Making It a Priority: How State Workforce Goals and Higher Education Align

Regional Matters

September 22, 2026

In order to ensure that a state's workforce development infrastructure is prepared to support their workforce needs, states seek to understand and publicize the jobs that will be in future demand. Occupational projections provide a glimpse into aggregate, long-term trends, but states seek more targeted information to align their supply of workers to meet any imminent shifts in demand. Since there is no national standard for how states determine these high-demand jobs, the criteria they choose provide insight into a state's economic and policy goals. Our analysis of the Fifth District shows that states often focus on jobs that are expected to experience occupational growth, earn higher mobility wages, and/or meet certain educational requirements.

With the implementation of Workforce Pell and the recent reemergence of gainful employment regulations, there is increased pressure on higher education institutions - and community colleges in particular - to ensure that programs align with workforce needs. By providing information on occupations in the state that are in high demand or have strong growth potential, state leaders can shape individual decisions on skill development, education, and career pathways. These designations can also be used to help align education, workforce, and economic development policies around common goals.

How Do States Identify High-Priority Occupations?

Fifth District states and jurisdictions take different approaches to identifying and targeting priority occupations: Only South Carolina uses the term "priority occupations." These jobs are called "high-demand occupations" in Virginia and West Virginia; "hot jobs" in Maryland and the District of Columbia; and "Star Jobs" in North Carolina. State leaders determine occupations using current and projected labor shortages by industry and occupation, projected growth, economic mobility, educational requirements, and state policy goals. These state occupation lists overlap with long-term occupational projections but also change more deftly with unexpected shifts (e.g., rapidly changing technology) and thus can better account for gaps between the current supply of workers and the existing demand.

Maryland, South Carolina, and West Virginia provide lists of in-demand jobs without explicitly defining their criteria. The District of Columbia, North Carolina, and Virginia use thresholds related to median annual earnings, job openings, job growth, and typical entry-level education to identify priority occupations. North Carolina employs the most sophisticated method: The state's 13-point score for occupations is based on wages, growth, and demand relative to regional benchmarks. These scores are then adjusted to include educational requirements and future employment outlook. Finally, the scores are converted to a five-star scale: A higher score equates to a higher star, and as a result, a higher priority rating.

Higher Education Programs Can Marry State Priorities With Local Needs

While high-priority job lists are designed to inform job seekers statewide, partnerships between states and local higher education institutions are designed to guide (typically in-state) students into high-demand industries via grants or financial aid. The local nature of community colleges and universities create room for more specificity in the targeted industries. For example, in South Carolina, SCWINS, and in North Carolina, NCBoost, fund students who are pursuing careers in industries that are facing labor shortages. NCBoost also provides wraparound support services to these students to help address the state's shortage of public safety workers, firefighters and paramedics.

Similarly, EARN Maryland's package offers wraparound supports, including transportation and child care. The District of Columbia Career and Technical Education differs from other state programs: The Advanced Technical Center partners with local universities to offer high school students dual credit programs as a way to strengthen workforce pipelines into health care and information technology (IT).

In fact, partnerships across every Fifth District state and the District of Columbia emphasized health care and information technology as priority industries: These fields are in high demand across the country, and community colleges play a critical role in strengthening workforce pipelines.

Where State High-Priority Jobs Lists and Higher Education Partnerships Meet

Programs offered at higher education institutions throughout the Fifth District emphasize health care and IT, and each Fifth District state and jurisdiction prioritizes a list of occupations within these two industries. The specific occupations selected may differ based on the criteria used to determine high-demand jobs. For example, because North Carolina and Virginia emphasize wages, their priority health care jobs may be higher-wage occupations than those in the District of Columbia, Maryland, South Carolina, and West Virginia.

Still, seven occupations in health care and IT were common among at least five of the six Fifth District states and jurisdictions. These occupations are both in demand and high projected growth fields with a range of educational points of entry:

• Computer Network Specialists**
• Dental Hygienists**
• Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses (LPNs)*
• Medical Assistants*
• Nursing Assistants*
• Pharmacy Technicians
• Radiologic Technologists and Technicians**

* Indicates top 10 occupations across at least five of the six Fifth District states and jurisdictions with the highest projected growth (2022-2032). Requires some postsecondary education.

**Indicates top 10 occupations across at least five of the six Fifth District states and jurisdictions with the highest projected growth (2022-2032). Requires an associate degree.

Final Thoughts

While states use different criteria to determine what makes a job high priority, the Fifth District clearly emphasizes future educational entry points, job openings and wages. Establishing a clear path from education to final wage outcome can help workers confidently and effectively plan for their futures. However, the existing gap between high-priority jobs publicized by workforce development offices and in-demand fields advertised by higher education institutions may widen with policies like Workforce Pell. This discrepancy causes confusion and can slow the process of directing the supply of workers to in-demand occupations.

Health care and IT - which emerged as key industries throughout the Fifth District - are examples of fields that are bridging this gap. With clear state funding opportunities for higher education and training, these fields align workforce priorities with educational opportunity and can alleviate some pressure when implementing Workforce Pell. In fact, the first approved Workforce Pell program, an Emergency Medicine Technician course at Iowa Central Community College, is in the health care industry. Even when the path from educational entry points to job openings exists, the wage piece can still be missing. High demand does not always mean high wage, and as states continue to develop their priorities for workforce development, this remains a key criterion of interest.

Views expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond or the Federal Reserve System.