The 2023 American Opportunity Index, a collaboration between the Burning Glass Institute, Harvard Business School’s Project on Managing the Future of Work, and the Schultz Family Foundation, examines the career paths of 4.72 million employees in 396 major U.S. companies. Unlike traditional job quality metrics, this index directly observes real-world outcomes by analyzing millions of career histories from sources like social media platforms and online resumes, along with salary and job posting data. The focus is on workers without college degrees, serving as an indicator of economic progress for a significant portion of the American population. The goal is to shift attention from job access to what happens to employees once they are in the workforce.