New Release of Career Information

This week’s blog entry is aimed mostly at career-information geeks who, like me, are thrilled by each new release of the O*NET database. Release 15 came out while I was away from home, at the National Career Development Association conference, so I didn’t get a chance to play around with it until today.

No new occupations were added this year. However, I am very pleased to note that data regarding skills, work styles, and other domains now may be found for 45 occupations that previously had only definitions and lists of work tasks. A list of these occupations appears below. Of these, all except the last two were added to the O*NET database only last year.

I am not surprised that many of these expanded-data occupations are in health care; this is America’s largest and fastest-growing industry. You may have already had a personal encounter with a worker in one of these occupations, such as Nuclear Medicine Physicians, Nurse Practitioners, or Endoscopy Technicians.

But I am especially happy that many of the expanded-data occupations are STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) occupations. Our economy needs an infusion of workers into STEM careers, so it’s important for these occupations to have a higher profile than in the past, giving career decision makers more opportunities to consider them.

Only a few titles on the list below (notably Energy Auditors and Energy Engineers) are clearly identifiable as green occupations. Nevertheless, I can’t say I’m disappointed that this release does not expand the data for many more green occupations. The field is so recently emerged that I simply would not be realistic if I expected the full range of data for these occupations already.

11-9111.01 Clinical Nurse Specialists
11-9199.01 Regulatory Affairs Managers
11-9199.04 Supply Chain Managers
13-1041.07 Regulatory Affairs Specialists
13-1199.01 Energy Auditors
13-2099.04 Fraud Examiners, Investigators and Analysts
15-1051.01 Informatics Nurse Specialists
15-1099.06 Geospatial Information Scientists and Technologists
15-2041.01 Biostatisticians
15-2041.02 Clinical Data Managers
17-1022.01 Geodetic Surveyors
17-2199.02 Validation Engineers
17-2199.03 Energy Engineers
17-2199.04 Manufacturing Engineers
17-2199.07 Photonics Engineers
17-2199.08 Robotics Engineers
17-3029.04 Electronics Engineering Technologists
17-3029.06 Manufacturing Engineering Technologists
17-3029.09 Manufacturing Production Technicians
19-1029.02 Molecular and Cellular Biologists
19-1029.03 Geneticists
19-2099.01 Remote Sensing Scientists and Technologists
19-3039.01 Neuropsychologists and Clinical Neuropsychologists
19-4099.02 Precision Agriculture Technicians
29-1069.03 Hospitalists
29-1069.05 Nuclear Medicine Physicians
29-1069.09 Preventive Medicine Physicians
29-1111.01 Acute Care Nurses
29-1111.02 Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nurses
29-1111.03 Critical Care Nurses
29-1122.01 Low Vision Therapists, Orientation and Mobility Specialists, and Vision Rehabilitation Therapists
29-1199.02 Nurse Anesthetists
29-1199.03 Nurse Practitioners
29-1199.04 Naturopathic Physicians
29-1199.05 Orthoptists
29-2011.01 Cytogenetic Technologists
29-2011.02 Cytotechnologists
29-2011.03 Histotechnologists and Histologic Technicians
29-2099.01 Electroneurodiagnostic Technologists
29-2099.03 Ophthalmic Medical Technologists and Technicians
29-2099.04 Nurse Midwives
29-9099.02 Genetic Counselors
31-9093.01 Endoscopy Technicians
33-9099.01 Transportation Security Officers
15-1099.03 Network Designers