The third American Opportunity Index ranks the top 100 employers by advancement opportunities, using a database of career histories that represents 40% of the U.S. workforce. The top 10 include W.W. Grainger, Costco Wholesale, Capital One Financial and Meta Platforms.The Costco Wholesale logo is displayed on the exterior of a Costco store in Richmond, California. The retailer was ranked second on the 2024 American Opportunity Index.
“What we can say is that, despite the widening support for skills-based hiring, most firms made no progress—or even took a step backwards” on hiring workers without college degrees, said Matt Sigelman, president of Burning Glass Institute, in an email. Leading this year’s ranking are companies from a range of industries, including No. 1 employer W.W. Grainger, the industrial supply company, followed by Costco Wholesale, Capital One Financial, Meta Platforms and ServiceNow to complete the top five. J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, MetLife and Bank of America rounded out the top 10.
This year’s analysis found that only 80 of 395 firms increased promotion opportunities, and that a plurality of companies—174 out of 395—decreased their hiring of people without college degrees or meaningful previous work experience.