Center for Workforce and Economic Opportunity

Please use these steps to guide you through the information offered in the tool.

• Step 1: Select your desired view from the filter at the top. Determine if you want to look at Origin, Gateway, or Target Occupations (you can also select Opportunity Occupations within each category), choose the preferred job data by year, and select if you'd like to see a particular job family.
• Step 2: Select your metro area by clicking on the geography within the map.
• Step 3: Select a specific occupation from the metro's jobs details. Find total number of jobs in the metro, adjusted local earnings for the occupation, and insights on education requirements for positions as shown by job posts' details.*
• Step 4: Review the aligned education offerings as related to the metro area in general or the occupations selected in Step 3. See all other associated occupations related to the education and training program in the Providers, Program Offerings, and Associated Jobs sections.

*The education data included in the dashboard make no assessment as to program quality. Data included are from the public IPEDS data set, scraped from national ETPL data and as offered by NABTU.

The Rework Community Insights Monitor provides a wide-angle perspective into workforce ecosystem alignment, or relative misalignment, within a region with respect to the supply and demand of jobs for workers.

For civic actors and regional policymakers: workforce system, economic development organizations, chambers of commerce, and philanthropy

The dashboard can provide a foundational understanding of a regional economy by answering questions such as "Which jobs represent the most opportunities for employment and growth?," "Where is there underinvestment in skill development for these occupations and industries?," and "What pathways should be supported to transition more workers into jobs that pay a living wage?" The information included can facilitate conversations around broad workforce system alignment and investment to increase support for industry sectors or occupations (from both a workforce placement and economic development perspective, and to ensure education and training programs are connected to job market realities).

For workforce intermediaries or job seeker-serving entities

The tool provides insights into regional occupation opportunities for job seekers in career pathways and can support relationships between employers and workforce intermediaries. The tool includes information on career pathways that describe how much a particular position pays, on average, in the area; how many jobs exist for that position; and what education or training is offered to skill or reskill workers so that they are successful on that pathway. Workforce intermediaries can also use the tool to improve advisory conversations with business and industry. Some conversations may include topics regarding the extent to which education and training programs are meeting their needs or help determine what other offerings are needed to support employer workforce needs in the future.

For business and industry

The dashboard shows business and industry stakeholders a single view of education and training programs available to them in the region. They can use density of jobs insights to explore with regional policymakers where increased investments would bolster workforce development investments, particularly if employers are experiencing labor shortages or have workers in need of significant reskilling or upskilling.

As a part of the Rework America Alliance, McKinsey Global Institute created a methodology to identify good jobs. McKinsey considered factors such as risk of automation or offshoring, a livable wage, and demand. The following section offers a high-level overview of the methodology to identify Origin, Gateway, and Target occupations included in the Rework Community Insights Monitor.

Origin jobs

• Starting occupation in which a worker can advance to higher-paying positions with greater economic mobility
• Income is less than $42,000, split between low (less than $37,000) and lower middle ($37,000 to $42,000)
• Occupation has high unemployment among workers without a four-year degree
• Must have at least one gateway or target job, that is, there must be a career pathway

Gateway jobs

• Gateway jobs offer higher pay than origin occupations and are historically accessible to those without a four-year degree. Based on transition data, they provide good economic mobility to Target occupations from these jobs
• Income is at least as much as in Origin occupations ($37,000 to 42,000) but may also offer economic uplift
• 25 percent of workers employed in each occupation historically do not hold a bachelor's degree and are not in O*NET job zone 5
• More than 33 percent inflow of transitions by people without a bachelor's degree are from Origin jobs and more than 33 percent outflow of transitions from Gateway jobs to Target jobs are from people without a bachelor's degree

Target jobs

• Occupations offering middle- to high-income levels (more than $42,000) that are in demand, resilient to automation, and are accessible in the job market on experience, not just credentials. Based on historical transition data (from résumés) where individuals moved from a gateway occupation  
• Income is more than $42,000
• Low risk of long-term automation or offshoring (McKinsey Global Institute "jobs at risk" score)
• At least 10 percent of workers employed in the occupation do not have a bachelor's degree and are not in O*NET job zone 5

Data Sources

• Transition data are based on 29 million job profiles, of which 4 million do not have a bachelor's degree up until 2019
• Wages based on a combination of Emsi jobs posting and talent profiles screened for those without four-year degrees up to 2019. The 2019 Community Population Survey is used to assess unemployment within occupation and level of credential

Publicly available data sets included in the Rework Community Insights Monitor

• 2019 Community Population Survey unemployment microdata
• 2019 American Community Survey microdata
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational employment and wage statistics from 2020: occupational wage detail
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics quarterly census of employment and wages
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational employment projections, 2019–29
• U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis regional price parities from 2019

Opportunity Occupations Monitor: Opportunity occupations are jobs that do not require a bachelor's degree and pay at least the national median wage, adjusted for local cost of living differences. The data are pulled from previous Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta analysis in the Opportunity Occupations Monitor, and opportunity occupations are overlapped with Origin, Gateway, and Target jobs, offering a higher chance that a worker with less than a bachelor's degree can earn a livable wage.

Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System* (IPEDS): IPEDS is a set of surveys conducted annually by the National Center for Education Statistics to gather data from all institutions that receive federal student aid. These institutions include colleges and universities as well as technical and vocational schools. This tool uses the 2019–20 Institutional Characteristics survey.

National Eligible Training Provider List* (ETPL): As established by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, the federal government distributes funds to eligible training providers identified by state and local workforce boards. The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) maintains public data on all eligible providers and individual programs. The sites shown on the tool are compiled by the Atlanta Fed Center for Workforce and Economic Opportunity into a database from DOL information.

North America's Building Trades Union* (NABTU): NABTU represents 14 different building and construction trade unions and over 300 trade councils in the United States and Canada. Through these councils, which train new workers to enter the construction industry, NABTU administers over 1,600 registered apprenticeship training programs. NABTU also provides over 170 apprenticeship readiness programs in the United States that offer preparation for registered apprenticeships to workers traditionally underrepresented in the construction industry. NABTU provided the Atlanta Fed Center for Workforce and Economic Opportunity with the names and locations of their affiliates and program sites.

Classification of Instructional Programs to Standard Occupational Classification (CIP-SOC): Associated occupation detail is analyzed from national CIP-SOC crosswalks provided by the National Center for Education Statistics and does not reflect job transitions from either résumé or employer-informed career pathway insights.

*The education data included in the dashboard make no assessment as to program quality. Data included are from the public IPEDS data set, scraped from national ETPL data and as offered by NABTU.