Using Technology to Improve Labor Markets (UTIL)

The UTIL research group is a small team of researchers and engineers to build new labor market tools and experimentally test how they work. These applications interact with live web services and data feeds and in-person job services. Selected projects of UTIL team members include:

NextUp Jobs

This intervention provides workers information on occupations offering relatively high wages and strong employment growth conditional on their past labor market experience, education, and preferences. We identify these occupations by estimating machine learning models on data that detail the transitions made by workers in the labor market. Workers access this information through a user-friendly website and smartphone app that we have built called NextUp Jobs.

Michigan Pathways Search Tool

This intervention provides community college students an online tool to compare program length and cost, as well as expected earnings and job amenities for different community college majors. Students can adjust which features of jobs they care about the most to help them find the best program for them.

Our Team

Alex Bartik

Is is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who studies how labor markets work and how policy and technology can help make them work better.

Bryan Stuart

Is a Senior Economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia and a Research Affiliate at IZA.
His research focuses on how economic opportunity is shaped by recessions, migration, and government policy.