The Real Economic Opportunities of Middle Skill Work

The career areas used in this report are drawn from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data known as the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system. They were derived from the 23 high-level occupation families used to classify workers, with the following modifications: Business and Financial Operations and Office and Administrative Support are merged into a Business category; Healthcare Practitioners and Technical are merged with Healthcare Support Occupations into a Health Care category; and Management Occupations are recoded into the relevant functional occupation group where possible.

To add dimension to the data, the authors' four fictional characters' career trajectories represent typical experiences the research reveals. Their narratives are intended to illustrate the millions of people struggling to find middle-skill work that offers financial stability and economic advancement. The report targets four career areas: health care, business, IT, and manufacturing.

The report is written in three parts:

1. Illustration of the first five years in the careers of the fictional characters created for the report.
2. Identification of the education and training decisions that the fictional characters make for the three categories of entry-level jobs that provide completely different levels of career potential: lifetime jobs, springboard jobs, and static jobs.
3. Recommendations for how education and workforce development leaders and policymakers can improve career training to increase economic advancement.

1. Both the Opportunity Framework and career outcomes data can be powerful tools for rethinking the selection and design of training programs, career pathways, and related support services.
2. Lifetime jobs are careers in themselves. Dental hygienists are an example. Workers rarely advance to higher-level positions, but these jobs usually pay well and offer long-term stability.
3. Springboard jobs lead to careers. Human resource (HR) assistants are an example. Workers often advance to different roles with more responsibility and greater pay within the same career area.
4. Static jobs don’t typically lead to careers. Medical assistants and assemblers of electrical equipment are examples. They offer low pay compared to other middle-skill roles and suffer from high turnover. There is little potential for advancement into higher-paying occupations or positions with greater responsibility.

Recommendations for training programs include:

• Improving decision making regarding program offerings;
• Building bridges to advancement opportunities;
• Designing and revising curricula with advancement in mind;
• Leveraging industry certifications for advancement;
• Targeting employer engagement efforts based on the framework; and
• Providing academic and career guidance based on the opportunity framework.

Recommendations for policymakers include:

• Allocating training resources to jobs with advancement potential;
• Encouraging regional economic developers to prioritize sectors with advancement outcomes; and
• Building career outcomes data systems.

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2018
• Author(s): S. Lamback, C. Gerwin, D. Restuccia
• Funding Source: Lumina Foundation
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Wesley Peterson
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies