Expand Your Addressable Market with STARs Relevant Filters

We’re excited to launch STARs Relevant Filters on Lightcast platforms, helping you identify jobs aligned with skills-first hiring, so you can see where capabilities matter more than a four-year degree. In partnership with Opportunity@Work, this new filter surfaces roles accessible to workers Skilled Through Alternative Routes such as military service, community college, workforce training, certificates, boot camps, and on-the-job experience. Additionally, you can benchmark against high-skilled job postings and surface opportunities ready for a degree-optional workforce.

Over 70 million Americans are STARs, and Lightcast's new filter helps you uncover these insights across Analyst, Talent Analyst, and Developer. Other Lightcast offerings, including the Job Postings API and Job Postings Data Shares will also offer data on STARs. 

What it Does

The STARs Relevant Filter surfaces where competencies can be met through alternative pathways, rather than a mandatory bachelor’s degree. It is available across job posting reports, alongside familiar filters like region, occupation, and salary.

Why it Matters

• Enterprise: Audit unnecessary degree barriers, redesign job descriptions, and expand candidate pools for hard-to-fill roles.

• Education: Align shorter programs and credentials with employers already open to skills-first hiring.

• Public sector: Identify high-opportunity roles for workers without four-year degrees and support more inclusive workforce strategies.

STARs Relevant postings filter is a practical and powerful way to quantify where skills-first hiring is already happening.