New York SBDC Research Network

The Bureau of Labor Statistics provides access to a variety of useful statistics, but there are two publications that I find particularly useful while doing research. Occupational Outlook Handbook 2010-2011 - The Handbook is a nationally recognized source of career information for hundreds of different types of jobs, designed to provide valuable assistance to individuals making decisions about their future work lives. Revised every two years, the Outlooks include: Nature of the Work Training, Other Qualifications, and Advancement Employment Job Outlook Projections Data Earnings Related Occupations Sources of Additional Information Career Guide to Industries 2010-2011 - The Guide is a companion to the Occupational Outlook Handbook, providing information at the industry level, for dozens of different kinds of industries. Categories for each industry include: Nature of the Industry Working Conditions Employment Occupations in the Industry Training and Advancement Outlook Earnings Sou...

While most of the research we provide here at the Research Network centers around industry data and information, sometimes we are asked to provide research regarding a certain occupation. One of the common requests we recieve when asked about a specific occupation is the average salary. A website that I use to find salary data based on location, experience and education is Salary Expert . For more salary information, I also use the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Outlook Handbook .

On Monday, Roger and I attended a workshop on information sources for labor statistics. Sponsored by the Capital District Business Librarians, James Ross, the NYS Department of Labors’ Regional Labor Market Analyst for the Capital Region, discussed the wild world of statistics available on the NYS Labor Department website . There’s a lot here, but it is not always easy to get to. Here are just a few things that I found interesting: Most of us are familiar with the occupational outlook reports available from the U.S. Department of Labor, which offers descriptive job outlooks for a variety of occupations. The NYS DOL provides more detailed and local statistics, offering a ten year forecast for more than 700 occupations, listed by their SOC code . Available statewide and by region, these tables list the current employment figures for that field, projected employment numbers for ten years later, with growth and replacement figures. For those less inclined to crunch the numbers, the o...