Occupation description – is based on occupation descriptions in the O*NET database. When two or more O*NET occupations were combined into a single National Industry-Occupation Employment Matrix (NIOEM) occupation, then the description includes information from all the combined occupations.

Education Level – is based on the education requirement description in the O*NET job zone categories. When two or more O*NET occupations were combined in to a single National Industry-Occupation Employment Matrix (NIOEM) occupation, then the lowest education level for any of the combined occupations is used.

A description of the occupation scores is listed below.

Expected Pay – In most cases, estimates are from published Bureau of Labor Statistics wage information for occupations located in the Louisville Metropolitan Area. Louisville Metropolitan area data was available for roughly two-thirds of occupations. When Louisville data was not available for a particular occupation (due to too few workers in that occupation in the Louisville area), then statewide Kentucky data was utilized first (with the exception that Indiana data was utilized for gaming occupations) followed by statewide Indiana data. Statewide data was utilized for roughly one-quarter of occupations. When statewide data was not available, national wage data was utilized. When two or more O*NET occupations were combined in to a single National Industry-Occupation Employment Matrix (NIOEM) occupation, then the wage data for all combined occupations was averaged.

The Expected Pay Source Code indicates the source of the reported wage data. The codes correspond as follows:

1. Wage data taken from the Louisville Metropolitan Area for May 2006.
2. Wage data taken from Kentucky (statewide) for May 2006.
3. Wage data taken from Indiana (statewide) for May 2006.
4. Wage data taken from the United States for May 2006.
5. An average of wage rates for a set of more detailed occupations that have been combined.

The dollar value of hourly benefits is generated as part of the U.S. Department of Labor’s National Compensation Survey (the annual Employer Costs for Employee Compensation survey). These values are generated for all workers for each major occupational category. Average annual benefit values are calculated for individual occupations by multiplying the ratio of average hourly benefits to average hourly earnings for the appropriate major occupational category by the average annual earnings of that individual occupation.

Top 10 Skills Required is based on the skill requirement data for each occupation in the O*NET system. O*NET generates a score for 35 skill categories based on the importance of that skill for a particular occupation. For each occupation, skills were ranked according to importance, and the top 10 ten skills were reported, in order of importance. When two or more O*NET occupations were combined in to a single National Industry-Occupation Employment Matrix (NIOEM) occupation, then the scores for each occupation were averaged, and skills were ranked according to these average values.

Related Occupations (Up to 10) is based on lists of related occupations that are provided in the O*NET system. O*NET identifies related occupations based on similarity in terms of education, skill requirements, and other factors. For each occupation, O*NET lists all sufficiently related occupations (based on O*NET criteria). O*NET does not rank the related occupations, so related occupations are not ranked based on the how closely each occupation is related. Up to 10 related occupations are listed here. When two or more O*NET occupations were combined in to a single National Industry-Occupation Employment Matrix (NIOEM) occupation, then those occupations that were most frequently listed as related among the combined occupations were presented in the list of up to 10 related occupations.

Details on linking occupations to educational programs
Detailed enrollment and degree data were obtained through the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) under the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES). NCES is the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education in the United States, under which IPEDS is the core postsecondary education data collection program. The database of over 6,700 schools encompasses all institutions and educational organizations whose primary purpose is to provide postsecondary education. The IPEDS system, built around a series of interrelated surveys, collects institution-level data annually in areas such as enrollments, program completions, faculty, staff, and finances. Under federal law, every school must participate in the IPEDS survey in order to receive federal funding and/or offer student loan packages to its clients. Each school is assigned an institution ID which does not change over time unless the school merges with another institution or goes out of business. Using the institution IDs, we have identified every school in the Louisville metropolitan area from the graduate and first professional level to one year or less licenses and certificates. This universe includes bartending, beauty, and barber, flying schools, and mortuary sciences. The local programs each school offered were identified using the national Classification of Instruction Programs (CIP) codes as reported in the IPED surveys, and further research via school websites and telephone when needed.

O’NET* 12 Occupational content
The source for the national databases of Standard Occupational Codes (SOC) linked with Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) Crosswalk is O*NET version 12 (see website). The original ‘core’ files of the O*NET database contain several hundred variables representing descriptors of occupations and worker characteristics. In the O*NET 12 version of the crosswalk there are 62 occupations without links to instructional codes.

History of O*NET
The National O*NET Consortium was organized to accomplish the development of O*NET and its related products for the US Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (ETA). The Consortium currently comprises the O*NET Management Partnership and the National O*NET Support Group, but is expected to expand in the future to include a number of technical and user advisory groups.
The Research Triangle Institute is a leading-edge research organization that conducts applied and theoretical research for national and international governmental, industrial, and public service organizations. RTI designs, implements, and supervises activities of the survey data collection designed to populate the O*NET database and provides guidance on continual methods refinement.

For local program links, there are four key data sources:

• IPEDS (NCES)
• SOC-CIP Crosswalk (0*NET)
• SOCs and definitions (BLS)
• Local school programs as identified via websites and phone

Limitations, problems, caveats:

• Only as good as the information. Need more accurate and timely way of identifying current local programs, particularly from schools that offer degrees and certificates at or below the associate’s degree level.
• The process of identifying local programs is laborious and fallible. There are schools and programs that may have been left out completely or mismatched. Again, input from local schools would be the best way to obtain more accurate information linking local programs.
• There are many paths to some occupations. Examples include jobs in computer sciences, information technology, business, marketing, journalism, and office or administrative work. When a school offered many programs that could lead to a given occupation, the link was made, not to the specific programs, but to the area that would best lead [the user] to the various choices, allowing the user to decide what his or her path should be.
• Some occupations, by federal definition of skill and education requirements, can be obtained without previous experience or education. However, there are many paying programs available to prepare a student for jobs in such occupations. Often the program will cost more than the job is worth.