Data Reference: Middle Skill Occupations and Programs
Project overview:
“Middle skill” jobs are jobs that require training, education, and experience beyond high school but less than a bachelor’s degree. The term describes an education strategy for local workforce agencies, nonprofit postsecondary providers, and community colleges. The strategy has gained favor for public policy and education policy due to the rising cost of university education and the prospect of advancing workers’ earning potential with shorter-term, lower cost program interventions.
At the request of agency and community college partners, our office provided regional data references for middle skill occupations and related programs in 2016. I conducted analysis and wrote the report in 2016 when I was working for the office as a consultant.
We updated the reports in 2019. The reports serve multiple purposes. College and other school partners frequently need to input occupation data for grant applications and reporting.
The reports also offer information useful for program planning and investment decisions. The reports are divided by occupation group. Each section displays data about related program category. Comparing occupation data and program data is a starting point for discovering areas for growing existing workforce education and training programs or starting new ones.
I describe the contents briefly below.
Middle Skill Summary Analysis
Top-level summary analysis described the number, share, and performance trend of middle skill jobs in each occupation category.
The size and performance of the labor market offers basic context for job opportunity areas for workforce education and training programs.
Middle Skill Average Wages
We typically include a wage analysis in occupational profiles. In this case we presented hourly wage ranges in each occupation category and compared the wages to living wage rates that come from university-developed calculators.
Living wage calculators offer estimates for local areas based on researched budgets of actual costs, the “basket of goods” method. The calculators improve on federal poverty rates, but they still show basic, subsistence living rates. The calculators don’t include items that could be associated with a middle class standard of living, like vacations, recreational goods, or luxury items.
Detail Occupation Sections
The main body of the report presented detailed occupation data for each occupation category. The data includes the number of jobs, annual openings, wages, and education and experience level.
Like the top-level summary, the data shows wage ranges and compares the levels to living wage calculators.
Detailed Program Data
Each section also has data for the number of awards issued and the number of students taking coursework in related program areas.