Job quality is as important as job quantity.

Economists, policymakers and financial market participants have been using the U.S. Private Sector Job Quality Index (JQI) since 2019 to assess job quality in the United States. Now, this acclaimed index has a new home under the management of UB.

The JQI assesses job quality in the U.S. by measuring desirable higher-wage/higher-hour jobs versus lower-wage/lower-hour jobs. The JQI results also may serve as an indicator of the overall health of the U.S. jobs market because the index enables regular tracking of the direction and degree of change in high-to-low job composition.

“Regular headline employment data, such as unemployment rate and the total job formation, doesn’t tell the whole story,” explains Cristian Tiu, associate professor and chair of the Department of Finance in the School of Management. “The truth is that a lot of American jobs don’t pay well, and when measured in relative weekly income have been declining in quality for at least three decades.”

Enter the JQI, which, together with its companion release — the JQInstant — provides a way of tracking the actual quality of jobs in real time as employment data is released by the U.S government — like a monthly report card on how jobs are really doing in the U.S.

UB’s JQI team is led by faculty and graduate students from the School of Management, in collaboration with faculty from the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Law, as well as affiliated adjunct...

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