Occupational Outlook Handbook: BLS Career Data

The Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH) is BLS's most popular product — a freely accessible database of occupation profiles used by career counselors, job seekers, and workforce planners. It combines OEWS wage data, CES employment data, and BLS 10-year employment projections into a single profile for each occupation.

What OOH Contains

Each OOH profile covers: job duties, work environment, education/training requirements, OEWS-based median wages and employment, and a 10-year employment outlook expressed as "much faster than average," "faster than average," "as fast as average," "slower than average," or "decline." The handbook is updated every two years.

Limitations of OOH Projections

The 10-year employment projections are based on macroeconomic models, industry input-output analysis, and occupational staffing pattern changes. They have a mixed track record — like all long-range forecasts. Technology-driven disruptions (automation, offshoring) are particularly hard to anticipate. The projections are useful for understanding relative growth patterns but should not be used as precise numerical forecasts.