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Opportunity Occupations and the Occupational Mobility Explorer Tool
Supporting economic mobility through research and an interactive tool for workers to chart a career path to higher-paying jobs
Updated tool!
The Occupational Mobility Explorer has been enhanced. It now includes the most recently available wage data and hundreds more jobs and US regions.
How to find a better-paying job with the Occupational Mobility Explorer
The Occupational Mobility Explorer is designed to help users see how skills for one job can transfer to another, higher-paying job in the same geographical area.
Originally released by the Federal Reserve Banks of Philadelphia and Cleveland in 2020, the Explorer tool now has 2023 wage data, covers more than 500 regions across the United States, and includes nearly 600 job titles.
But this tool isn’t just a resource for workers looking for better jobs or trying to figure out how to use their existing skills in a new career. It’s also a resource for workforce development professionals, guidance counselors, employers, and HR professionals looking to enact skills-based hiring.
All too often, incredible talent is being overlooked because employers are hiring for credentials or titles over skills. Skills-based hiring can be a key element in the economic mobility of workers while providing employers with a broader pool of talent.
How to use the Occupational Mobility Explorer tool
In the tool, a user first selects their geographic location; they are then prompted to choose either their “current” or “destination” occupation. The tool provides a list of up to 10 roles with the most similar skills, including details about the occupation’s median wage, whether it requires a bachelor’s degree, and the projected growth for the number of jobs for that role over the next 10 years.
- For example, a user whose goal is to become a construction manager can select that position as their destination occupation and determine what other roles with similar skills will help them get there.
- Or a user currently working as a cashier could plot a career path within the shipping and transportation industry that builds on their current skills.
- The tool also includes links for users to view postings for jobs they select in a given area and resources on how to create a skills-based resume.
About our opportunity occupations research
People who have bachelor’s degrees typically earn better wages and experience higher employment rates than individuals who do not. Yet, more than 63 percent of US adults currently do not have a college degree.
Since 2015, the Cleveland Fed, in partnership with the Atlanta and Philadelphia Feds, has been exploring these trends by identifying occupations that pay above the national annual median wage (adjusted for regional price differences) and are generally accessible without a four-year college degree. We refer to these occupations as “opportunity occupations” and the total amount of employment associated with them as “opportunity employment.”
Our earlier work examined how the level of opportunity employment varied across metro areas. Our subsequent work investigated how much education employers require for registered nurses, one of the most prevalent opportunity occupations identified.
In 2019, we continued our partnership with the Philadelphia Fed and explored the factors that help explain the differences we observe in opportunity employment across the largest metro areas in the United States. Our continuing work will explore and identify common skills employers look for when hiring so that job seekers may be better informed of career pathways.
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Community Development Reports
Does Job Quality Affect Occupational Mobility?
08.04.2022Workers in the highest-quality jobs are more likely to remain in those jobs and less likely to be unemployed or leave the labor force. The opposite is true for workers in the lowest-quality jobs. This analysis adds to a growing body of research about job quality and shows that it is an important dimension of the labor market to consider.Notes from the FieldLooking for Opportunities to Advance? The Occupational Mobility Explorer Can Help
05.06.2021Both jobseekers and workforce development professionals can use this interactive tool to turn job skills into higher-paying positions. How will you use it?Community Development ReportsExploring a Skills-Based Approach to Occupational Mobility
06.01.2020Fed research shows that defining occupations by the skills required to do them could expand opportunities for economic mobility.Community Development ReportsExploring Employment for Sub-Baccalaureate Workers Across Metro Areas and Over Time
04.01.2019This report updates a 2015 publication investigating regional economic opportunity for workers without a four-year college degree.Community Development ReportsExploring Employment for Sub-Baccalaureate Workers Across Metro Areas and Over Time Fact Sheets
04.01.2019A companion to “Exploring Employment for Sub-Baccalaureate Workers Across Metro Areas and Over Time,” this report extends the opportunity occupation research by providing detailed information metropolitan areas.Community Development ReportsHow much opportunity is in your economy for workers without a four-year degree?
04.01.2019College-educated workers typically have greater success in the labor market than do workers without a bachelor’s degree (hereafter “sub-baccalaureate workers”), as measured by both earnings and rates of employment. In light of research indicating a “polarization” of the labor market with an increase of higher- and lower-wage jobs and a decline in middle-wage jobs, it is worth asking this question: Do certain regional economies offer greater opportunity than others for the more than two-thirds of adults without a bachelor’s degree?Community Development ReportsOpportunity Occupations: Exploring Employers’ Educational Preferences for Registered Nurses Using Online Job Posting Data
10.04.2017This A Look behind the Numbers takes a deep dive into the registered nurse (RN) labor market, using online job posting data to gain a better understanding of how much education employers prefer when hiring.Community Development ReportsOpportunity Occupations in Ohio: Identification, Online Postings, and Employer Education Preferences
01.22.2016In this report we take an in-depth look at “opportunity occupations”—those jobs that do not require a four-year degree and that pay a decent wage—in Ohio’s eight largest metro areas.Community Development ReportsIdentifying Opportunity Occupations in the Nation’s Largest Metropolitan Economies
09.09.2015Researchers investigate the extent to which the U.S. economy offers decent-paying jobs to workers without a four-year college degree.ArticleOpportunity Occupations in Ohio: Identification, Online Postings, and Employer Education Preferences
01.22.2016In this report we take an in-depth look at “opportunity occupations”—those jobs that do not require a four-year degree and that pay a decent wage—in Ohio’s eight largest metro areas.