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Occupational Mobility Explorer

In Exploring a Skills-Based Approach to Occupational Mobility, researchers from the Philadelphia and Cleveland Feds analyze the skills that employers request in the 33 largest metro areas and look for opportunities for workers to transfer their skills from one occupation to a similar — but higher-paying — occupation in the same labor market. This application is designed to make the findings interactive and wholly accessible to those interested in economic mobility.

Build Your Path

When a metro area and an origin (or starting) occupation are selected, the occupations requiring the most similar skills and representing at least a 10% increase in wages will be displayed. Only lower-wage occupations (paying below the national annual median wage) and opportunity occupations (paying above the national annual median wage but not requiring a bachelor’s degree) are available in this path builder. The similarity score for two occupations ranges from 0 to 1 and is higher for occupations requiring similar skills.

Compare Skills

Select two occupations in the same metro area to compare the 25 most in-demand skills and the share of job advertisements requesting each skill.

View Top Transitions

Select a metro area to explore all of its “top transitions” – our term for occupational transitions with a similarity score over 0.75. The destination occupation in each represents at least a 10% increase in wages relative to the origin, does not require a bachelor’s degree, and is projected to grow or decline only marginally over the next decade.