America is entering what JPMorganChase calls “an age of geopolitical competition”, and the country is not prepared for the workforce demands that come with it. According to the firm’s December 2025 report, “Working to Win: Rebuilding America’s Workforce for an Age of Geopolitical Competition,” the United States faces a talent shortage so severe that it has become a national security threat.

The report makes one thing clear: No matter how much the U.S. invests in equipment, supply chains or new industrial capacity, without enough skilled workers, execution will fall short.

This shortage affects the industries that determine U.S. resilience:

  • Defense and aerospace production lines slowing due to shortages of machinists, welders, and engineers
  • Grid modernization and energy projects stalling because apprenticeships must increase 44% just to meet near-term demand for 200,000 workers
  • Semiconductor facilities projected to need 3.8 million additional workers by 2033, with nearly half of those roles likely to remain unfilled
  • AI and cybersecurity needs accelerating as three-quarters of companies can’t find qualified talent, and 40% of adults lack basic digital skills
  • U.S. tech workforce requirements expected to grow at twice the rate of the overall labor market over the next decade

These are system-level failures that limit America’s ability to “build, compete, and protect its interests.” But there is an overlooked solution hiding in plain sight: Disabled talent.

The Largest Untapped Workforce in the Country

Disabled people are twice as likely to be unemployed because the systems surrounding work were not built with them in mind.

Many disabled people would pursue careers in AI, energy, or cybersecurity if accessible, identity-safe pathways existed. Many already have foundational skills; they simply need the workforce models JPMorganChase calls for, modernized training ecosystems, employer-based skilling, and large-scale apprenticeships.

And employers are missing a critical connection; the competencies most needed in high-pressure industries, resilience, adaptation, creativity, systems thinking, are the very competencies Disabled people build every day.

Living in a world not designed for you requires:

  • Constant problem-solving
  • Navigating ambiguity
  • Adapting quickly when plans or environments shift
  • Designing personal systems and workarounds
  • Managing complexity under pressure

And they align directly with the report’s warning that the U.S. is falling behind global competitors investing heavily in STEM, AI fluency, and applied technical education, areas where agility and adaptability matter as much as technical skill.

The report is explicit in saying the workforce must be treated as strategic infrastructure, essential to national security, not auxiliary to it. Yet U.S. apprentices make up just 0.3% of the working-age population, far behind countries like Switzerland and Germany, where apprenticeships reach 2 – 3%.

That gap represents millions of missed opportunities, especially for Disabled workers whose strengths align with the most urgent needs. Imagine if the U.S. designed workforce pathways that worked for people whose bodies, minds, and schedules don’t fit traditional molds. You’d unlock access and innovation. Disabled people are a strategic workforce.

Policy Shifts That Would Open the Door

The report outlines federal and state policy recommendations that, if implemented with disability inclusion at the center, would transform access:

At the federal level:

  • Strengthen and scale apprenticeships, particularly in AI, cybersecurity, energy, and manufacturing
  • Support employer-based training programs by modernizing WIOA and expanding funding for on-the-job training
  • Close the digital skills gap, recognizing that 92% of jobs require digital skills yet many adults, and disproportionately many Disabled adults, lack access to training
  • Expand public-private partnerships to align employer needs with educational programs

At the state level:

  • Expand work-based learning intermediaries
  • Leverage employer partnerships to align credentials with real job requirements
  • Use data-driven systems to measure outcomes and direct resources toward effective programs

These reforms mirror exactly what Disabled talent has been asking for: structured pathways, modernized training, and systems designed to be accessible.

A Workforce Challenge This Big Needs a Workforce This Ready

JPMorganChase’s $1.5 trillion, 10-year Security & Resiliency Initiative acknowledges that capital alone cannot deliver resilience without talent.

If the U.S. wants to rebuild at the scale required more semiconductors, more grid upgrades, more AI innovation, it must widen the talent pool, and Disabled people bring ingenuity shaped by navigating inaccessible systems daily. They bring resilience forged in environments not built for them. They bring the adaptive intelligence employers repeatedly cite as missing.

The question is whether workforce systems, policymakers, and employers are finally ready to tap into the talent pool that has been here all along, ready, capable and essential to America’s future.

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