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The WCPC's Poverty Research Flash series disseminates summaries of recent poverty-relevant research by Center Faculty Affiliates, grantees, and others associated with the WCPC community. We occasionally also post interviews with authors about how they became interested in the research topic, the most significant findings in the study, and implications for further research and policy.

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See our Poverty Research Flash Archive for past issues in the series.

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December 2012 POVERTY RESEARCH FLASH

Shared Skills: Occupation Clusters for Poverty Alleviation and Economic Development in the U.S.

Using national-level data on occupational characteristics, former WCPC Dissertation Fellowship Recipient Colleen Chrisinger (now an Assistant Professor of Planning, Public Policy, and Management at the University of Oregon) and colleagues Christopher S. Fowler and Rachel G. Kleit identified 25 occupation clusters based on similarities in job tasks, skills, interests, values, and knowledge. The resulting clusters include diverse occupations and indicate that occupational groups might be better understood in terms of job skills and worker knowledge characteristics, rather than industry or product. Chrisinger et. al argue that using these occupation clusters in economic development efforts could help define possible career paths within clusters and across industries, as well as identify potential avenues of upward mobility for low-income workers.  Read more here.