Opportunity Data is built around a simple premise: the information that matters most for choosing a workforce program is rarely presented in a form that supports good decisions.
Earnings data exists. Outcome records exist. But they are scattered across datasets, buried in technical tables, or collapsed into a single summary number that obscures more than it reveals. A student trying to understand what a certificate might mean for their career five or ten years out has almost nowhere to turn.
This project is an effort to change that.
Built with students in mind
The primary audience for Opportunity Data is the prospective student. Someone weighing whether to enroll in a welding program or a medical assisting certificate. Someone trying to understand not just what the average graduate earns, but how much outcomes vary, how earnings grow over time, and where the data is too thin to draw conclusions at all.
That means the data has to be presented clearly, honestly, and in a form that is ready for decision-making. Not as raw tables or academic output, but as interactive tools that answer the questions people actually ask:
- What do graduates of this program earn at Year 1, Year 5, Year 10?
- How wide is the spread between the 25th and 75th percentile?
- Does this program show sustained earnings growth, or does it plateau?
- How much of the data is actually observable, and how much is suppressed?
Useful to all stakeholders
While the student perspective drives the design, the same data and analysis serve other audiences equally well. Institutional leaders evaluating their program portfolio. State workforce boards allocating training funds. Policymakers weighing accountability frameworks. Researchers studying labor market returns to sub-baccalaureate credentials.
Each of these stakeholders benefits from seeing the same underlying structure: trajectories, not snapshots. Distributions, not averages. Transparent coverage, not silent omissions.
What we provide
Opportunity Data currently focuses on short-term certificate programs (less than one year) using the U.S. Census Bureau's Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes (PSEO) dataset. This includes earnings at the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles at 1, 5, and 10 years after graduation, spanning 25 states and more than 500 institutions.
The interactive earnings explorer lets you select any state and institution to see:
- Earnings spread charts showing the full P25 to P75 range at each time horizon
- Career ladder visualizations tracing median earnings progression with shaded variance bands
- Complete data tables with export functionality
- Transparent reporting of data suppression and coverage gaps
The analysis section includes a Colorado case study examining how these patterns play out across a single state, and a technical discussion of data suppression explaining why a substantial share of programs have no reportable outcomes.
More to come
This project is actively expanding. Additional states, program types, and analytical tools are in development. Future work will include comparative analysis across credential levels, deeper investigation of earnings variance as a measure of program risk, and tools that help users benchmark programs against regional labor market conditions.
If you have questions, suggestions, or would like to collaborate, please reach out.
Opportunity Data is an independent research project by Benazir Rowe, PhD. Data sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes (PSEO), 2025Q4 release. All earnings figures in 2023 dollars (CPI-U adjusted).