Greater Hartford’s economy provides workers without a four-year college degree with a relatively good chance of earning a median wage, at least by one key measure, according to a joint study by three Federal Reserve banks.
Such jobs, deemed “opportunity occupations” by the study’s authors, pay at least the national median annual wage of $35,500, adjusted for differences in local consumption prices.
Of the more than 564,000 jobs in the Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford metro area, 35.2 percent were opportunity occupations, the study found.
Nationally, the most common opportunity occupations included registered nurses, tractor trailer truck drivers, book keepers, police officers and electricians.
The study examined several data sets, including data from the Employment & Training Administration’s Occupational Information Network program, which reflects workers’ opinions about the level of education needed to perform various jobs.
That data showed that more than a third of Greater Hartford jobs provided the opportunity to earn a median wage with less than a four-year college degree.
But another data set, gleaned from job postings on 40,000 job websites, showed a preference for more educated candidates, the study said. In Greater Hartford, Internet job postings produced an opportunity occupation rate of just 25.5 percent.
