The Burning Glass Institute

Name

The Burning Glass Institute

Legal name

The Burning Glass Institute

Website

https://burningglassinstitute.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2019

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Labor Market Research

SIC

Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731)

akta.pro primary industry

Think Tanks, Policy Research & Public Policy Institutes (BPAGAFAO)

akta.pro secondary industry

Education Policy Research Institutes & Think Tanks (EDADADAA)

Keywords

• Labor market research
• Workforce analytics
• Skills taxonomy
• Economic mobility research
• Employer benchmarking

Headquarters

HQ city

Philadelphia

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Research Partnerships and Grants: BGI operates as a research institute funded through partnerships with foundations (Schultz Family Foundation, Gatsby Foundation), corporate partners (Walmart), government agencies (Singapore Ministry of Manpower), and academic institutions (Harvard Business School). Revenue supports research operations, report development, and index creation.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

The Burning Glass Institute is a non-profit research organization that produces data-driven research, indexes, and skills frameworks analyzing labor market dynamics, workforce mobility, and the future of work. It analyzes over 65 million career records and tens of millions of job postings to produce employer opportunity indexes (American, Singapore, British), skills taxonomies (Skills-First Working Initiative), credential outcomes analyses, and quarterly Labor Market Outlook reports for employers, educators, and policymakers.

Product overview

The Burning Glass Institute is a research organization (not a software product company) that produces labor market research, skills frameworks, and employer opportunity indexes. Its core offerings include: the American Opportunity Index (measuring worker advancement at major U.S. employers), the Skills-First Working Initiative (shared skills taxonomies for 30 roles covering 35 million jobs), regional opportunity indexes for Singapore and Britain, the Skillability Index (measuring skills-based hiring adoption), and periodic research publications including Labor Market Outlook reports and credential outcomes analysis. These are research products and frameworks rather than a unified software platform.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• American Opportunity Index A corporate scorecard measuring worker advancement opportunities at major U.S. employers, analyzing real-world outcomes for over 4.7 million employees across hundreds of companies using career histories and salary data.
• Singapore Opportunity Index A landmark analysis tracking worker progression across Singapore's labor market, evaluating nearly one million residents across about 1,500 firms on pay, growth, parity, retention, and hiring dimensions.
• British Opportunity Index A first-of-its-kind tool assessing mobility, pay, hiring practices, and culture of leading British companies using real-world employee data to compare outcomes across similar roles.
• Skills-First Working Initiative An employer-led initiative developing shared skills taxonomies for common job roles, enabling skills-first hiring and workforce practices. Expanded to cover 30 roles representing 35 million U.S. jobs.
• Skillability Index

Quantifiable outcome

• 12% of 1.1 million credentials analyzed deliver significant wage gains; top-decile credentials yield nearly $5,000 in annual wage gains
• +3 more outcomes

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Twelve partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Schultz Family FoundationcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 March 2026BGI partners with Schultz Family Foundation to lead the Where You Work Matters List and American Opportunity Index, evaluating employers on career opportunity creation using real-world worker outcomes data.
• Harvard Business SchoolcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 March 2026Harvard Business School's Project on Managing the Future of Work partners with BGI on the American Opportunity Index and Where You Work Matters List, providing academic rigor and visibility.
• OneTencoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 March 2026BGI and OneTen released joint research on credential fluency in hiring, analyzing hiring patterns across more than 1,000 large US employers to understand how employers use non-degree credentials.
• aiEDUcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 February 2026BGI and aiEDU released joint research on skills students need in the age of AI, analyzing how generative AI is transforming workforce skill requirements with emphasis on deeper understanding and human-centered skills.
• Singapore Ministry of ManpowercoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2026BGI partnered with Singapore's Ministry of Manpower and Singapore University of Social Sciences to develop the Singapore Opportunity Index, analyzing nearly one million Singapore residents across about 1,500 firms.
• Singapore University of Social SciencescoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2026Academic partner in developing the Singapore Opportunity Index, providing research expertise and local context for analyzing workforce development in Singapore.
• FSGminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 August 2025BGI partnered with FSG, Jobs for the Future, and Education Design Lab on research exploring how young people in retail can transition into technology roles.
• Jobs for the FutureminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 August 2025Education nonprofit partner in Retail's Tech Transformation research on upskilling frontline employees for technology careers.
• Education Design LabminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 August 2025Education innovation partner in research on retail tech workforce pathways and frontline employee upskilling.
• American Enterprise InstitutecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 June 2025BGI released landmark analysis of non-degree credential outcomes in partnership with AEI, using data from 65 million career records to reveal which credentials deliver wage gains and career advancement.
• WalmartcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 September 2024Walmart convened and co-leads the Skills-First Working Group with BGI, bringing together major employers to develop shared skills taxonomies for 30 high-impact roles covering 35 million workers. This partnership represents BGI's flagship initiative for establishing common skills language across US employers.
• Business RoundtablecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 September 2022BGI partnered with Business Roundtable and Lightcast on how to enhance workforce inclusion via skills-based talent strategies, analyzing career outcomes for millions of workers at America's largest companies.

Scale indicators10 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• RAND Corporation: RAND is a large nonprofit research institution conducting policy research across education, labor, and economics. It shares BGI's data-driven, nonpartisan research model but operates across many policy domains at much greater scale.
• Brookings Institution: Brookings is a major public policy think tank with substantial economic studies and workforce programs, including research on the future of work. Larger and broader than BGI but covers overlapping territory in labor market and education policy.
• The Conference Board: The Conference Board produces economic indicators and workforce research for member companies, including skills and labor market analytics—overlapping with BGI's employer-facing opportunity measurement and labor market outlook reports.

Direct peers

• National Skills Coalition: National Skills Coalition is a nonprofit advocacy and policy organization focused on skills training and equitable workforce development, aligning closely with BGI's skills-first hiring and economic mobility agenda.
• Opportunity@Work: Opportunity@Work is a nonprofit focused on skills-first hiring and STARs (workers Skilled Through Alternative Routes), directly aligned with BGI's Skills-First Workforce Initiative and taxonomies for non-degree workers.
• MDRC: MDRC is a nonprofit social policy research organization evaluating programs in education and workforce development using rigorous impact studies—similar evidence-driven, foundation-funded research orientation as BGI.
• Strada Institute: Strada Institute is a nonprofit education and workforce research organization producing evidence-based research on the connection between education and jobs. Highly comparable to BGI's mission around learning-work alignment and economic mobility.
• W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research: Upjohn is a nonprofit research organization studying labor markets, workforce development, and economic policy, publishing empirical research on employment outcomes—closely matching BGI's evidence-based workforce research model.
• Mathematica: Mathematica is a nonprofit research and data analytics firm evaluating social programs and workforce initiatives, often partnering with foundations and government—comparable to BGI's foundation-funded, outcome-measurement approach.

Emerging players

• Lightcast: Lightcast (formed from Burning Glass Technologies and Emsi) is the leading commercial labor market data provider and a current BGI partner on Business Roundtable research. Comparable because it supplies the underlying job postings and career trajectory data BGI analyzes.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/the-burning-glass-institute
• Xx.com/thebginstitute

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about The Burning Glass Institute