1. Providing Lists of the “Best” Occupations Laurence Shatkin, PhD Senior Product Developer JIST Publishing, Inc. February 14, 2007 An Example of Making Labour Market Information More Useful for Clients

2. Why list the “best” jobs? ► There are so many occupations, a first cut makes choice more manageable ► People like lists

3. “Best” is subjective ► Some relevant factors contributing to “goodness”  Interests  Values  Skills and abilities  Work conditions  Et cetera

4. However, certain factors dominate Example: U.S. national norms for Values Scale (Neville & Super, 1989) SubscaleMeanS.D. Achievement16.922.47 Ability Utilisation* 16.762.26 Personal Development* 16.462.37 Economic Security 16.062.99 Economic Rewards 16.053.04 Life Style* 15.512.68 *low reliability (r<.70)

5. Matching people and occupations What Person Wants What Occupation Has Achievement ? (depends on what you want to achieve) Ability Utilisation ? (depends on your abilities) Personal Development ? (depends on what development you need) Economic Security Job growth and job openings Economic Rewards Income Life Style ? (probably mostly income)

6. Relevant Labour Market Information ► Income: median wage, Occupational Employment Survey of earnings (U.S.) ► Job growth: percent change in employment, Employment Projections (U.S.) ► Job openings: projected annual openings for growth and replacement, Employment Projections (U.S.)

7. Assemble relevant data about occupations

8. Occupations to exclude ► Those with negative growth and fewer than 500 openings per year (e.g., Bridge and Lock Tenders) ► Those for which economic information is lacking (e.g., Actors) ► Those for which there is minimal information (only definition and perhaps tasks) ► Numerous postsecondary teaching occupations (collapse into Teachers, Postsecondary)

9. Rank-order them by wages (descending)

10. Rank-order them by growth (descending)

11. Rank-order them by openings (descending)

12. Compute sum of ranks

13. Sort by sum of ranks (ascending) and assign overall rank

14. Set a cutoff (e.g., “10 Best Jobs”)

15. Specialised lists of the “best jobs” ► Best-paying jobs ► Jobs with the most growth ► Jobs with the most openings

16. Subsets of “best jobs” ► Jobs requiring various levels of education or training  Helps people use their education  Identifies occupations people can move into quickly  Education level often represents prestige ► Jobs linked to interest fields and personality types  Helps new career explorers narrow down options  Helps with career transition

17. More subsets of “best jobs” ► Jobs with a high percentage of  Men  Women (note caveats)  Self-employed workers  Part-time workers  Workers in certain age brackets

18. Starting with a limited universe of occupations ► All occupations  Best Jobs for the 21 st Century ► Setting a level of education/training  200 Best Jobs for College Graduates  300 Best Jobs Without a Four-Year Degree  250 Best Jobs Through Apprenticeships

19. Other ways of dividing/limiting the universe of occupations ► By Holland type  50 Best Jobs for Your Personality ► By high percentage of people of a certain age  225 Best Jobs for Baby Boomers

20. Which occupations would be useful for your clients? ► Occupations linked to the majors at my college ► Occupations growing fast in my province  Use provincial (instead of national) figures for employment projection and wages

21. Limitations of this approach ► More is not always better  Many people want only a certain minimum  Being on the list is more important than being very high on the list ► The “streetlight fallacy”  Lists tend to be made of things that can be listed

22. More limitations of this approach ► Some people have a strong preference for a noneconomic factor, for example:  Using an artistic talent  Working outdoors  Working with animals ► Some occupations are eliminated because of lack of information

23. Questions?