Federal employment data answers different questions at each stage of a degree. This timeline shows what to check before picking a field, while comparing programs and each semester you enroll.

Federal employment data is not something you check once before enrolling and then file away. Each stage of planning a degree raises a different question, and the numbers answer different questions at different times: whether a field is worth entering, whether a particular program backs up its claims, which skills to build while you study and where to aim your search at the end. The timeline below walks through each stage, the federal sources to use and what to have ready before you move on.

The timeline at a glance

The table below summarizes the stages this article covers in order.

Stage	What to check	What to have ready
Before picking a field	Occupational Outlook Handbook profiles, field of degree data, typical education levels	A short list of occupations worth researching
Comparing programs	Program-level results, placement rate claims, licensure requirements	Federal baseline numbers to test claims against
Each semester	Job postings, O*NET skill and software listings	Notes on skills employers keep repeating
Year before finishing	Refreshed projections, state and area data, entry requirements	A target occupation list and a draft resume
Final semester	Professional associations, similar occupations, local wage data	Applications, references and talking points
Changing direction	All of the above, plus transfer rules	Transcripts and a written credit plan

Before you pick a field of study

Start with the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook, or OOH. It covers 324 occupational profiles that together account for about 4 out of 5 jobs in the economy, and you can browse by pay range, entry-level education, on-the-job training, projected new jobs or projected growth rate. The homepage also offers quick links to three ranked lists: the best-paying occupations, those projected to expand the quickest and those forecast to gain the largest number of positions. Our article on how to use the Occupational Outlook Handbook walks through a profile section by section.

BLS prepares 10-year employment projections for more than 800 detailed occupations. In the current set, covering 2024 to 2034, the agency projects about 19 million openings each year on average across all occupations, and most of those openings come from replacing workers who retire or move to other fields rather than from newly created jobs. For scale, the median annual wage for all occupations was $49,500 in 2024.

One BLS resource is easy to miss: the field of degree pages. These cover 37 academic subject areas and combine data from the Census Bureau and BLS on people who actually hold each degree. The page for computer and information technology degrees, for example, showed more than 2 million workers with those degrees in 2018 and a median annual wage of $83,000, well above the $59,000 median for bachelor’s degree holders in all fields. The same page showed that 30 percent of these bachelor’s degree holders worked in occupations requiring an advanced degree, which is useful to know if you do not plan to attend graduate school.

This is also the stage to decide what credential you actually need. BLS assigns each occupation a typical entry education level, and 109 occupations require no formal educational credential at all, though many involve on-the-job training. For adults returning to school, the choice is often more direct than it is for traditional students: you may find that a certification or short-term training gets you to your goal without a full degree program. The Department of Labor’s My Next Move site lets you search careers by keyword or industry, and O*NET, the federal occupation database, groups occupations into five job zones based on the education, experience and training they require.

While you are comparing specific programs

Once you have a field in mind, the question shifts from whether the field is worth entering to whether a given program prepares people for it. Look at results for the specific program you are considering rather than school-wide averages, and our guide to the College Scorecard explains how to pull those program-level numbers.

Schools sometimes advertise placement rates, and those figures deserve scrutiny. Our article on checking job placement rate claims explains what to ask before believing one. Compare any rate a school quotes against the federal employment data you gathered in the first stage, and ask for the calculation method in writing. If your field requires a license, such as nursing or teaching, confirm that the program meets your state’s requirements before you enroll. Each state has its own licensing board that publishes the rules, so check directly with the board for your state.

Adviser’s tip: Write down the median pay, projected growth rate and annual openings for your target occupation from federal data before you visit any campus or talk to admissions. Every claim a school makes afterward can be tested against those numbers.

Each semester you enroll

Job market research does not stop once classes begin. Real job postings show what employers actually ask for: required skills, specific software, certifications and soft skills. Reading a handful of postings in your target field each term gives you a running picture of what employers want, and it helps you pick electives, certificates and part-time work that build those skills.

O*NET OnLine is the federal database to pair with this habit. It contains 1,016 occupation titles, backed by a database of over 19,000 detailed task statements. Its “hot technologies” feature lists software skills that appear frequently in employer job postings, and its Bright Outlook flag marks occupations projected to have 75,000 or more job openings nationwide over the period from 2025 to 2035, or that are growing rapidly or are new and emerging. Accountants and auditors and acute care nurses are among the occupations on the Bright Outlook list.

Keep a simple running note each semester: which skills show up in posting after posting, which certifications appear again and again, and whether the duties in the postings match what you expected from the OOH profile. O*NET also indexes nearly 3,000 organizations related to specific occupations, which gives you a starting list of professional associations to follow or join as a student member.

The year before you finish

The projections and wage figures you read as a prospective student apply to set periods, so recheck your target occupation’s profile in your final year and compare the growth rate and annual openings with the numbers you noted when you started.

Two sections of the OOH profile deserve a second read at this stage. The state and area data section lets you compare pay and employment where you actually live against the national figures, and the similar occupations section may point to related roles you had not considered, including some that match the experience you have now built.

Recheck the entry requirements too. BLS projections note whether workers typically need experience in a related occupation before entering and whether on-the-job training is required to reach competency. If your target occupation expects prior related experience, plan how coursework, internships or part-time roles in the field will supply it before you graduate.

This is also the time to turn research into application material. Pull the task statements for your target occupation from O*NET and check that your resume uses the same language employers and the database use for the work. A draft resume built from federal task statements is easier to align with real postings than one written from scratch.

Your final semester and job search

By now your research should be narrower and more local. The OOH profile ends with sources for additional information, and the professional associations in the O*NET database often post entry-level openings and offer student memberships, which makes them a practical place to look alongside general job boards.

As you apply, mirror the keywords from current postings in your applications, since employers tend to look for the same terms the postings use. Treat the federal median wage as a reference point for the entire occupation rather than a figure any single offer is guaranteed to match: people just starting out, those working part-time schedules and those in parts of the country where pay runs lower often begin below that midpoint. If you plan to move to a new region after graduation, pull the state and area data for your occupation in that state before you set salary expectations.

If you change direction mid-degree

Changing your field partway through is common, and the fix is to rerun the research you did at the first stage rather than switching on instinct alone. Look again at the field of degree data for the new subject, check whether the occupations it feeds typically require an advanced degree and compare the projected openings for the new target occupation against your old one. Because most projected openings come from replacement needs rather than job growth, even a slow-growing field can produce steady entry points each year.

Before you commit, sort out the credit question. How many of your completed credits count toward a new program varies by school and by program, so ask and get the answer in writing. Our step-by-step guide to going back to finish a degree you started covers how to plan a return after a stop-out, and much of the same process applies to a mid-degree switch. Confirm the new program’s accreditation the same way you confirmed the old one, since a change of direction is exactly when students are most likely to enroll in a hurry.

Readers ask

How current is the federal job outlook data?

The projections and wage figures apply to set periods, such as BLS projections covering 2024 to 2034. Recheck the numbers at least once per academic year and again the year before you graduate, because the figures you read when you first researched a field may not match what you find later.

Do I need a bachelor’s degree for the career I want?

Not always. BLS assigns each occupation a typical entry education level, and 109 occupations require no formal educational credential at all, though many involve on-the-job training. Check the education section of the occupation profile before you commit to a program.

Is a fast-growing field always the best choice?

No. A small occupation can post a high growth rate but produce few openings, while a large, slower-growing field fills many positions every year. Because most openings come from replacement needs, read the growth rate and annual openings together.

What should I do if my plans change after I am already enrolled?

Rerun the job market research you did before choosing a field, then confirm how many of your completed credits will count toward the new program. Rules vary by school, so get the answer in writing before you switch.

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.