Abstract
Vocational interest assessments are widely used to determine which jobs might be a good fit for people. However, showing a good fit to particular jobs does not necessarily mean that those jobs are available. In this respect, little is known about the alignment between people’s vocational interests and national labor demands. The current study used a national dataset comprising 1.21 million United States residents to investigate this issue empirically. Results revealed three major findings. First, around two-thirds of people were most interested in people-oriented jobs (i.e., artistic, social, or enterprising interests), with the remaining one-third being most interested in things-oriented jobs (i.e., realistic, investigative, or conventional interests). Second, the distribution of people’s interests did not align with U.S. job demands in 2014, 2019, and 2029 (projections), revealing large gaps between interest supply and demand. Notably, the most popular interest among people (artistic) was the least demanded among jobs, whereas the least popular interest among people (conventional) was highly demanded among jobs. Third, interest gaps were generally larger at lower education levels, indicating that higher education can provide more opportunities to achieve interest fit at work. We integrate these findings to discuss implications for individuals, organizations, and career guidance practitioners aimed at better coordinating people’s interests with available jobs to promote individual career success and national workforce readiness.
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Notes
The year 2010 was chosen for Census data because it approximates the middle of the interval (2005–2014) in which interest data was collected. In addition, the complete Census is only conducted every ten years.
Job zone 1 occupations require little-to-no experience; and in the current study, these jobs were matched to participants who had less than a high school degree. Job zone 2 occupations require a high school diploma, which was matched to participants with a high school diploma. Job zone 3 occupations typically require some college or a community college degree; in the current study, this included participants who had obtained a trade/technical school degree, an Associate’s degree, some college, or a community college degree. Job zone 4 occupations typically require a 4-year college degree, which was matched to those with a Bachelor’s degree. Finally, job zone 5 occupations require a graduate degree; this included participants with a Master’s, Doctoral, or Professional degree.
Note that the average degree of fit between employed participants’ and their reported occupation (r = .20) was greater than the average degree of fit between all participants and all occupations (r = − .02) because individuals tend to self-select into occupations based on their interests.
Fig. 2 
Examining interest supply and demand using profile correlations. Note. Total N = 1,208,465. To estimate these distributions, each participant’s RIASEC interest profile was correlated with each O*NET occupation. Then, occupations were organized based on their RIASEC high-point code, such that the red bars display the distributions of participants showing different levels of profile-based fit with all of the occupations in each RIASEC category. The vertical, dotted blue line represents the average degree of fit between employed participants in the sample and their occupation (r = .20)
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Data Transparency Appendix
Data Transparency Appendix
The vocational interest dataset reported in this manuscript was included in one published study (Morris, 2016), as well as one submitted study under review (Hoff et al., 2024). The table below displays the variables used in the current study (Hoff et al., 2024) and how they differ from the other studies. To summarize, the current study has a unique focus on the popularity of RIASEC interest profiles which have not yet been analyzed using this dataset. In addition, we collected and aggregated an extensive amount of information about the interest profiles of jobs in the U.S. labor market using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and O*NET (which is also unique to this manuscript). More generally, no results from the current manuscript overlap with any other manuscript, with exception of basic descriptive information about the data collection procedure and measures. MS1 was published in 2016 and focused on demographic differences in mean interest scores, but does not contain any information about the popularity of interest profiles. MS3 focuses on gender differences in basic interest scales, which are distinct from the RIASEC scales used in the current study.
Note that in the table below, the O*NET Occupational Interest Profiles and Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Data come from publicly available datasets that were linked and aggregated for use in the current study. All other variables are from the proprietary vocational interest dataset owned by the The Myers Briggs Company.
Description of sample variables used in previous, current, and planned work
Variables in Complete Dataset | MS 1 (STATUS = Pub) | MS 2 (STATUS = Current) | MS 3 (STATUS = Under review) |
|---|---|---|---|
Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Data | X | ||
O*NET Occupational Interest Profiles | X | ||
RIASEC Interest Profiles | X | ||
RIASEC Interest Mean scores | X | ||
Basic interests | X | ||
Current Occupation | X | ||
Gender | X | X | X |
Ethnicity | X | X | X |
Education | X | X | |
Age | X | X | X |
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Hoff, K.A., Granillo-Velasquez, K.E., Hanna, A. et al. Interest Gaps in the Labor Market: Comparing People’s Vocational Interests with National Job Demands. J Bus Psychol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-024-09945-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-024-09945-8