The Impact of Manufacturing Credentials on Earnings and the Probability of Employment

Bibliographic Data

ID5086524
AuthorsVanessa Brown (0000-0002-3622-7835), Gardner Carrick, Maggie R Jones (0000-0002-6066-383X, corresponding author), Nikolas Pharris-Ciurej (0009-0009-3339-6826), John Voorheis (0000-0001-5643-8800), Caroline Walker (0000-0003-4586-8578, Vanessa Brown is Deputy Chief Data Officer, retired, at National Student Clearinghouse. Gardner Carrick is Chief Program Officer at the National Association of Manufacturers. Maggie R. Jones is Principal Economist at the U.S. Census Bureau. Nikolas Pharris-Ciurej is Assistant Center Chief, Demographic Research Area, Center for Economic Studies, at the U.S. Census Bureau. John Voorheis is Principal Economist at the U.S. Census Bureau. Caroline Walker is Economist at the U.S. Census Bureau)
Year2024
Volume77
Issue4
Pages535-561
Publication date2024-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueIndustrial and Labor Relations Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0019-7939 • E-ISSN: 2162-271X
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/00197939241256871
OpenAlexW4399551217
LanguageEN
References cited27

This article examines the labor market returns to earning industry-certified credentials in the manufacturing sector. Specifically, the authors are interested in estimating the impact of a manufacturing credential on earnings and probability of employment, both overall and within the pre- and post-credential industry of employment. They link students who earned manufacturing credentials to their educational enrollment and completion records, and then further link them to IRS tax records for earnings and employment and to the American Community Survey and decennial census for demographic information. Earnings trajectories are presented for workers with credentials by demographic group, including age, race/ethnicity, gender, and educational attainment. To obtain more causal estimates of the labor market impacts of credentials, the authors implement a coarsened exact matching strategy to compare outcomes between otherwise similar people with and without credentials. Findings show that the attainment of a manufacturing industry credential is associated with increasingly higher earnings and a higher likelihood of labor market participation

American Community Survey · Business · Census · Certification · Credential · Demographic economics · Earnings · Economic growth · Economics · Educational attainment · Labour economics · Matching (statistics) · Political science · Population · Propensity score matching · Finance · Labor market dynamics and wage inequality · Occupational and Professional Licensing Regulation · Retirement, Disability, and Employment