Our Research

Insight and strategies to build an inclusive and sustainable workforce by recognizing the skills and potential of STARs

Barriers and Breakthroughs: Framework to Improve STAR Economic Mobility

Reach for the STARs: Realizing the Potential of America’s Hidden Talent Pool

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Navigating with the STARs: Reimagining Equitable Pathways to Mobility

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Our data on STARs changed the national conversation around workforce.

Opportunity@Work’s analytical and research capabilities inform the nation’s understanding of STARs' potential in the labor market and uncover insights that show how to make positive economic change within regions and industries, and within groups of STARs.

Our research has been featured in:

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Article

Up to 30 Million in U.S. Have the Skills to Earn 70% More, Researchers Say (Published 2020)

The findings point to the potential of upward mobility for people without a college degree.

Infographic

Navigating with the STARs Infographic

Infographic from our report, Navigate with the STARs: Reimagining Equitable Pathways to Mobility

Video

Navigate with the STARs: Reimagining Equitable Pathways to Mobility

Video overview of our report, Navigate with the STARs: Reimagining Equitable Pathways to Mobility.

Blogs

Rise with the STARs - New Research in New York Times

Outstanding analysis in the New York Times by Steve Lohr on Opportunity@Work’s new research quantifies the damage done by two decades of rising career barriers to over 70 million U.S. workers who don’t have bachelor’s degrees.

Blogs

Scholars Share Insights to Understand Labor Market Mobility for STARs

Opportunity@Work organized panel to dive into how skills-based hiring overcomes labor market exclusion at APPAM, the largest conference convening of academics, policy makers, and practitioners.

Paper

The Limits of Educational Attainment in Mitigating Occupational Segregation Between Black and White Workers

This paper introduces a dissimilarity index to measure racial occupational segregation between Black and white workers with and without bachelor’s degrees from 1980 to 2019, and uses a Monte Carlo simulation to compare observed segregation levels to predicted levels under race-neutral conditions.

Article

Occupational Segregation Drives Persistent Inequality, Study Says

New research points to the limits of education as a path to upward mobility for Black workers.

Article

How About Offering Apprenticeships For People Who Already Work For You?

Apprenticeships leave out the 95M frontline workers who already have jobs, but who still may need additional education to move up in their careers.

Article

The Changing Face of Apprenticeships - Wally Boston

Opportunity@Work is a proponent of apprenticeships and released a report, with Lightcast, titled The Changing Face of Apprenticeships.

Activating a collaborative community of researchers

We conduct our own research, but that’s only the beginning. We also seek out and encourage the participation of research partners and collaborators.

Our goal? To inspire others to pursue new research—and question conventional wisdom on our workers, talent management practices, and workforce development. Over time, the available data and insights will multiply, delivering answers to every question that’s at the heart of economic mobility for STARs.

Our Research Partners

STARs Insights Advisory Panel

Our STARs Insights Initiative Advisory Panel is chaired by Dr. Erica Groshen, former Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and includes advisors with experience in labor economics, workforce development and the future of work across the public, private, and academic sectors.

Erica Groshen

Former Commissioner, Bureau of Labor Statistics

Peter Q. Blair

Assistant Professor, Harvard University

STAR Stories

Read about the barriers, challenges, and possibilities that STARs are seeing today — and why they're hopeful for a brighter future.

Our Research

Our data on STARs changed the national conversation around workforce.

STAR Research Community

Activating a collaborative community of researchers

STARs Insights Advisory Panel

Erica Groshen

Peter Q. Blair

STAR Stories