United States Department of Labor
Pop the corks! We published the first-ever Occupational Requirements Survey estimates and news release this morning. The survey provides unique information about the physical demands, environmental conditions, education and training, and mental requirements of jobs in the United States. We’re running the survey under an agreement with the Social Security Administration so they can make decisions about their disability programs. Employers, jobseekers, and state and local workforce agencies can also use the data to match people with jobs that are right for them. Researchers will find the survey useful for expanding our understanding of the labor market.
Here are a few highlights from the survey for 2016.
- 31 percent of jobs in 2016 had no minimum education requirement; 17.5 percent of jobs required at least a bachelor’s degree.
- 75 percent of jobs required some on-the-job training, and 48 percent required prior work experience.
- 47 percent of jobs involved working outdoors at some point during the workday.
- 66 percent of jobs involved some reaching overhead.
- 39 percent of jobs involved regular contact with others several times per hour.
Creating new gold-standard information like this takes years of testing and development. Staff from BLS and the Social Security Administration worked closely together to get it right. After today’s news release, we will highlight the survey data in several publications in the coming year. We will feature selected job requirements and occupations. For more information on the new survey, including Frequently Asked Questions about it, please see www.bls.gov/ors.