New Report Shows How Much First Jobs Matter

Groundbreaking research from American Student Assistance and Burning Glass Institute studied the careers of millions of workers who went directly to work after high school to identify the Launchpad Jobs that offer the best chances of long-term success

BOSTON, Nov. 21, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Almost one in five workers without a degree out-earn the median college graduate, and around two million nondegree workers earn over $100,000 per year, according to a new report from the American Student Assistance® (ASA) and Burning Glass Institute (BGI), two national nonprofits that focus on advancing data and research on topics related education and economic mobility. The research, which tracked the career paths of millions of nondegree workers, found systematic patterns of success, with the first job out of high school a crucial choice.

Yet today, which career path a student follows often comes down to luck. Despite 1.9 million entry-level openings last year for what the report calls Launchpad Jobs – those that offer young workers good prospects for promotion and career mobility, decent pay, good benefits, and job security – fewer than one in 10 18-year-olds is employed in one of them. Similarly, the report found that many jobs with similar starting wages lead to very different long-term earnings. For example, amusement park attendants and hotel housekeepers start out making almost the same wage. But by the time they are 40, former park attendants earn 50% more than their peers who started out by cleaning rooms. However, students have no way of distinguishing between the two.

The report, “Launchpad Jobs: Achieving Career and Economic Success Without a Degree” – commissioned by ASA, and conducted by BGI – explores the entry-level jobs commonly filled by those without degrees and provides recommendations on how to bridge the information gap in order to ensure that all young people are aware of the breadth of quality job opportunities available to them following high school.

“Young people seeking to enter the workforce after high school need different career planning support from those who are degree bound. They are seeking to understand which job paths will provide the greatest career agility, stability, and upward mobility, and which will require additional credentialing or degrees, either now or down the road. This report demonstrates that launchpad jobs are powerful accelerants that put young workers on a trajectory of economic mobility and professional advancement,” said Jean Eddy, President and CEO of American Student Assistance, Author of Crisis-Proofing Today’s Learners: Reimagining Career Education to Prepare Kids for Tomorrow’s World.

The researchers identified 73 Launchpad Jobs. They include firefighters, electrical power line installers and repairers, commercial divers, telecommunications line installers and repairers, aircraft mechanics and service technicians, captains, mates, and pilots of water vessels, millwrights, emergency medical technicians, paramedics, and control and valve installers and repairers. Landing one of these jobs can make a life-changing difference. The entry-level jobs that score in the top 20% on wages pay almost double those in the bottom 20%. Similarly, workers in top-scoring occupations are two-thirds more likely to have health insurance, are twice as likely to go on eventually to earn a college degree, and have a 75% lower risk of being displaced by automation.

Also noteworthy is that a relatively high share of Launchpad Jobs is in occupations that skew toward technical work, maintenance, and manufacturing. However, every field has jobs that tend to help kickstart upward economic mobility. Launchpad Jobs also abound in healthcare. Surprisingly, white-collar jobs score lower overall, while office-related jobs in sales, finance, and HR offer young nondegree workers an opportunity to break into the workforce and begin to develop a range of foundational and technical skills.

Subsequent career choices also have significant consequences for young workers – whether or not they start in a Launchpad Job. Those who play their cards right—for example, by pursuing a technical specialization or entering management—can sometimes triple their earnings within just a decade. Tellers start out making only $29,000 per year and those who stay in the job earn only $39,000 ten years later. Yet those who advance to Loan Officer can earn salaries of up to $99,000.

“You don’t need a degree to succeed, but you do need a map,” said Matt Sigelman, President of the Burning Glass Institute. “We often hear that it’s grit that distinguishes those who achieve career success from those who wind up stuck. But luck-of-the-draw choices about which job to take can have a huge impact on a young worker’s chances of getting ahead.”

Download the complete report here.

About American Student Assistance® (ASA) 
American Student Assistance® (ASA) is a national nonprofit changing the way kids learn about careers and prepare for their futures through equitable access to career readiness information and experiences. ASA helps middle and high school students to know themselves—their strengths and their interests— and understand their education and career options so that they can make informed decisions. ASA fulfills its mission—in schools and beyond the classroom—by providing award-winning free digital experiences, including Futurescape®, Next Voice™, and EvolveMe®, directly to millions of students, and through advocacy, impact investing, thought leadership, and philanthropic support for educators, intermediaries, and others. ASA fosters a generation of confident, crisis-proof young people who are ready for whatever path comes next after high school. To learn more about ASA, visit www.asa.org/about-asa.

About The Burning Glass Institute
The Burning Glass Institute believes that everyone deserves meaningful work and the chance to move up. A fully independent non-profit, we advance data-driven research and practice on the future of work and on the future of learning. We work with employers, public agencies, educators, and policymakers to develop solutions that build mobility, opportunity, and equity through skills. Through our expertise in mining new datasets for actionable insight, the Burning Glass Institute’s discourse-shaping research draws attention to pressing problems and frames the potential for new approaches. Through project-based engagement and collectives, we put ideas into practice, bringing forward solutions that are high-impact and replicable. For more information visit https://www.burningglassinstitute.org/.

SOURCE American Student Assistance (ASA)

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