The Occupational Outlook Handbook is the federal government’s guide to pay, growth and education requirements across hundreds of occupations. Here is how to read it and test a school’s promises before you enroll.

Brochures and admissions pages often describe a field as growing, well paid or in demand, but those claims come from the people selling the program. The federal government publishes its own employment data, and the Occupational Outlook Handbook is the best-known place to check it. Learning to read the handbook takes less than an hour and gives you an independent reference point for comparing fields before you spend money on training.

What the handbook is and who publishes it

The Occupational Outlook Handbook, usually called the OOH, is published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, or BLS, the federal agency that tracks employment and wages for the U.S. economy. It is published on the BLS website, and the agency’s Employment Projections program refreshes the underlying projections data each year.

The handbook covers 324 occupational profiles that together account for roughly 4 out of 5 jobs in the economy. Profiles are organized into occupation groups such as healthcare, business and education, so you can browse a cluster of related fields or use the A to Z index if you already know the job title. The homepage also offers dropdown menus that sort occupations by what they pay, the education usually required to enter, the amount of on-the-job training involved, how many new positions are projected and how quickly employment is projected to grow. Quick links point to lists of the occupations that pay the most, are projected to grow fastest and are expected to add the most jobs.

The handbook does not cover every occupation. For some jobs, BLS prepares education requirements, median wages and employment projections without writing a full profile, so if a title is missing, the numbers may still exist elsewhere on the agency’s site.

What each occupation profile contains

Every full profile follows the same structure, which makes profiles easy to compare against each other. Each one includes:

• What workers do on the job
• The conditions people work in, such as the setting and typical schedules
• The education and preparation most workers need to enter the field
• Pay
• The job outlook
• State and area data
• Similar occupations
• Sources for additional information

The similar occupations section is easy to overlook and worth reading. If you are considering a bachelor’s degree for one role, the similar occupations list may show related roles that a certificate or associate degree can reach. Our guide to degree levels explains what each credential generally involves, and the handbook’s education column tells you which one a given occupation typically requires.

How to read the wage figures, growth rates and openings

Three numbers in each profile carry the most weight in a comparison.

Median pay. The median is the midpoint: half of workers in the occupation earn more and half earn less. Treat it as a benchmark for the occupation as a whole, not a prediction of what any individual graduate will earn. Entry-level workers, part-time workers and people in lower-paying regions all fall somewhere below the median.

Job outlook. This is the projected change in employment for the occupation over a 10-year period. The current set of projections, released in 2024, covers 2023 to 2033 and projects total U.S. employment to grow by about 6.7 million jobs, roughly 4.0 percent. Demand varies widely by occupation, industry, region and credential, so a field’s growth may look very different from that national average.

Annual openings. Openings estimate how many positions may need to be filled each year. They combine growth with replacement needs, meaning jobs that open up because workers retire, transfer to other occupations or leave the labor force. Openings often matter more to a new entrant than the growth rate itself.

The most common mistake students make is treating the fastest growth rate as the best field. A small occupation can post a high percentage growth rate yet produce very few openings, while a large, slowly growing occupation may fill many thousands of positions every year. Read growth rate, openings, median wage and education requirements together rather than trusting any one figure.

Adviser’s tip: Before you read a single school brochure, pull up the OOH profile for the occupation you are considering and note the median pay, 10-year growth rate and annual openings. You will then have a federal baseline to test every claim against.

Comparing two fields side by side

Because every profile uses the same structure, a side-by-side comparison takes about ten minutes. The table below shows what to record for each field.

What to record	Why it matters
Median pay	A salary benchmark for the occupation, not a guaranteed outcome
Projected 10-year growth	Shows whether the field is expanding, stable or shrinking
Annual openings	Estimates entry points from growth plus replacement needs
Typical entry-level education	Tells you the practical starting credential for the field
Work environment and job duties	Confirms the day-to-day work matches your expectations
State and area data	Shows pay and demand where you actually live

Here is a short illustration of how the comparison works in practice. Suppose Field A is projected to grow 20 percent but is small, producing only a few thousand openings a year nationally. Field B grows 5 percent but is large, producing many more openings every year. For a job seeker, Field B may offer more realistic entry opportunities, while Field A may suit someone with a strong background who can compete for scarce openings. The numbers describe the market, not your odds; your location, skills and the competition in your area all matter.

Where the numbers come from and their limits

The projections come from the BLS Employment Projections program, which prepares 10-year projections for more than 800 detailed occupations. Wage estimates come from the Occupational Employment and Wages Statistics program, which produces employment and wage estimates at the national, state and metropolitan and nonmetropolitan area levels, covering more than 500 areas across the country. BLS also runs the Occupational Requirement Survey, which documents the physical demands, environmental conditions, education, training and experience typical for jobs.

The limits are as useful as the sources. Projections describe expected national trends, not a promise of employment, and they can shift when the projections are updated. Median wages say nothing about your individual earnings. State and local data in each profile often diverges sharply from the national picture. And for fields that require a license, BLS data includes notes on licensing, but the rules differ by state and occupation, so see our article on licensure programs before you rely on any outlook figure.

Pairing the handbook with the College Scorecard

The handbook answers occupation-level questions: what does this work pay, and is the field growing? The College Scorecard answers school-level and program-level questions, letting you look up individual schools and programs and compare the measures it reports for them. Used together, they let you check both halves of the decision. If a program’s advertised salaries far exceed the occupation’s median wage, or its placement claims outrun the federal outlook, ask the school to explain the gap. Our guide to using the College Scorecard walks through that comparison step by step.

One caution follows from the rest: BLS figures describe occupations, while the Scorecard describes individual schools and programs. Neither source tells you what your own career will look like, and neither should replace conversations with working professionals in the field or a career counselor. What they do replace is guesswork, and that is reason enough to read both before you enroll.

Readers ask

Where can I find the Occupational Outlook Handbook?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes it on its own website, where you can browse the profiles, search by pay or education level, and view the underlying data. The agency also offers a video guide to using the handbook.

What is the difference between job outlook and annual openings?

Job outlook refers to projected employment change for an occupation over a 10-year period. Annual openings estimate how many positions may need to be filled each year, combining growth with the need to replace workers who retire, transfer or exit the labor force.

Does the handbook list every occupation?

No. It covers about 324 occupations in detail, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics prepares wage and projection data for additional occupations without a full profile. The employment projections program covers more than 800 detailed occupations.

Can the handbook tell me whether I will get a job?

No. Projections describe expected employment trends for the whole economy, not individual hiring outcomes. Use them as a market signal, then weigh your location, program cost and local employer demand.

Admission rules, accreditation status and licensing requirements change. This guide is general information for students in the U.S.; confirm the details with the school, its accreditor or your state licensing board before you enroll.