Provides insights into utilizing career resources like the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook and O*NET OnLine, alongside guidance on the careful analysis of data for informed decision-making.
Transcript
Welcome to our video tutorial on how to utilize two government-funded career databases: the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook and O*NET OnLine.
With the help of Pluggy, our library's Makerspace mascot, we'll learn how to navigate the interfaces of the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook and the O*NET OnLine database and critically think about data.
First, let's look at the Occupational Outlook Handbook made by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The BLS is an agency of the US Department of Labor, and it collects, analyzes, and publishes data essential to the public, employers, researchers, and organizations.
It measures labor market activity, working conditions, and productivity data in the US economy to support public and private decision-making.
Their handbook is a treasure trove for anyone looking to understand employment trends and job characteristics, which is helpful for a university student like you exploring a profession.
On the Handbook's home page, you can explore jobs in different ways: through occupation groups, through personalized search criteria, through regularly updated job features, through an alphabetical index, and through four job categories: Highest paying, fastest growing, most new jobs, and field of degree, which gives employment data based on a specific academic program.
You can even access Handbook information through the BLS CareerInfo smartphone app.
Scan these QR codes or search CareerInfo in the Apple App Store or Google Play to download the app.
Let's try finding out about teachers.
Typing a job in the search bar leads you to a new page that links to different occupations related to your search term.
Click on the one that suits your needs to find more information about that job, from quick facts to other related occupations.
Explore each tab to learn more. While the handbook provides a macro overview, remember to consider the limitations.
The data presented, which is from 2022, may not fully cover regional differences or emerging trends like the impact of technology on the field.
It's crucial to complement this information with up-to-date studies, regional statistics, and even the news for a more comprehensive, contemporary view.
The second resource we're exploring is O*NET OnLine, which is backed by the US Department of Labor and the Employment and Training Administration.
In it, we find a database rich in occupation-specific details such as skills required, daily tasks, tools, knowledges, work activities and interests associated with professions.
For university students like you, the database is helpful as a way to reflect on jobs based on what you like to do and what you're good at.
Like the Handbook, you can search for jobs using different entry points from broad categories in the Find Occupations section, like Bright Outlook and Industry or personal characteristics in the Browse by O*NET data section, like abilities and interests.
If you know what specific career you want to look into, you can type it into the Occupation Keyword Search box.
Let's try teacher. On the next page, choose from the list of more specific job titles to learn more.
The next page offers a detailed overview of your selected job.
Clicking on the Contents button will show all the available information about the profession organized into categories.
For example, if you're interested about the kinds of abilities that a job requires, click Abilities and you'll be shown a list explaining each one.
You can also expand these lists and explore other jobs that leverage them.
In addition, O*NET gives you a way to explore wages and employment data by state and even by ZIP code.
Let's find out about Nevada by choosing the state from the dropdown and clicking go.
The next page shows how the state data compares to national data.
The average pay of high school teachers in Nevada is higher when compared to the national average, but the average pay of the top 10% of earners in Nevada is less than the national average.
This demonstrates the importance of looking at data more carefully, because an overall statistic can potentially obscure the nuances of regional or emerging trends.
For example, if we go back to the Wages and Employment Trends section and compare the state trend with the national trend for high school teachers, we learn that while there's little to no change for the next ten years, at the national level, there's a 16% growth in Nevada, a substantial difference which could affect our perception of the career.
Moreover, research about local contexts helps us understand the realities of a career.
For example, googling the teacher salary information for the Clark County School District, Nevada's biggest school district.
We discover more current information, as well as the annual amount that a person can earn in their first year, depending on their level of education, from $54,000 to $97,000.
And beyond this, by doing a little more research, we can also learn about the sociopolitical implications of the new pay scale, such as the disparities between veteran teachers and novice teachers.
So make sure that when you're looking at data, even data that's carefully and rigorously collected, like in the Handbook and in the O*NET OnLine database, you're critically thinking about it by asking questions about what the data implies and what's missing from the data.
This helps you get a more well-rounded and more informed view of the profession you're exploring.
To summarize, in this video, we covered the basics of how to navigate two resources: the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook and O*NET OnLine.
We also covered ways to critically think about data.
Remember, if you need help finding other data to help your career exploration, visit our other guides on careers which are linked in the video's detail section or contact a librarian.
