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Searching for STARs: Work Experience as a Job Market Signal for Workers without Bachelor's Degrees

Author

Listed:
  • Peter Q. Blair
  • Tomas G. Castagnino
  • Erica L. Groshen
  • Papia Debroy
  • Byron Auguste
  • Shad Ahmed
  • Fernando Garcia Diaz
  • Cristian Bonavida

Abstract

The demand for a skilled workforce is increasing even faster than the supply of workers with college degrees – the result: rising wage inequality by education levels, and firms facing a skills gap. While it is often assumed that increasing the number of college graduates is required to fill this gap, this paper explores the extent to which workers without BA college degrees can help fill this gap. To find workers without BA degrees who are potentially skilled through alternative routes (STARs), we use data on the skill requirements of jobs to compute the “skill distance” between a worker’s current occupation and higher wage occupations with similar skill requirements in their local labor market. Based on our calculations, of the 16 million non-college educated workers with skills for high-wage work (> twice median earnings), 11 million whom we term “Rising STARs” are currently employed in middle-to low-wage work. We propose a general taxonomy for STARs to identify potential job transitions to higher wage work within their current earnings category and across earnings categories.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter Q. Blair & Tomas G. Castagnino & Erica L. Groshen & Papia Debroy & Byron Auguste & Shad Ahmed & Fernando Garcia Diaz & Cristian Bonavida, 2020. "Searching for STARs: Work Experience as a Job Market Signal for Workers without Bachelor's Degrees," NBER Working Papers 26844, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26844
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Juan Carlos Lopez & Tadashi Morita, 2024. "Public good provision and progressive income taxation in a spatial economy," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 73(3), pages 979-1003, October.
    2. Erica L. Groshen & Harry J. Holzer, 2021. "Labor Market Trends and Outcomes: What Has Changed since the Great Recession?," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 695(1), pages 49-69, May.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • J11 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

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