Number of “good jobs” grows slowly across US, mainly in service industries

Since 1991, every state has added good jobs for workers without  four-year degrees in skilled-services industries like healthcare and finance, but fewer than half have added good jobs for similar workers in blue-collar industries like manufacturing, according to The Good Jobs Project, an initiative of The Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. The project, which released a state-by-state analysis this week, focuses on the concentration and distribution of “good jobs” – those that pay above a living wage and are available to workers without a bachelor’s degree – by geography and industry.

While the total number of good paying jobs for workers without a B.A. grew from 27 million in 1991 to 30 million in 2015, the share of good jobs available to workers without a B.A. declined from 60 percent to 45 percent over that same time. In general, good jobs available without a B.A. are concentrated in the most populous states, though some smaller states also have a high share of good jobs.

The report’s authors find that across every state, good jobs increasingly require postsecondary education and training, but not necessarily a bachelor’s degree. The majority of the growth in new good jobs, for example, has gone to workers with associate’s degrees or some postsecondary education beyond high school. The top five industries growing the fastest for those without a bachelor’s degree are all in services industries: 

• Leisure and hospitality and personal services - gained 1,380,000 jobs;
• Healthcare services - gained 1,330,000 jobs;
• Financial consulting/business services - gained 980,000 jobs;
• Education services - gained 260,000 jobs; and,
• Government services - gained 70,000 jobs.