effective intermediaries convene and connect.
The strongest intermediaries translate industry input into actionable terms, convene working groups, and bring resources to the table that no single company would chase alone.