How were the occupations in the drop-down selected?
The occupations included in this outcome are classified as High Wage, High Skill, High Demand (H3). The Nebraska Department of Labor designates and ranks occupations as “H3” based on projected labor market demand, skill and training requirements, and typical wages. As a result, the selected occupation fields represent a subset of high-demand jobs with competitive wages and are considered excellent career options in the state.
The occupations included in this brief were selected based on specific education and training criteria. From the High Wage, High Skill, High Demand (H3) list, occupations requiring additional experience beyond a degree (e.g., managerial roles) were excluded. A 100-opening threshold was then applied as an analytical safeguard to address methodological uncertainties. Occupations were also excluded if they did not align with the current state education system’s mission or lacked a strong education-to-occupation relationship (e.g., Truck Drivers). From the remaining list, the top nine occupations requiring a two-year college education and the top six requiring a four-year college education were selected.
How do you define the number of annual job openings for an occupation?
The number of annual job openings for an occupation is based on the historical data of short-term occupational employment projections provided by the Nebraska Department of Labor. These job openings comprise openings due to employment growth in the occupation (job growth) and openings resulting from workers separating from their jobs either to find employment in other occupations (job transfer) or to leave the labor force (job exit).
How do you determine if a student is qualified for an occupation?
A student’s qualification for an occupation is determined by whether they earned a degree from college, the specific program of study from which the degree was earned, and whether they remain and work in Nebraska after graduation. The connection between an occupation and a program of study is established using the Classification of Instructional Programs to Standard Occupational Classification (CIP-SOC) Crosswalk.
Note that graduates of private colleges can also qualify for an occupation. However, the NSWERS Data System does not contain data for private colleges in Nebraska. To address this, NSWERS used private college graduate counts reported to the National Center for Education Statistics’ Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). To account for the geographic mobility of graduates, NSWERS applied the percentage of public college graduates working in Nebraska to the private program completion counts and assigned the number of private college graduates who work in Nebraska after graduation.