A public-private-community solution initiated by the Mayor’s Office of New Bostonians and committed to expanding the long-term capacity to meet the demand for English classes

1. English at Work: An Investment
in the Massachusetts Workforce
A public-private-community solution initiated by the Mayor’s
Office of New Bostonians and committed to expanding the
long-term capacity to meet the demand for English classes
Special thanks to the Boston Redevelopment Authority, Research Division

2. ESOL is a sound investment if your business or
industry:
• Relies on a limited English proficient (LEP)
workforce
• Expects job growth
• Needs a prepared workforce pipeline
• Requires good communications
• Depends on good customer service

3. Key industries in the Metro Boston region rely on the limited
English proficient (LEP) workforce
Sector % of total
LEP
Workforce
Sector as % of
total workforce
Hospitality 19% 5%
Manufacturing 17% 10%
Healthcare 10% 13%
Admin, Support, Waste Mgmt,
Remediation
10% 3%
Retail Trade 9% 10%
Educational Services 5% 11%
Professional, Scientific, and Technical 3% 11%
Construction 4% 5%
Transportation and Warehousing 3% 4%

4. Industries in MA with Currently High Job Vacancies
Number of
Vacancies
Total Job Vacancies in
MA
86,296
Healthcare 19,150
Hospitality 11,030
Retail Trade 10,540
Manufacturing 6,340Source: Massachusetts Department of Workforce Development’s Massachusetts Job
Vacancy Survey 2nd
Quarter 2006

5. Key Characteristics of Occupations by Language Skill
Requirements – All Industries
Proportion
of Total Jobs
Low
Medium
Low
Medium
High
High
24% 29% 27% 15%
$26,678 $68,287$51,886$33,732
Average
Salary
Language
Skill Levels
Source: O*NET; Boston Redevelopment Authority and the Center for Urban and Regional Policy at Northeastern University

6. Today, over half of the jobs can be accessed with low English skills.
by 2014, three-fourths of projected new jobs will require at least Medium levels.
Hospitality Workforce Trends
26%
57%
37%
36%
31%
5%
5%
0% 25% 50% 75% 100%
New Jobs
Current Jobs
Low
Medium
Low
Medium
High
High
English
Skill Level
Source: O*NET; Boston Redevelopment Authority and the Center for Urban and Regional Policy at Northeastern University,
and the Massachusetts Dept of Unemployment Assistance

7. 8%
6% 23%
37%22%
36% 30%
33%
0% 25% 50% 75% 100%
New Jobs
Current Jobs
Today, few jobs can be accessed with low English skills. Current trends will continue as new
jobs require higher English skill levels.
Healthcare Workforce Trends
Low
Medium
Low
Medium
High
HighLow
Medium
Low
Medium
High
High
English Skill
Level
Source: O*NET; Boston Redevelopment Authority and the Center for Urban and Regional Policy at Northeastern University,
and the Massachusetts Dept of Unemployment Assistance

8. -2%
39%
20%
27%
36%
23% 5%
30%
-25% 0% 25% 50% 75% 100%
New Jobs
Current Jobs
All projected new jobs in manufacturing will require higher
English skills
Manufacturing Workforce Trends
Low
Medium
Low
Medium
High
HighLow
Medium
Low
Medium
High
High
English Skill
Level
Source: O*NET; Boston Redevelopment Authority and the Center for Urban and Regional Policy at Northeastern University,
and the Massachusetts Dept of Unemployment Assistance

9. Increasing English skills in the workforce is a
challenge shared by government,
businesses, labor, and communities.
A shared solution requires:
• Leadership
• Investment
• Attention to quality

10. The new Administration has the opportunity to:
• Focus new and existing resources, planning,
and training on the delivery of high-quality
ESOL and adult education at the workplace and
to working adults.
• Help build system capacity to deliver high
quality workplace-based ESOL.

11. For more information, contact:
Claudia Green
Project Director, English for New Bostonians
cgreen@miracoalition.org
(617) 350-5480 ext 203

12. • Occupational distribution based on national data. Occupations
making up less than 0.2% of the industry employment were omitted.
Occupational titles excluded from state employment projections were
dropped from this analysis.
• Source: O*NET; Boston Redevelopment Authority and the Center for
Urban and Regional Policy at Northeastern University, and
Massachusetts Department of Unemployment Assistance (DUA)
projections.
Notes

13. Notes on Language Skills Quartiles
Using the Occupational Information Network (O*NET), we estimated language skill requirements by occupational title. O*NET
has detailed skills descriptions for approximately 800 different occupational titles. In order to estimate language skill
requirements we selected three “language-based” variables--speaking, writing, and reading comprehension
• These variables are measured on two separate Likert scales.
• Incumbents are asked to rate how important a particular skill is in doing their current job on a 1-5 scale, as well as what level
of that skill is needed in doing their current job 1-7 scale.
• The higher the score on the scale, the more important language skills are in performing jobs tasks within the selected
occupation
• We tested the reliability within and between each language skill.
• The results showed that occupations that were given high scores for each variable on “importance” also were given high
scores on “level”. In addition, occupations given high scores on one of the language-based variables received high scores on
the other language-based variables.
• We aggregated the three “language-based” variables into one variables called---”language skills”
• Again---the higher the score on the variable, the more important language proficiency is to performing the job.
• Next, we split the language skills variable into 4 categories, or quartiles, of “skill”: Low, Medium-low, Medium-high, and High.
The occupations scoring in the lowest 25% of language skill requirements were placed on the “Low” category, occupations
scoring between 26% and 50% were placed on the “Medium-low” category and so on.