The 10 Best Companies for Advancing Your Career

Employees are in excessive demand today. U.S. employers added 263,000 jobs in November, solely a slight drop from October’s variety of 284,000. And whereas unemployment stayed unchanged at 3.7%, wages are 5.1% larger than a yr in the past, The New York Times reports.

Not each employee can have their selection of status corporations. But it surely’s all the time good to know what’s on the market, and which corporations have reputations for serving to employees transfer ahead. A latest report, the American Opportunity Index, examined wage knowledge and job postings at 250 of the biggest U.S. corporations. The aim was to find out which supplied the best job-growth alternatives obtainable to employees each with or with out faculty levels.

The index makes use of 9 metrics in three classes to evaluate the extent of alternative supplied to employees. Researchers examined entry to work, upward mobility choices and pay.

“We imagine that these three dimensions are the important thing determinants of alternative creation: Employees want to have the ability to get on the ladder, earn sufficient to remain on the ladder, and transfer up the ladder,” the report’s introduction states.

Right here’s a have a look at the highest corporations on that record.

10. Southwest Airways

Not solely is Southwest Airlines a serious U.S. air provider, it’s the biggest low-cost provider on the earth, using greater than 55,000 folks. The 50-year outdated airline topped the transportation sector within the American Alternative Index, the one airline to make the top 30.

It earned reward for profession stability, profession progress, rising expertise and development with out a diploma. And, regardless of all of the turbulence within the airline business, Southwest has never had a layoff.

Even with all these workers, although, many shoppers had been outraged by the massive number of flight cancellations this holiday season — which Southwest attributed to staffing shortages and dated expertise.

9. Worldwide Paper

International Paper‘s title says all of it — it’s the world’s largest pulp and paper firm.

The American Alternative Index ranked it excessive for profession progress and profession stability. It has received different honors, too, not too long ago putting at No. 29 out of 100 on Foundry’s Computerworld’s record of the best places to work in IT.

8. Liberty Mutual

Boston-based Liberty Mutual is a world insurance coverage firm and the sixth-largest property and casualty insurer within the U.S. The nonprofit group Volunteers of America recently highlighted the corporate for paying its workers to do volunteer work, with a particular concentrate on psychological well being, meals and housing insecurity and youth homelessness.

The American Alternative Index scored Liberty Mutual excessive for rising expertise, development with out a diploma and as a profession launchpad. Actually, the index notes that more than 80% of managerial positions are crammed by inner workers.

7. HF Sinclair

HF Sinclair Corporation, a Dallas-based diversified vitality firm, took the No. 7 spot on the index.

Whereas it’s one of many smaller corporations on the record, with simply 4,200 workers, it ranked excessive for rising expertise and was cited as an organization the place workers can advance without a college degree. It’s the top-ranked firm within the oil, gasoline and mining sector.

6. Fiserv

The “fi” in “Fiserv” comes from “monetary,” because it supplies monetary expertise companies to shoppers throughout the monetary companies sector. The Wisconsin-based firm was ranked No. 6 general on the index, but it surely took the highest spot within the enterprise companies sector and was No. 2 in expertise, the place it’s behind solely world large Microsoft.

Fiserv scored properly for profession stability, as a profession launchpad and for development with out a diploma. And it has formidable plans to broaden its revenue margin within the fourth quarter, its CEO said in December 2022.

5. Microsoft

Powerhouse expertise firm Microsoft scored excessive for profession stability, rising expertise and development with out a diploma.

Imagine it or not, co-founder Invoice Gates, now operating the Invoice & Melinda Gates Basis, additionally superior with out a diploma — he dropped out of Harvard after two years and began the corporate along with his buddy Paul Allen.

4. PG&E

PG&E, or Pacific Fuel and Electrical Firm, is an American investor-owned utility offering pure gasoline and electrical energy. It companies 5.5 million electrical accounts and 4.5 million pure gasoline accounts in Northern and Central California. The corporate earned its No. 4 spot on the index due to excelling in profession stability, as a profession launchpad and for development with out a diploma.

3. Cisco Techniques

Cisco Systems is a expertise conglomerate that develops, manufactures and sells networking {hardware}, software program, telecommunications tools and different high-tech companies and merchandise.

The American Alternative Index ranked it excessive for rising expertise, profession stability, as a profession launchpad and for development with out a diploma. Along with its excessive rank right here, it topped Fortune’s record of the 100 best companies to work for in both 2021 and 2022.

2. American Categorical

You most likely can image the inexperienced American Categorical card, or keep in mind its “don’t depart house with out them” traveler’s verify slogan (later modified to “don’t leave home without it,” and used for the cardboard).

American Express is a multinational company specializing in fee card companies. Along with rating No. 2 general, it topped the index’s funds and banks and lenders sectors, and was highlighted for rising expertise and development with out a diploma.

1. AT&T

And at No. 1 on the index is AT&T, the multinational telecommunications holding firm.

It’s the world’s largest telecommunications firm by income and the third-largest supplier of cell phone companies within the U.S. The index scored AT&T particularly properly for profession progress, as a profession launchpad, for rising expertise and for development with out a diploma.

Actually, AT&T senior executive vice president Angela Santone said that lower than 5% of the corporate’s positions require a university diploma. And the corporate is rising: Fortune reports that AT&T added 3.2 million telephone subscribers in 2021, “a tally that exceeded its internet new clients gained within the earlier 10 years mixed.”