Janelle Jones

Janelle Jones is an Affiliate Fellow at the Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality. A nationally recognized economic policy leader, Janelle is an expert in labor markets, macroeconomic policy, and strategies to close racial and gender economic disparities. Her work has helped shape national conversations on full employment, worker power, and the structural barriers that limit economic opportunity. She advises GCPI staff and conducts research on policies that build worker power and ensure well-paying, secure jobs.

Janelle Jones served as the chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor in the Biden-Harris Administration, the first Black woman to serve in that role. She also served as the chief economist and policy director at the Service Employees International Union. Earlier in her career, Jones held positions at Groundwork Collaborative, Washington Center for Equitable Growth, Economic Policy Institute, the Center for Economic and Policy Research, and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. 

Her research has been cited in The New Yorker, The Economist, Harper’s, The Washington Post, The Review of Black Political Economy, and other publications. Jones holds a B.S. in mathematics from Spelman College and an M.A. in applied economics from Illinois State University.