Workforce Priorities: Chamber Pulse Survey Results

8/19/2026

W.A.C.E. was pleased this summer to collaborate with our partners at the Association for Chamber of Commerce Executives (ACCE) on a joint member survey exploring the current state of activity around workforce development initiatives. The result is the Workforce Priorities Chamber Pulse Survey. Here's a summary of what we learned.

Chambers Lead by Convening, Not by Writing Checks

Ask a chamber what role it plays in workforce development, and most describe several roles at once. But a couple rise above the rest: 82% act as a convener, coordinating employers, educators, and partners around the same table. 77% serve as an advisor, sitting on partner boards and shaping community direction. 62% are advocates, lobbying at the local, state, or federal level. 55% are program owners, designing and running initiatives directly. Only 21% consider themselves funders.

That tracks with what most of us know instinctively: chambers are conveners first. We're the room where the school district, the workforce board, and the employer who can't fill three shifts a week end up talking to each other. That's real value — but it also means the funding conversation is still wide open.

Career Exposure Is the Workhorse

When chambers were asked what kinds of workforce initiatives they run, career exposure and exploration — career fairs, job shadowing, and the like — topped the list at 71%, followed by advocacy (68%) and employer engagement (63%). Strategic planning, work-based learning, and career pathway development all showed up in over half of chambers. Wraparound services, like childcare assistance or transportation help, sat at just 12%.

That last number matters more than it looks. Cost-of-living barriers are what chambers and workforce professionals say are actually holding people back — which makes the small footprint of wraparound services one of the most intriguing opportunities in this survey.

Cost of Living, Not Skills, Is the Real Barrie

Businesses, workforce professionals, and the media talk a lot about the "skills gap." The data says we might be talking about the wrong gap. Asked to name the three biggest barriers to workforce participation in their community, chambers pointed first to childcare (54%) and housing (47%). The skills gap — the actual mismatch between what employers need and what's available — came in third at 43%.

Put that next to the initiative numbers above, and the mismatch is stark. Chambers know cost of living is the top barrier, yet only 12% of us run programs to address it directly. That's not a criticism — affordable childcare and housing are enormous lifts, and other community organizations may already be doing that work. But it's worth an honest conversation in every chamber boardroom: is there a bigger role for us to play here?

Students Anchor the Work

When we look at who chamber workforce programs actually serve, the pattern is clear: we're overwhelmingly focused on people getting ready to enter the workforce, not the adults already in it or trying to get back into it. 83% of chambers serve K-12 students and 60% serve postsecondary students — both well ahead of any other group. Low-income individuals, veterans, women, people of color, and working parents each land in the 43–47% range. People with disabilities, immigrants, and justice-involved individuals trail further behind.

None of this is wrong — building the pipeline early matters enormously. But it raises a fair question: are we as intentional about reaching the adult already working two jobs, or the veteran transitioning back to civilian life, as we are about the high school junior?

We Measure What's Easy to Measure

Here's a finding that deserves some humility. The two most common ways chambers measure success are community workforce data (56%) and employer satisfaction (49%) — both real, but both fairly soft. Harder outcomes like wage changes came in at just 10%. And a full 26% of chambers said, plainly, that they don't currently measure impact at all.

That's not a knock on any single chamber — measurement takes staff time and money most of us don't have to spare. But if we want a seat at the table when workforce dollars get allocated at the state or federal level, we need to get better at proving what we're doing works.

The Good News: Chambers Aren't Backing Down

Despite the honest gaps this survey surfaces, the outlook is genuinely encouraging. Nearly seven in 10 chambers (68%) expect to grow their workforce initiatives over the next two years. Only 3% are scaling back, and those who are cite funding constraints, not a loss of belief in the work.

What This Looks Like in Practice

Chambers across the country are already putting these priorities into action. The Boone Area Chamber of Commerce (N.C.) created Trades Signing Day, honoring high school students who earn industry credentials. The Michigan West Coast Chamber of Commerce is integrating a career discovery tool into local schools, backed by coaching and internships. The Billings Chamber of Commerce (Mont.) connects newcomers and young professionals to local resources, while the Chino Valley Chamber of Commerce (Calif.) expanded a program connecting justice-impacted individuals with employers and hiring incentives.
On the systems side, the Greater Vancouver Chamber (Wash.) partners with school districts and workforce agencies to strengthen work-based learning, and the Tri-City Regional Chamber (Wash.) built a full Workforce and Education Ecosystem Map of regional resources. On funding, the Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce (Pa.) has raised nearly $1.9 million through a capital campaign for workforce programming, and the Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce (Texas) repositioned its foundation specifically to pursue workforce grant funding.

Where We Go From Here

This survey wasn't commissioned to pat ourselves on the back. It was commissioned so we could see the industry clearly — where we're strong, where we're stretched thin, and where our members deserve more support. The convening muscle is real and it matters. The funding and measurement muscles need work. And the gap between where the barriers actually are and where our programs actually focus is worth every chamber's attention.
We'll be bringing these findings into upcoming W.A.C.E. programming, peer conversations, and resource-sharing so our members aren't solving these problems alone. If your chamber has a workforce initiative worth highlighting — or a challenge you're wrestling with that this data speaks to — we want to hear about it.
The Workforce Priorities Chamber Pulse Survey was conducted by the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives (ACCE) in partnership with the Western Association of Chamber Executives (W.A.C.E.). The online survey was distributed by email to each association's members, with results reflecting 162 responses collected July 6–31, 2026.

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