Boston Herald

Fed online tool could boost search for lucrative career

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Job seekers can increase their earning power with an online database launched this month by the Federal Reserve Banks of Philadelph­ia and Cleveland that matches the skills a worker uses in a low-paying job with those in a more lucrative position.

The Occupation­al Mobility Explorer resulted from a research report released in June that studied the 33 largest labor markets in the United States. The study found that the skills involved in 49% of lowerwage jobs pair up with similar yet higher-paying jobs in the same labor market, according to Keith Wardrip, community developmen­t research manager at the Philly Fed and an author of the report. By using the tool, for example, bill collectors in Philadelph­ia would discover that they have many of the skills needed for a post as a credit counselor, a job that pays about 45% more, Fed officials said.

Fed researcher­s defined lower-wage jobs as paying below median wages, roughly below a range of $37,000 to $40,000. Some of the jobs that fall within the lower-wage group include retail sales and food service cashiers, position hard hit by the pandemic.

Researcher­s found 4,100 “top transition­s,” or pairings of occupation­s that shared similar skills in the same labor market, but with one of the jobs paying at least 10% more. The higher-paying position should also not require a college degree to qualify as a “top transition” job.

“You know, roughly twothirds of American adults don’t have a college degree,” Wardrip said. “And we wanted to shine a light … on the fact that the labor market doesn’t include just two types of jobs: lower-wage jobs and jobs for college-educated people.

“We wanted to figure out through our most recent research and through the tool … how can we help workers transition into the better-paying jobs.”

According to 2018 figures from the U.S. Census Bureau, about 20% of adults have a bachelor’s degree and 8.5% more hold a master’s.

Fed officials called this middle ground of jobs opportunit­y occupation­s. “We found that just under 22% of all employment meets our definition of opportunit­y employment,” Wardrip said.

Though imagined as an aid for workers, the tool also might show employers that many lower-wage workers might have transferab­le skills in ways that may not be apparent, Fed officials said.

Wardrip cautioned that his tool paired similar jobs, not identical ones. “So some level of reskilling or upskilling will be required,” he said.

Users can find the free online tool at philadelph­iafed. To find a job with a similar set of skills, and a promise of at least a 10% pay increase, users navigate to a “build your path” screen. There they input their original occupation and metro area — including Boston/Cambridge and Nashua, N.H. — from a drop-down menu. The software responds with alternativ­e jobs, scored mathematic­ally by their degree of match.

The researcher­s focused on occupation­s that would likely be around over the next 10 years.

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