Aligning Oregon's Higher Education with a Changing Labor Market: Job Polarization and the Evolving Role of the Community College

57 pagesThis thesis first analyzes the Oregon labor market over the last decade to determine the impact of job polarization, and then analyzes changes in Oregon community college completions to observe student and program trends. Many of the occupations that community college students are prepared for are classified as “middle skill” due to the routine and manual qualities associated with their labor. Therefore, community colleges must be aware of the impact of job polarization, a theory that associates improving technology with a rising demand for high-skilled and least-skilled labor, but a relative falling demand for middle-skill labor. While there is minimal evidence of job polarization in Oregon, this thesis does find a decline in demand for middle-skill workers accompanied by an increase in demand for high-skill workers. Meanwhile, I find that community college students shifted away from programs associated with middle-skill occupations, and towards programs associated with transferring for an advanced degree. Using these results, this report intends to help community colleges determine which programs to invest further resources in so that their students are best prepared to succeed in the Oregon labor market