March 25, 2026
Community colleges can use real-time labor market data, program data, and learner voice to align programs with high-wage, high-growth jobs and advance equitable economic mobility, as demonstrated in North Carolina.
For many learners, including Black learners and other learners facing barriers to economic advancement, the promise of higher education as a path to economic mobility remains unfulfilled (PDF). Community colleges are in a position to change that and expand economic mobility opportunities for all learners by aligning their program offerings with the real-world needs of their local economies.
To do that, postsecondary institutions, and community colleges in particular, can use real-time labor market information (LMI) to get a dynamic picture of their regional labor markets that will help them build a bridge from education to employment in fields that offer quality jobs and opportunities for economic advancement.
LMI encompasses data from all sources of information related to workforce patterns, including census, employment, and economic statistics. Using LMI, community colleges will know what skills are in demand in the regional economy and which jobs pay the best and offer strong growth trajectories. They’ll also gain an understanding of the demographics of the local workforce so they can identify populations that would benefit most from new training and education opportunities.
To demonstrate how LMI can be used as a tool to develop programs that help learners prepare for and connect to high-wage jobs in growing industries, this case study offers an in-depth look at Disrupt the Divide, an initiative in which Jobs for the Future (JFF) partnered with four community colleges to develop and implement goals and interventions that are designed to increase access to and success in academic programs aligned to high-wage, high-growth employment opportunities.
Using the experiences of three colleges involved in Disrupt the Divide as a model, this case study outlines a five-step process that community colleges and other education and workforce leaders can use to identify academic programs that prepare learners for high-wage, high-growth jobs and improve learners’ ability to access and succeed in those programs.
To understand the experiences of learners and design customized strategies that improve learner access and success, JFF and college leaders used data provided by Lightcast, a labor market analysis company, with two other critical data sources: program data (enrollment and completion rates) and learner voice (feedback collected in focus groups and surveys to capture learners’ views and understand their needs). JFF adopted this mixed-method approach to ensure that the steps college leaders took to improve learner access to and success in educational programs were not only data-driven but also grounded in the lived experiences of the learners on their campuses.
The three community colleges featured in this case study are forward-thinking North Carolina institutions: Durham Technical Community College in Durham, Forsyth Technical Community College in Winston-Salem, and Stanly Community College in Albemarle. They partnered with JFF to identify regional high-wage, high-growth jobs and co-design strategies to ensure that learners from populations facing barriers to economic advancement would be able to access and succeed in academic programs aligned to those jobs.
With a job market that’s growing at a faster rate than the population, North Carolina is a state that could offer workers of all backgrounds opportunities for economic advancement. The state’s population increased by 5% from 2019 to 2024 and the number of jobs increased by 9%, according to Lightcast data for the fourth quarter of 2025.
In 2020, around 20% of the state’s 10.4 million residents identified as Black, roughly 7% above the national average, according to data from the North Carolina Office of State Budget and Management. However, in 2025, Black residents accounted for a far higher share of North Carolina’s unemployed population: 47%, according to Lightcast. This highlights persistent barriers to economic advancement for Black people across the state.
The North Carolina Community College System has an opportunity to play a vital role in addressing these disparities. By intentionally expanding access to academic programs aligned with high-wage, high-growth jobs for learners who have been underrepresented in these fields, the state’s community colleges can help expand access to career pathways and foster economic mobility for learners from populations facing barriers to advancement.
Using LMI data collected through Lightcast, the team found that North Carolina’s fastest-growing occupations were in professional services, health care, and finance, as illustrated in the chart below.
Data source: Lightcast, 2025
JFF and the community colleges participating in Disrupt the Divide identified a five-step process that community colleges and postsecondary leaders can use to first identify academic programs that prepare learners for high-wage, high-growth jobs and then improve learners’ ability to access and succeed in those programs. As illustrated in the graphic below, the process includes building an interdisciplinary team and using LMI and other data to choose the right programs to focus on and set action-oriented goals.
This case study outlines the steps, offers detailed explanations of each, and provides real-world examples of how participating Disrupt the Divide community colleges carried out the steps. We believe this approach can be scaled and tailored for use across the country and offer this case study as a guide for community colleges in search of ways to better prepare their learners for success in programs aligned to high-wage, high-growth jobs.
JFF’s Disrupt the Divide initiative supports postsecondary institutions in increasing Black learners’ success in accessing and completing programs that lead to high-wage jobs in growing industries. Results The six participating community colleges will partner with…
Community colleges can offer pathways to high-wage, high-demand careers and accelerate economic advancement for students facing systemic barriers, by examining their experiences and outcomes, addressing barriers, and strengthening momentum. With organizations like JFF leading data-driven…
