We're working across sectors to make hiring STARs the norm again.
We engage with corporate, public sector, and philanthropic partners to implement skills-first hiring practices and STARs-centered solutions.
How we're catalyzing a skills-first labor market:
Our leading research on the STARs population sparked a national conversation around skills.
With a powerful narrative rooted in those insights, our public awareness campaign has renewed positive attitudes toward STARs.
Talent technology partners are incorporating STARs data to adapt hiring tools for a skills-first world.
We're sharing our insights across our networks to help forward-thinking organizations build STAR-centric and skills-first talent strategies.
STARs Research and Data
Opportunity@Work's landmark research informs the nation’s understanding of STARs' potential in the labor market and demonstrates how to make positive economic change for STARs nationwide. The findings have resonated broadly: our reports have been featured in highly respected publications such as the New York Times and Wall Street Journal.
Custom STARs analytics
We offer custom research and analytics on more targeted workforce topics, such as studying upward mobility within regions or the barriers facing STARs within industries.
Recently, ACT and Opportunity@Work partnered to research the challenges and opportunities facing rural STARs, highlighting the potential of leveraging data-driven tools and STAR-centered workforce initiatives to better support a vital yet often overlooked segment of the U.S. workforce.
STARs Talent Category Narrative
Opportunity@Work introduced "STARs" as a talent category in 2020 to formally name this overlooked population of workers. Using data and storytelling, we've corrected the narrative that "low-wage does not equal low skill" and proven that STARs have the skills for higher wage work.
Tear the Paper Ceiling
In 2022, we launched a national public awareness campaign, "Tear the Paper Ceiling", in partnership with the Ad Council. The campaign broadcasts a new, positive narrative about STARs and is changing public attitudes toward STARs and skills-first hiring practices – while also offering organizations a platform to elevate their contributions to the skills-first movement.
STAR Talent Tech Tools
We scale skills-first solutions with our HR and talent technology partners to ensure that talent platforms of the future support skills-first practices and STARs inclusion. We launched "STARSight" to synthesize labor market and STARs data into accessible data feeds, as well as intuitive and actionable visualizations for inclusive workforce hiring.
STARSight
Explore the diversity of the STARs workforce
Break down STARs statistics by region, cutting the data by state, county, and even neighborhood. See where recruiting STARs can help improve workforce diversity, and which jobs best prepare STARs for upward mobility.
Discover proven recruiting pathways for STARs
See how established job pathways – which have allowed STARs to use their transferrable skills to move into higher-wage work – can serve as a model for creating more opportunity for STARs.
Forecast how including STARs increases the talent pool
Adjust education and skill requirements to see in real time how the number of "screened-in" workers grows, helping to pinpoint which roles offer the greatest opportunity to broaden your talent pool with STARs.
STAR-Centered Networks
We activate multi-sector networks across public, private, nonprofit, and philanthropic organizations to pilot and mainstream skills-first practices that open opportunities for STARs.
Tear the Paper Ceiling Coalition
Launched in 2022, the Tear the Paper Ceiling Coalition brings together a diverse, ever-expanding group, including over 80 leading businesses, philanthropies, and workforce organizations, to publicly voice support for STARs and amplify successful skills-first talent practices.
STARs Public Sector Hub
Launched in 2024, the STARs Public Sector Hub is a learning community and resource hub for implementing skills-based practices in across public sector organizations.
Anchored by partners such as The Volcker Alliance, the Partnership for Public Service, Harvard Government Performance Lab, Lead for America, Govern for America, Cicero Institute, and Work for America, the Hub enables federal, state and local governments to design and implement skills-first policies and practices.
Who we’ve worked with
Hear from our partners
“Through our $16.9 million investment, Opportunity@Work will catalyze labor market data and technology infrastructure improvements to benefit more than half of the working population who are STARs.”
“When I was Governor of Maryland, we worked with Opportunity@Work to transition our state’s hiring to a skills-based approach based on their research showing that employers are leaving talent on the table by continuing to prioritize degrees in the hiring process. Opportunity@Work’s STARs Public Sector Hub is expanding on that work by using their wealth of data, research, and expertise about STARs and skill-based hiring to enable federal, state, and local governments to play a leadership role in catalyzing change across the labor market.”
“The Opportunity@Work team has done some incredible research that makes the business case for hiring STARs into today’s most in-demand jobs.”
“A growing body of research indicates that governments are leaving talent on the table by prioritizing degrees in the hiring process. Opportunity@Work’s new STARs Public Sector Hub is translating that research into action, and will help city, state, and federal government partners attract the talent required to deliver the services citizens depend on.”
"Outdated and narrow views of credentials are causing otherwise innovative companies to miss out on hiring top talent like STARs. In partnership with Opportunity@Work, there is an opportunity to create an inclusive future of work."
“A few years ago, we looked at many talent solutions in the market. There was a real risk of hard-wiring outdated notions of being a skilled worker. The Opportunity@Work team has done some incredible research that makes the business case for hiring STARs into today’s most in-demand jobs.”
Take the first step
Your STARs journey begins with Opportunity@Work. Together we can build a more equitable labor market.