Earn It Goal 10

Workers advance along a career pathway into better jobs in the region.

Common Sense

• To earn more over time, low-income workers must take continual steps up a “career ladder” of job classifications, each of which requires new skills or knowledge.
• Jobs that are not place-bound—such as manufacturing or telephone customer service—are most vulnerable to leaving a rural community.
• If workers have not had a good experience with an employer, they may find it difficult to obtain other employment in the region—bad reputations can spread quickly in rural areas.

Fast Facts

• Seven in ten jobs in this decade require work-related training, and 12 million will go unfilled for lack of trained candidates. REF
• 406,000 jobs shifted to other countries in 2004, compared to 204,000 jobs in 2001. (Bronfenbrenner and Luce, The Changing Nature of Corporate Global Restructuring, 2004)

Check out related Action Ideas and Alerts below! Or view other Earn It goals here.