Data Documentation

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) maintains the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system, a federal statistical standard used by federal agencies to classify workers into occupational categories for the purpose of collecting, calculating or disseminating data. Pathfinder uses this system to source occupations, descriptions and corresponding Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) codes.

Work Experience, Training and Education levels required is also provided by BLS product and reflects generalized requirements on a national level.

Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) data produced by the Michigan Bureau of Labor Market Information and Strategic Initiatives (LMISI) in cooperation with BLS, produces employment and wage estimates annually.

The Employment Projections program provides annual openings and projected growth for occupations during a 10-year period. This data is produced by LMISI in cooperation with the U.S. Employment and Training Administration.

Occupational Wage and Employment Projections data are specific to Michigan, while education and training requirements are measured at the national level.

Wage rank — Shows the median wage percentile rank for the given occupations among all occupations published in the OEWS data series.

Openings rank — Shows the percentile rank of annual openings over the 10-year projection period for the given occupations among all occupations published in the Employment Projections data series.

Growth rank — Shows the percentile rank of 10-year projected percent growth for the given occupations among all occupations published in the Employment Projections data series.

Wage range — Shows the 10th, 50th (median) and 90th percentile wages for the given occupation from the OEWS data series.

Projected annual openings — Shows the projected number of annual openings for the given occupations from the Employment Projections program during the 10-year projection period. This number includes openings that stem from the need to replace workers who leave the occupation and growth openings due to new positions becoming available.

Projected growth — Shows the projected percent growth for the given occupation during the 10-year projection period. The source of this data is the Employment Projections program.

Typical education required — Shows the typical education needed for entry for the given occupation (nationally) as determined by BLS.

Typical training required — Shows the typical on-the-job training needed to attain competency for the given occupation (nationally) as determined by BLS.

Typical Work experience — Shows the typical work experience in a related occupation for the given occupation (nationally) as determined by the BLS.

Licenses, certifications and other credentials issued by most State of Michigan departments and agencies have been integrated to provide preliminary information on the impacts of licensing on employment and identify credential attainment metrics. The data provided comes from information provided to the national Credential Registry and displayed to the public on the CredentialFinder website. The credential name, description and type are shared as listed by the organization, as well as their website to offer further information. The credentials are connected to relevant occupations by their issuers and are represented on Pathfinder at the inclusive five-digit broad occupation SOC code.

Some departments have chosen to share licensee information. If this data has been supplied, an additional section with metrics specific to this license have been calculated to include the:

• Licenses Issued — Number of active licenses for a given calendar year (removed from this count if revoked, expired, or cancelled at the time of their fourth quarter employment)
• Percentage Employed — Of those licensed, the percentage found as employed in their fourth quarter after the license issue date
• Top 5 Industries — Of those employed, the top five industries of the employer(s) of record are displayed.

The Fall 2024 update will include licensees active during January-December 2022.

School data is obtained from the following sources:

• College Scorecard
• Center for Educational Performance and Information
• Michigan Department of Education - Career and Technical Education (high school career and technical education schools and programs)
• Michigan Training Connect(for schools and programs not submitted to CEPI)

Postsecondary education records from the Michigan Center for Educational Performance and Information (CEPI) and unemployment insurance wage record data are joined to calculate the measures below for each combination of 2- and 6-digit Classification of Instructional Program (CIP), award level and school. Cohorts of three years of awardees are used to calculate one year and five years after completion metrics for each school-program combination. For these calculations, the three most recent cohorts available with data for one year and five years after program completion are used, meaning the one-year and five-year calculations are not created using the same group of individuals.

For example, the fall 2024 update will include the 2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22 school-program completer cohorts to provide metrics for one year after completion. The most current school year cannot be used because full wage records are not available at the time the data is prepared for the system update. Statistics for five years after graduation are calculated using the pool of individuals who completed the program in 2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18.

Statewide Median Wages of Degree Level — The median wage of all programs at this award level are shown for comparison to the chosen degree level.

Typical Time from Completion to Employment — The time between the date of award and employment for program completers found in Michigan employment records.

• This variable is provided in terms of days, but is calculated using quarterly wage record data, which does not indicate date of hiring. The middle day of the quarter is used, and aggregate time from completion to employment is calculated using this date.

Employment for those not continuing Education (Year 1 and 5) — The percentage of program completers that are employed in Michigan four and twenty quarters (i.e. one year and five years) after award date.

• This measure excludes those individuals who have earned a higher award after program completion or are currently enrolled in post-secondary education. To be counted as employed, an individual must have an amount recorded in Michigan wage record data above zero dollars.

Licensed Employment (Year 1 only) — The percentage of program completers that are employed in Michigan four quarters (i.e. one year) after award date and are found as licensed in related credentials offered by state of Michigan departments.

• This measure excludes those individuals who have earned a higher award after program completion or are currently enrolled in post-secondary education. To be counted as employed, an individual must have an amount recorded in Michigan wage record data above zero dollars.

Median Salary (Year 1 and 5) — The annualized, inflation-adjusted median quarterly wage of program completers four and twenty quarters (i.e. one year and five years) after completion, multiplied by four to obtain a yearly salary figure.

• This measure excludes those individuals who have earned a higher award after program completion or are currently enrolled in post-secondary education.

Licensed Median Salary (Year 1) — The annualized, inflation-adjusted median quarterly wage of program completers that are employed in Michigan four quarters (i.e. one year) after award date, are licensed in related credentials offered by state of Michigan departments, multiplied by four to obtain a yearly salary figure.

• This measure excludes those individuals who have earned a higher award after program completion or are currently enrolled in post-secondary education.

Earned Higher Degree (Year 1 and 5) — The percentage of program completers that earned a higher award in or prior to the fourth or twentieth quarter (i.e. one year or five years) after this program completion.

• Enrolled in Post-Secondary Education (Year 1 and 5) — The percentage of program completers in this cohort that were enrolled at an institution of higher education in the fourth or twentieth quarter (i.e. one year or five years) after this program completion.
• Employed in Michigan (Year 1 and 5) — The percentage of program completers that: a) have not earned a higher award, b) are not enrolled at an institution of higher education in the respective quarter, and c) are employed in Michigan at the specified quarter.
• Other — All other outcomes not reflected above. Notable examples of such cases include those completers that are employed outside of Michigan and those that are not employed.

Return on Investment (ROI) is a methodology for determining the monetary value of completing a higher education program. Students, parents and counselors can use ROI to make informed decisions regarding a student's career pathway. The Pathfinder ROI tool is useful in comparing the relative value of programs as well as in measuring the expected monetary benefit of a selected program of study.

For awards up to the bachelor's degree level In Pathfinder, ROI is defined as the present value of a 30-year stream of wages for a college graduate, less:

• The estimated total net price of the degree program;
• The present value of a 30-year stream of wages for a high school graduate with no additional education;
• The opportunity cost, measured in foregone wages, incurred by attending college.

For awards after a bachelor's degree level In Pathfinder, ROI is defined as the present value of a 30-year stream of wages for a college graduate, less:

• The estimated total net price of the degree program;
• The present value of a 30-year stream of wages for a bachelor's degree graduate with no additional education;
• The opportunity cost, measured in foregone wages, incurred by attending college.

In summary, ROI can be interpreted as measuring how much more a college degree is worth, on average, than a high school diploma, or bachelor's degree, over the first 30 years of the working life of an individual.

Median wages are calculated from available wages for individuals with data for each 2- and 6-digit Classification of Instructional Program (CIP), award level and school combination, denoted “program” in this documentation. ROI is suppressed for programs with less than five wage records associated with it.

To form wages for each year after the second year, the following algorithm is employed. Wage growth rates are calculated for each individual by taking the ratio of wages in a particular year with those of the prior year. The median growth rate is computed for the first of the following to have at least ten observations in each of the two years:

CIP, award level and school;

CIP and Award Level across all schools; and

Award level and school across all CIPs.

For cases which have less than 10 observations, a default growth rate is used; this default rate is described below. The median growth rate is applied to the program's calculated previous year wage to obtain estimated subsequent wages.

Due to data limitations, records are not available for cohorts prior to 2009. Therefore, U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) five-year estimates for 2016-2020 are used to calculate growth rates by award level. All ACS respondents report their earnings from work as well as their level of education. Individuals with negative earnings, zero reported weeks worked over the past 12 months, and individuals with an income value imputed by Census are all excluded.

ACS data are collapsed by five-year age groups and award level to obtain median wages by these two categories. Age groupings are used to minimize variance in earnings year-to-year. Since this dataset is cross-sectional, growth rates can only be estimated with the assumption that earnings over a worker's career are approximately equal to the earnings of different individuals at different points in their career. Additionally, an individual's graduation age cannot be observed. The following ages are assumed for graduates: 20 years of age for a high school diploma, 22 years of age for associate degrees, 24 years of age for bachelor's degrees, 26 years of age for master's degrees, 28 years of age for professional degrees and 30 years of age for doctorate degrees. With these assumptions in place, growth rates are calculated in the manner described above.

The present value of the calculated wage stream is computed for each program using a discount rate based on the 30-year Treasury bond auction rate at the time of calculation. The same discount rate is applied to the wage stream of the median high school graduate from the collapsed ACS data to obtain the present value of the 30-year wage stream of a high school graduate.

To compute the present value of a high school degree as well as the opportunity cost of attaining a post-secondary award, it is necessary to define the timeline over which to calculate each. The opportunity cost of obtaining an award is the value of foregone wages an individual could have obtained had s/he not enrolled in post-secondary education; as such, the median wage for high school graduates for ages 18 to the graduation age is taken from the ACS to approximate this value.

As a measure of cost, Pathfinder uses the average institutional net price provided by the U.S. Department of Education's Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. This measure takes the total cost of attendance minus the average amount of federal, state, local or institutional grants and scholarships. The net price is multiplied by the typical number of years to obtain a degree: one year for a certificate, two years for an associate degree, and four years for a bachelor's degree.

The ROI is then calculated as the present value of the calculated wage stream minus the present value of a high school degree, less the opportunity cost of attending college, minus the cost of obtaining the degree. The US Department of Education does not provide this information for award levels beyond a bachelor's degree.

For levels of education beyond a bachelor's degree, a similar method is used, but the basis of comparison is the average individual with a bachelor's degree rather than an individual with a high school diploma. The 30-year wage stream is calculated for the average bachelor's degree holder and subtracted from the Treasury bond-discounted 30-year wage stream for the master's degree, postsecondary certificate or doctoral degree, depending on which level is being calculated. Opportunity cost is expressed as the earnings forgone by the average bachelor's degree holder over several years in accordance with the degree level of comparison (one year of wages for a postsecondary certificate, two for a master's degree, and four for a doctoral degree). Because data is not available for average cost of post-baccalaureate degrees, the average cost of a year of bachelor's degree program is multiplied by the program length of the degree level for which the ROI calculation is taking place. ROI beyond bachelor's degree is then calculated using these ROI formula inputs, each analogous to the ROI calculation for a bachelor's degree.

All data in Pathfinder is updated once yearly to include any source updates as available. Programs provided via connection to Michigan Training Connect (MiTC) occurs daily. Programs displayed in this tool are not meant to be representative of all educational programs available at all institutions in Michigan.