The Federal Reserve has released a new video about opportunity occupations, jobs that offer good pay for people without a four-year college degree. In the video, you’ll learn about Jaime Pearson, a truck scales administrator at a steel mill near Toledo, Ohio. Her success story is one of many that sheds light on job opportunities that pay at least the national median wage and are accessible to the roughly two-thirds of Americans without a four-year college degree.

Researchers at the Federal Reserve Banks of Cleveland and Philadelphia estimate that almost 22 percent of jobs nationally qualify as opportunity employment. Some of the top jobs include registered nurses; heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers; bookkeeping, accounting and auditing clerks; maintenance and repair workers; and carpenters. (Learn about cities in the Tenth District, the specific opportunity occupations they offer and the make-up of their local economies in this article.)  

What are the potential solutions for increasing local opportunities for these workers? Prioritizing economic development in certain industries, expanding post-high school training programs and rethinking the level of education employers require and the ways they assess skills.

Informing today’s workers, students and job training organizations about these opportunity occupations could provide more options and greater economic mobility for all.

To see the video and learn more about opportunity occupations, please visit: External Linkhttps://www.investinwork.org/opportunity-occupations?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=website-frs-carousel&utm_campaign=opportunity-occupations-video