According to a new analysis by Hiring Lab, a research branch of Indeed, only 16 percent of American jobs in the period examined— from 2012 to 2015— paid sufficiently to keep up with, or exceed, the cost of living.
It was determined that the occupations in which there is typically decent pay are concentrated in just a few industries.
These industries include:
- Healthcare
- Management
- Computers and mathematics
- Business and finance
- Architecture and engineering
Over half of all job vacancies in these fields are in just nine states— California, New York, Washington, Maryland, Alaska, New Mexico, Virginia, Massachusetts, and New Jersey— along with Washington D.C.
The study calls these lucrative positions “opportunity jobs.”
The study also found that the same opportunity jobs that have been able to avoid wage stagnation are also the least likely to be affected by automation.
Hiring Lab projects that the chance that an individual in an opportunity job will be replaced by a machine is about nine percent. For everyone else, this figure jumps to 46 percent.
It is believed that opportunity jobs are abundant— they make up a disproportionate 35 percent of all job openings— but they require skills and education that many do not have.
With one of the main issues for many voters this fall likely being jobs, it will be interesting to see how politicians address the current job landscape.
