Most Popular Items in the Occupational Outlook Handbook

Editor’s note: This blog was corrected on January 30, 2018. For more information, see Corrected Self-Employment Estimates for 2016–26.

Interested in becoming a detective or a veterinarian or a software developer? You are not alone. These occupations are among the most visited pages of the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, our online career information guide.

On October 24, BLS released the 2016–26 Employment Projections and incorporated these projections into updates of the Handbook, which features 325 occupational profiles. Think you know everything a doctor or a police officer does from watching reruns of “Grey’s Anatomy” or “Law and Order: SVU”? Think again. The BLS profiles discuss what workers do in an occupation, the education and training needed to work in an occupation, the pay, the job outlook, and other topics.

Just over one-third of all visits to the BLS website are to the Occupational Outlook Handbook, making it our most popular product. Here is a list of the top 10 most viewed profiles over the past year.

Rank	Profile name	2016 Employment	Employment change, 2016–26	Percent employment change, 2016–26	Typical education	2016 Median Wage
1	Physicians and Surgeons	713,800	91,400	13%	Doctoral or professional degree	>=$208,000
2	Registered Nurses	2,955,200	438,100	15%	Bachelor’s degree	$68,450
3	Police and Detectives	807,000	53,400	7%	High school diploma	$61,600
4	Lawyers	792,500	65,000	8%	Doctoral or professional degree	$118,160
5	Accountants and Auditors	1,397,700	139,900	10%	Bachelor’s degree	$68,150
6	Software Developers	1,256,200	302,500	24%	Bachelor’s degree	$102,280
7	Psychologists	166,600	23,000	14%	Doctoral or professional degree	$75,230
8	Veterinarians	79,600	15,000	19%	Doctoral or professional degree	$88,770
9	Physical Therapists	239,800	67,100	28%	Doctoral or professional degree	$85,400
10	Military Careers	2,100,000	—	—	High school diploma	—
Note: The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics does not make projections or collect wage data for military occupations. Employment is from the Defense Manpower Data Center.

These occupations have some characteristics in common.

Most are well known and involve contact with the public.
Most require college or graduate education.
All are high paying.
Most are large occupations, although not all are among the fastest growing.

Most of us have some idea what workers in these occupations do. Either we come in contact with them on a regular basis (like doctors) or we see them on TV or in the movies (like lawyers). And while there haven’t been a lot of movies made about software developers, millions of people every day use many of their products, like mobile phone apps.

Many of the most popular occupations require a lot of education. Half require a doctoral or professional degree. In contrast, fewer than one in ten occupations across the economy requires that much education. Only two occupations on the list require a high school diploma.

The top ranked occupational profile, physicians and surgeons, is among the highest paid occupations. The rest of the list includes occupations that pay well above the 2016 median wage of $37,040.

Although nearly all the top ten profiles are projected to grow faster than average (7.4 percent), only physical therapists and software developers are also among the fastest growing occupations. Other than veterinarians, all employ over 100,000 workers, and four employ more than 1 million workers each.

Not interested in becoming an accountant or a psychologist? There are over 300 more occupational profiles available for you to explore.