Occupational Outlook Handbook

Handbook overview

The Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH) is a consumer-oriented collection of summary pages for occupations organized by SOC codes. The resource is maintained by the Bureau of Labor Statistics within the US Department of Labor. The OOH is an outstanding resource for career exploration, and is often available in career centers of high schools and colleges, as well as in libraries.

The descriptions of a career's daily activities and the preparation needed to enter that career are incredibly valuable resources that we incorporate into each associated career overview that we provide.

Finding the data

To look up a specific career, it is easy to navigate to the Occupational Outlook Handbook and search for a career of interest. For the data we present, we are using an xml compilation of the handbook from OOH Data Access and Republishing Information dated August 25, 2020 and accessed September 1, 2020.

This new data is based on the new SOC codes that form the foundation of Ididio's career descriptions; however, in many instances several career specialties have been combined to create descriptions. You can find the details of those hybrid definitions on the BLS OE site. In these cases, we share the combined hybrid totals and salaries for the more specific occupation designation that is the basis of our career page.