Want to Move Up the Career Ladder? Explore the Updated Occupational Mobility Explorer to Chart a Path to Better-Paying Jobs

The Federal Reserve Banks of Cleveland and Philadelphia updated the Occupational Mobility Explorer (OME) in September 2024. The OME now includes nearly 600 job titles across more than 500 US locations. It serves as a resource for job seekers, workforce development professionals, guidance counselors, employers, and others who want to learn more about possible career trajectories.

The updated tool better reflects the postpandemic labor market by including the most recent data on employer-requested skills in job ads from Lightcast¹ and labor market information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In addition to updated data, several other features have been incorporated into the tool based on user reviews and feedback. The OME now has information, namely skill similarity, median hourly wages, educational requirements, and growth projections, on most occupations for all US states, metropolitan statistical areas, and nonmetropolitan areas. The new design and functionality allow users to explore potential paths to better-paying roles in two ways: users can start from their “current occupation” and identify higher-paying jobs that require similar skills, or they can begin from their “destination occupation” and find lower-paying jobs that call for similar skills. This flexibility broadens the number of potential users and uses of the OME. The tool also includes resources related to skills-based resume writing and hiring and links to job listings on the National Labor Exchange. For more information about the tool, please see the user guide on the OME webpage.

Taking a quick look under the hood of the OME at the most requested skills across the wage distribution helps to illustrate how skills can facilitate upward economic mobility. Using national data, occupations included in the OME can be placed into four equally sized groups based on wage and employment information. The top 15 employer-requested skills in job ads for each of these groups are shown in Table 1. Notably, the commonly requested skills are similar across the groups. Six of the top 10 requested skills for the lowest-wage occupations, namely “customer service,” “communication,” “sales,” “management,” “detail-oriented,” and “operations” skills (shown in green in Table 1), are also commonly requested for higher-paying occupations. Additionally, some skills such as “communication,” “management,” “operations,” “problem-solving,” “leadership,” “planning,” and “writing” (italicized and bolded in Table 1) are requested more frequently as wages increase. Prioritizing investments in developing these in-demand skills could help to promote upward economic mobility, bolstering the broader economy. There will be much more to share about the OME regarding commonly requested skills and career paths in the coming months. In the meantime, use this link to access the OME and learn more about the tool.