Oakland County Michigan Works! Troy

What Oakland County Michigan Works! Troy does

The W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research is a private, not-for-profit, nonpartisan, independent research organization founded in 1945 and headquartered in Kalamazoo, Michigan. It studies policy-related issues of employment and unemployment, organized around four focus areas (Strong Places, Prepared Workforce, Resilient Workers, Quality Jobs) and three operating divisions: Research, Upjohn Regional, and the Center for Workforce Innovation and Solutions (CWIS). Its core output is empirical research, including recurring branded products such as the American Job Quality Study, the New Hires Quality Index, the multi-year Policies for Place initiative, and the journal Economic Development Quarterly. Its constituency spans policymakers, employers, worker advocates, and academic researchers in labor economics and workforce policy.

The Institute is funded through a not-for-profit model consistent with independent research organizations — relying on grants, endowment support, and programmatic contracts rather than selling products or services in a traditional commercial go-to-market. Recent activity indicates an active research pipeline: July 2026 releases included a research highlight on Battle Creek's Bearcat Advantage, work on measuring child-care shortages, and analysis of non-disclosure agreements in hiring, alongside a June 2026 dissertation-grant program for emerging scholars. Its customer set is best understood as institutional funders and policy audiences rather than commercial buyers, and its distribution channels are publications, media outreach, professional-conference engagement (e.g., National Association of Business Economics), and standard academic channels.

There are no disclosed headcount figures, operating budgets, contract values, or technology-stack details in the source material, limiting quantitative assessment. Proprietary technology platforms, AI/ML capabilities, or commercial software products are not described; the work product is research output (papers, indices, briefs, a journal) rather than a software or data-licensing business.

Name

Oakland County Michigan Works! Troy

Legal name

W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research

Website

https://upjohninstitute.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1945

Operating status

Operating

Short description

The W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, founded 1945 in Kalamazoo, Michigan, is a private, not-for-profit, nonpartisan research organization that produces policy research on employment, unemployment, and job quality for policymakers, employers, worker advocates, and academic audiences.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Labor and Employment Policy Research

NAICS

Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities (54172)

SIC

Periodicals: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2721)

akta.pro primary industry

Industry & Sector Research (Syndicated/Custom) (BPAHALAE)

akta.pro secondary industry

Workforce Development & Inclusive Employment (Job Training, Placement) (BPAGALAB)

Keywords

• Employment research
• Workforce policy
• Labor economics
• Economic development
• Job quality research

Headquarters

HQ city

Troy

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales

Core offering

The organization conducts independent, nonpartisan research on employment, unemployment, labor markets, workforce development, regional economies, and job quality, producing research highlights, policy analyses, and the Economic Development Quarterly journal. It also runs place-based and workforce-innovation programs through its Upjohn Regional division and Center for Workforce Innovation and Solutions.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Research Division Foundational and applied research division producing research, research highlights, and topic-area analysis on education, economics, the social safety net, and labor markets.
• Upjohn Regional Regional economic and community development division applying the institute's research to place-based economic and workforce challenges in specific regions.
• Center for Workforce Innovation and Solutions (CWIS) Workforce-focused center translating research into applied workforce-innovation and solutions-oriented outputs.
• Policies for Place research initiative Multi-year research initiative bringing together institute expertise on place-based scholarships and local labor market issues, including economic-development policies such as tax incentives and customized business services.
• American Job Quality Study Data and analysis program providing a multidimensional picture of the quality of U.S. jobs for policymakers, employers, and worker advocates, identifying who has access to quality jobs and how shortcomings might be addressed.
• Economic Development Quarterly Peer-reviewed journal published by the institute on regional economic and community development topics, listed as a content type on the website.

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• RAND Corporation: Established nonpartisan research institution that conducts labor market, workforce, and economic policy research with a much broader portfolio. Competes for the same federal employment-research contracts as Upjohn.
• American Institutes for Research (AIR): Large nonprofit behavioral and social science research firm with substantial workforce, education, and labor-market evaluation practices. Competes for the same federal contracts as Upjohn at materially larger scale.
• Urban Institute: Larger nonprofit that conducts economic and social policy research including workforce, poverty, and labor markets for public- and private-sector clients. Overlaps substantively with Upjohn's research scope but operates at greater scale.
• National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER): Primary nonprofit economic research organization in the U.S. producing working papers and convening research on labor, workforce, and regional economics. Overlaps in mission and academic audience.
• Brookings Institution: Major think tank with economic studies and workforce policy programs that publish on labor markets, education, and place-based economics. Comparable intellectual positioning but operates at much larger scale.

Emerging players

• Economic Policy Institute: Think tank producing research on wages, employment, and labor market policy with an explicit pro-worker framing. Overlaps with Upjohn's quality-jobs and resilient-workers focus areas.

Direct peers

• Mathematica Policy Research: Nonpartisan research organization that conducts policy research and program evaluation in workforce, education, and social policy for federal and state agencies. Directly comparable mission, funding model, and deliverable mix to Upjohn.
• MDRC (Manpower Demonstration Research Corp): Nonprofit social policy research organization focused on education, employment, and income support programs, with deep workforce and labor-market evaluation work. Closest mission overlap with the Upjohn Institute.
• W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research: This entry is included only as a self-reference for completeness; the subject company is itself the W.E. Upjohn Institute.

Others

• Council of Economic Advisers (academic-adjacent): Federal advisory body producing labor-market and employment-policy analysis that frequently cites Upjohn-style research; included as an adjacent consumer and validator of Upjohn's work rather than a direct competitor.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks3 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCs816XgzMdyFP8O-3Z34ecQ
• Facebookfacebook.com/Upjohn.Institute
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/michigan-works

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Oakland County Michigan Works! Troy