Do first jobs matter? For young adults, including high school graduates entering the workforce straight out of high school, the data says yes.
American Student Assistance® (ASA) recently partnered with the Burning Glass Institute to conduct independent research on the career pathways of millions of nondegree workers. Our final report, Launchpad Jobs: Achieving Career and Economic Success Without a Degree, identifies which entry-level jobs lead to career advancement, good pay and benefits, and job stability; how employees can continue their upward career trajectory; what workers who start their careers in low potential jobs can do to get on track; and what education and government leaders can do to enable students to make good career choices.
In this article, the first of four, I’ll explain what Launchpad Jobs are and how to identify them.
What is a Launchpad Job?
We define Launchpad Jobs as entry-level roles that set workers up for rapid career growth, respectable wages and benefits, and job security. These jobs have promotion rates that are 10 percent higher than jobs with the lowest potential. Most are positions where the demand for workers exceeds the supply (both now and in the forecasted future), so employers are more likely to offer above average starting salaries and health insurance to attract employees. These roles also have a low risk of being displaced by technology because the skills needed, requirements for hands-on work, or necessity of interacting with humans or the environment (e.g. nurses or firefighters) are not conducive to automation.
To identify these high-potential jobs, the research scored and ranked roles based on a combination of five job characteristics:
- Higher than average starting pay and continued wage premiums over 10 years
- A higher likelihood of offering health insurance
- High promotion rates
- Strong pathways to better opportunities
- Some level of protection from technological disruption including AI
By using this holistic approach, roles with low starting salaries but high promotion rates and opportunities for advancement, like military-related occupations, scored high enough to be considered Launchpad Jobs. And jobs with high initial salaries but few pathways to better opportunities, such as construction work, did not.
Launchpad Jobs aren’t as rare as you may think—there are more than 3.5 million nondegree, entry-level job openings each year that scored highly based on a combination of the above characteristics. What’s more, these types of fast-track jobs are available in every field.
How can you identify Launchpad Jobs?
While every field includes some jobs that offer career advancement for young adults, including those entering the workforce immediately after high school, without college degrees or industry or occupation credentials, it’s not surprising that industries that skew more towards technical work, including Maintenance, Manufacturing, and Utility, as well as Healthcare, have a high share of Launchpad Jobs.
White-collar jobs scored lower than average but a few industries, such as Architecture and Engineering, and roles where entry-level employees can develop functional and technical skills, like Sales, Finance, and Human Resources, had high Launchpad Job scores.
The challenge for young adults is knowing which entry-level opportunities are Launchpad Jobs. Consider a recent high school graduate who received two job offers, one as a Manicurist and the other as a Tour Guide. Both jobs pay around $23,000 per year to start. Which one should she choose? And would her decision be influenced if she knew that in twenty years, workers who took the former job earned an average of $49,100 per year while those who chose the latter earned an average of $82,200 per year? For more than $30,000 per year, shouldn’t she be empowered with this information before she makes a choice?
Pathways to Success
There’s a common myth that the only pathway to success after high school is college. Yet almost one in five workers without college degrees earn more than the median college graduate annual wage of $70,000.
But while the data proves young people don’t need a college degree to achieve financial success and economic mobility, it is clear that more of them could benefit from having information on Launchpad Jobs. Empowering students with this knowledge before they accept their first job will enable them to choose their best pathway for career advancement, good pay and benefits, and job stability.
In my next article in this series, I’ll delve into how young adults can further their career prospects after they take their first job.
