09-18-2026IMPACT COUNCIL

Turn your talent filter into a talent pipeline

The pipeline is not dry—it is working exactly as designed.

[Photo: Getty Images]

The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of top leaders and experts who pay dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership, and more.

Whenever I complain to my executive coach about a problem inside my organization, his go-to response is both irritating and insightful: “That’s your system.”

I might be describing a missed target, a persistent challenge, or something that feels impossible to fix, but his point is always the same. The system is producing exactly what it was designed to produce. I need to stop looking for someone to blame and start looking at the design.

My job is to get schools, employers, and governments working together to move more young people into good jobs. And we run into the same design flaw over and over. It’s that America’s education and workforce system was built to select people out, not move everyone up.

This problem is worsening. Research from the International Labour Organization found that in 2025, youth unemployment rose to 12.4%, up from a two-decade low near 12% in 2023. This was the first reversal in years, equal to 67 million young people out of work worldwide. Some of that is AI reshaping entry-level work: 6.1% of jobs held by young people sit in occupations highly exposed to AI-driven change, concentrated in the clerical and administrative roles that used to be someone’s first rung on the ladder. At the same time, employers say they can’t find enough skilled workers to keep up with........

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