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Occupation Explorer

Two people can hold this exact job, with the same title and the same experience — and be on completely different trajectories. Explore the gap between working in the same occupation at a top-rated employer and working at a lower-rated one.

🔍

Select an occupation

Choose from the list on the left to see how top-rated employers
compare to lower-rated employers on key workforce outcomes.

Top-rated (90th percentile) vs. Lower-rated (30th percentile) 4 workforce outcomes

Salary Advantage

Retention Advantage

Internal Promotion Advantage

External Promotion Advantage

Top-Rated (90th pct)

Lower-Rated (30th pct)

Comparison of top-rated performance (90th percentile) and lower-rated performance (30th percentile) for this occupation, among all Where You Work Matters assessed companies for which we have sufficient data to assess this occupation.

Median Annual Salary

Top-rated

Lower-rated

more at top-rated employers

3-Year Retention Rate

Top-rated

Lower-rated

higher retention at top-rated employers

Internal Promotion Rate (5-Year)

Top-rated

Lower-rated

higher internal promotion rate at top-rated employers

External Promotion Rate (5-Year)

Top-rated

Lower-rated

higher external promotion rate at top-rated employers

Dataset Reference

What’s in the Where You Work Matters Dataset

Using our knowledge of the career trajectories of more than 65 million U.S. workers, we generate two key types of insights that power better career navigation.

1

Ratings of ~55,000 Occupations Across 1,750 Employers

Based on 12 million worker records

★

Corporate and Occupation Data

Overall ratings for 1,750 Where You Work Matters assessed companies
Early-career, Growth, and Stability archetype ratings for WYWM companies
Six metric ratings by employer: internal promotion, advancement beyond, entry-level hiring, wage, retention, and leaders from within
Ratings of 55,000 occupations across WYWM companies by the three WYWM archetypes

💼

Hiring Data

Recent hiring volume by occupation and employer for all 55,000 WYWM-assessed occupations, by metropolitan statistical area
Recent entry-level hiring volume by occupation and employer for all WYWM early-career-assessed occupations, by metropolitan statistical area

🏢

WYWM Company Data

Official company name
Descriptive text and company homepage URL
Primary and secondary sector classifications
Headquarters city, state, and country
Information on corporate family members, such as subsidiaries and siblings

2

Deep Insights Across 830 Occupations

Drawn from the full 65 million worker database

$

Wage Data

Data on 830 occupations — all 923 O*NET occupations aggregated into 830 clusters for ease of use, mappable back to the full O*NET list
For every clustered occupation: 25th, 50th, and 75th percentile wages across three experience tiers (0–4 years, 5–9 years, 10+ years) and two geographic variants (large metro and medium/small metro)
Five-year pay growth by occupation for every year of experience from 0 to 10
Low / medium / high benchmark label assessing how pay growth for each occupation compares to all assessed occupations

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Promotion Data

Share of workers in a clustered occupation who move into a higher-wage role at their current employer within 5 years
Share of workers in a clustered occupation who move into a higher-wage role at a different employer within 5 years
Variants by geography (large vs. medium/small metro) and experience (entry-level vs. 5+ years)
Low / medium / high benchmark label assessing how promotion for each occupation compares to all assessed occupations

↻

Retention Data

Share of workers in a clustered occupation who are still with their employer 3+ years after starting
Variants by geography (large vs. medium/small metro) and experience (entry-level vs. 5+ years)
Low / medium / high benchmark label assessing how retention for each occupation compares to all assessed occupations

⚡

AI Impact Data

170 occupations assessed for AI impact in three ways:
Employment demand: how AI will change it
Entry-level opportunities: how AI will affect them
The nature of the work: how AI will change it

🎓

Skills and Education Data

Fraction of workers by occupation who are college graduates
Top three occupational clusters that workers in a given occupation most commonly transition into
Credential requirements for the occupation
The three most skill-similar adjacent occupation clusters from a given occupation
Three skills that provide the greatest wage premiums for workers in an occupation

Every field above is available to your app.

Through the MCP server and REST API, or in the research chat.

How each rating is built → Get access →

Source: Where You Work Matters dataset documentation

How we rate

How We Rate America's Largest Employers

The Where You Work Matters List is an independent rating of how well the largest U.S. employers create high-quality jobs — built entirely from observed worker outcomes, not surveys or self-reported company data.

1

A Big Data Project

Based on worker-reported data across leading career platforms such as LinkedIn, Indeed, Glassdoor, and other sources, this analysis captures what actually happens to workers over time — not what companies say happens.

Step 1

●

We Collect Hundreds of Millions of Data Points About American Workers

We aggregate hundreds of millions of records on career progression, compensation, and tenure from a wide range of sources.

Step 2

▽

We Assess Workers Across 923 Occupations

We examine workers across all occupations classified by the Department of Labor's O*NET taxonomy.

Step 3

✓

We Only Include Occupations at Companies When We Have Enough Data

Roles at employers are analyzed only when sufficient data exists to support statistically significant conclusions.

2

Data Standardization

Job quality is compared only within the same occupation, using the Department of Labor's O*NET taxonomy — ensuring fair comparisons even across very different types of companies.

Big Data Aggregation

↓

Assessment Across Occupations

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Sufficiency Threshold

Insight

We analyze worker data using proprietary algorithms, enabling an "associate" at Walmart to be classified as a different job from that of an "associate" at McKinsey — but as a similar retail role to a Target "guest services representative." Occupation results are then weighted to reflect each company's actual workforce composition, so a retailer's results reflect far more store associates than accountants.

3

Six Key Metrics

We measure the career progression of workers across every occupation at each assessed employer using six metrics, benchmarked against peers in the same occupation.

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Internal Promotion

Likelihood of being promoted at least once within five years of starting a new role at the company.

↗

Advancement Beyond

Likelihood of moving to another employer for a different job with better compensation within five years.

$

Wage

How well workers are paid compared to others in the same occupation at other employers.

↻

Retention

Share of employees who stay with the employer for at least three years.

🌱

Entry Level

How many people in an occupation at a company were hired with less than three years of experience.

👑

Leaders From Within

Percentage of a company's most-highly paid personnel who rose through the ranks into those jobs.

4

Three Types of Good Jobs

The List is grounded in a belief that employers can create good jobs in three distinct ways — each assessed using a different mix of the six metrics above.

Early-Career

↗

Jobs open to entry-level workers that provide skills and training for internal or external advancement.

Based on

Internal Promotion + Advancement Beyond — only counted if at least 20% of hires in that role are entry level.

Growth

↑

Jobs that provide opportunities to rise internally and externally, especially at firms where leaders rise from within.

Based on

Internal Promotion + Advancement Beyond, with a bonus for companies with high Leaders From Within scores.

Stability

●

Jobs that offer leading pay and see strong employee retention over time.

Based on

Wage + Retention.

5

How Badges Are Awarded

Metric scores are converted to z-scores against same-occupation peers, then rolled up from the occupation level to the company level.

Occupation-level badges

Platinum Score at the 80th percentile or higher for that archetype.

Gold Score between the 60th and 80th percentile for that archetype.

Platinum badges score 1.6 points; Gold badges score 1.2 points — then weighted by how prevalent that occupation is at the company.

Company-level badges

Platinum Top fifth of firms in an archetype (or overall).

Gold Next fifth of firms in an archetype (or overall).

Overall score is a weighted average across the three archetypes, with Early-Career and Growth each weighted 0.75× to account for their overlapping metrics.

6

Coverage & Scope

We assess the U.S.-based workforce of the largest employers using data predominantly from 2019–2024. Companies cannot opt in, pay for placement, or opt out.

1,750

Employers Assessed

~12M

U.S. Workers Observed

923

O*NET Occupations Covered

2019–24

Core Data Window

Source: Where You Work Matters — Methodology, in partnership with the Burning Glass Institute and the Schultz Family Foundation.

Who's building

Where You Work Matters, In Practice

A look at how WYWM ratings and data are showing up in real products — from a standalone career diagnostic to embedded tools inside the platforms job seekers already use.

Built by us · try it now Occupation Explorer Pick a job and compare outcomes at top-rated and lower-rated employers: pay, promotion and retention. A small version of what your app can do with the same data. Open the Explorer →

Career Health Check pay comparison screen

1

Career Health Check

Schultz Family Foundation Burning Glass Institute Built by The Unquantifiable

A prototype diagnostic tool aimed at early-career workers, letting any American worker see how their pay, advancement, and retention compare to others in their occupation — plus how AI is forecast to reshape their field. Phase One delivers a personalized snapshot benchmarked against national data; Phase Two offers four guided pathways depending on whether someone wants to grow in their current role, move employers, change occupations entirely, or address AI-related concerns. The tool will include Hark Audio content to close out each pathway, and will collect emails to re-engage users as new data becomes available.

Launching September

2

Job FitFinder Chrome Extension

Built by Basta

A browser side panel that scores job listings against a user's stated interests, experience, and strengths in real time — right on the hiring site they're already browsing. Matched roles surface a WYWM employer badge alongside an AI-generated "Role Insights" summary, and users can save roles or mark them as applied without leaving the page.

Live

3

SkillUp MyPath Dashboard

Deployed on SkillUp

WYWM editorial content is surfaced directly inside SkillUp's personalized "My Path" dashboard and resource catalog — the landing page users see when they log in — helping job seekers understand why employer quality matters as part of their broader career-readiness journey. An updated list of WYWM-rated employers will also be tagged in SkillUp's job catalog with a WYWM filter, letting users search and filter listings by employer rating.

Launching late June

This is a working draft — case studies will be updated as each integration reaches new milestones.

Build with it

Built to Integrate. Designed to Improve.

A data platform built for distribution and a roadmap built for continuous improvement.

Where You Work Matters is more than a static dataset. Partners can access and integrate the data through a purpose-built platform designed for ongoing use.

For your app

Connect to the MCP server

API keys, the MCP server and REST API, schemas and documentation, and support from prototype to production.

Request developer access Read the docs first

For research

Use the full chat

Work through the data to find and test use cases before you build. Conversations are saved.

Sign up free Open the chat

Built for Integration

Flexible accessCredentialed access through APIs and an MCP server.
Developer-ready infrastructureStructured data, schemas, definitions and technical documentation.
From prototype to productionSupport to explore, test and integrate WYWM into live products.
Ongoing supportData refreshes, versioning, technical support and partner feedback loops.

Built to Keep Getting Better

In partnership with the Burning Glass Institute, we are committed to:

Expanding and strengthening the dataImproving coverage and the depth of employer- and occupation-level signals.
Keeping the data currentMaintaining WYWM as an ongoing source of labor-market intelligence.
Improving through useEvolving the data, documentation and delivery model based on what we learn from real integrations.
Increasing access and distributionMaking these signals easier to embed in the tools people already use.

Our goal is to continuously improve both the intelligence itself and the infrastructure that helps partners put it to use.

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