What Are Good Jobs and Who Gets Them?

• In Event: Equitably Preparing Youth for Careers in the Changing World of Work

Abstract

This is a mixed-methods study which examines how graduates from associate’s (AA) and bachelor’s (BA) degree programs view nonmonetary job rewards and if higher degrees predict increased nonmonetary job rewards.

Following economic theory, education research often analyzes student outcomes in terms of earnings. However nonmonetary job outcomes are increasingly recognized as important. This paper examines how college graduates perceive nonmonetary job outcomes and why they are rewarding. The paper then examines whether the predictors of earnings are also predictors of nonmonetary job rewards. The results suggest that students might make different education choices if they recognized the value of nonmonetary job rewards.
We conducted semi-structured interviews with 40 individuals ten years after they had attained an associate degree (AA) in technical programs. We find many individuals value job rewards because they make work more pleasant and may enhance their human capital. While human capital is usually seen as determining what jobs people obtain, these employees also see the opposite — jobs can enhance workers’ human capital. We find such a relationship for both AA and BA holders. Employees describe ways their jobs provide challenge, autonomy, and on-the-job learning, which sometimes affect job choice and job moves.

Then, analyzing national survey data (ELS:2002-2012), we find that nonmonetary job rewards work differently than earnings. We find that different education degrees, college selectivity levels, and majors predict different monetary and nonmonetary job rewards. We also find that both monetary and nonmonetary job rewards are important predictors of graduates’ ratings of whether their jobs contribute to their longer-term career goals.

Authors

• James E. Rosenbaum, Northwestern University

• Gorana Ilic, Northwestern University

• Ashley Elizabeth Uphoff, Northwestern University