Choosing Your Future in 2020

For high school seniors, picking a career path is a big choice that is often filled with stress and uncertainty. This is usually the point where young adults have to make decisions that match their interests, skills, and goals with real job possibilities. The project was designed with high school seniors in mind, and it gives them a real-world look at what they can expect from different job paths. It gives direction to high school students who are at a crossroads.

I worked on this dashboard as a Research Analyst at Maven Careers, a non-profit organisation helping high school seniors find their career paths and tasked with the following objectives:

• To equip high school seniors with comprehensive, up-to-date information in 2020, on employment trends and wage levels across various industries, enabling informed career decisions.
• To highlight key trends within various industries (2017 - 2020).
• To offer a comparative analysis of average wages and employment rates across industries.

Findings

Employee Trends by Industry and Year:

• A noticeable decline in employees in the Leisure & Hospitality industry between 2019 and 2020, from 16.2 million to 12.7 million.
• Trade & Transportation and Education & Health maintained their positions as the industries with the highest number of employees throughout the years, although there was a slight decrease across most industries from 2019 to 2020.
• Natural Resources showed a relatively stable employee count with a slight decrease in 2020, reflecting stability in employment levels despite economic fluctuations.

Wage Trends by Industry and Year:

• There was consistent wage increases across all industries from 2017 to 2020, with Finance and Information showing the most significant jumps. For instance, Finance wages rose from an average of $77K in 2017 to $90K in 2020, and Information from $75K to $93K in the same period, highlighting the growing value and demand for these industries.
• Leisure & Hospitality showed the lowest wage increases but maintained a steady upward trend, underscoring the persistent wage growth challenges in this industry.
• The Construction, Manufacturing, and Natural Resources industries showed moderate but steady wage increases, indicative of ongoing industry growth and possibly increasing skill requirements.

Average Annual Wages by Industry:

• Finance ($82K) and Information ($83K) industries offered the highest average annual wages, underscoring the high-value and specialized nature of work in these industries.
• The Leisure & Hospitality industry had the lowest average annual wage at $22K, highlighting the industry's lower wage scales.
• The Natural Resources industry's average wage was $54K, placing it in the mid-range across industries, suggesting a balance between specialized and general labor demands.