There are currently more than 30 million jobs in the U.S. with a median salary of $55,000 for workers without a bachelor’s degree, according to new research from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.
And with more than 1.5 million such jobs, Florida has the third highest total in the nation.
These figures are part of the “Good Jobs that Pay without a B.A.” report, which defines “good jobs” as offering a median salary of $55,000 per year and a minimum annual salary of $35,000.
The Georgetown Center produced the report in collaboration with JP Morgan Chase & Co.
“If the business community, policymakers, and education and training providers are working towards placing workers in good jobs, we first need to know where they are,” said Chauncy Lennon, Head of Workforce Initiatives for JPMorgan Chase, in a press release. “We’re excited to partner with the Georgetown Center to explore this research because better data is critical to building a better workforce.”
Despite a shift in the economy from blue collar to skilled-services industries like health care services and information technology, the report notes that employees without a bachelor’s degree still comprise 64% of all workers.
Among this group, Americans with only high school diplomas still have the largest share of good jobs (11.6 million), followed by workers with some college (9.3 million), those with associate’s degrees (7.6 million), and high school dropouts (1.7 million).
However, the number of good jobs for workers with high school diplomas is on the decline: according to the report, high school graduates and high school dropouts have lost a total of 1.4 million good jobs since 1991.
On the other hand, the evolution of good jobs for employees without a bachelor’s degree has been most beneficial to workers with associate’s degrees. These workers have gained more than 3 million good jobs since 1991, while employees with some college have gained almost 1 million good jobs in that same time period.
The Sunshine State trails California (almost 3.5 million good jobs) and Texas (more than 2.5 million good jobs), and the report’s Top 3 are also the states with the largest economies in the U.S. The state with the largest share of good jobs for workers without a bachelor’s degree is Wyoming (50%), with New Mexico and Kansas tied for the lowest (33%). Florida stands at 36%.
Visit goodjobsdata.org to view the full report and a video of the findings.
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