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Wednesday, January 8, 2014

2014–2015 Occupational Outlook Handbook and related articles

Today BLS released the 2014–2015 edition of the information-packed Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH). The OOH is a searchable career guide that covers more than 300 occupations. The OOH is widely used by students, jobseekers, people who are considering changing careers, and career guidance professionals. Each occupational profile in the OOH describes what people in the occupation do, what their work environment is like, what kind of education, training, and work experience they need to perform the job, and how much they earn. Each profile also tells you the 2012 employment level in the occupation and how that employment level is expected to change by 2022, both in the total number of jobs and in percentage terms. Each profile also includes links to profiles for similar occupations, as well as links to organizations that can provide more information about the occupation.

To provide one example, one of the occupations among those BLS projects to add the largest number of jobs between 2012 and 2022 is registered nurses. From the OOH profile for registered nurses, we learn that they provide and coordinate patient care, educate patients and the public about various health conditions, and provide advice and emotional support to patients and their family members. Registered nurses work in hospitals, physicians’ offices, home healthcare services, nursing care facilities, schools, the military, and correctional facilities. Registered nurses usually take one of three education paths: a bachelor’s degree in nursing, an associate’s degree in nursing, or a diploma from an approved nursing program. Registered nurses must also be licensed. The 2012 median pay for registered nurses was $65,470 per year or $31.48 per hour. There were about 2.7 million registered nurses working in the United States in 2012, and that number is expected to grow by about half a million, or more than 19 percent, by 2022.

This week’s publication of the new OOH follows the December 2013 publication of a related series of Monthly Labor Review articles on the latest set of long-term projections from BLS about the U.S. labor market over the 2012–2022 period. Here is the list of those articles: