O*NET OnLine Help
Quick Search
Quick Search can be used to locate occupations using a keyword or O*NET-SOC Code.
Quick Search by Keyword
You can enter a word, phrase, or title to search for an O*NET-SOC occupation. To narrow or broaden the scope of your search, you may wish to experiment with the word, phrase, or title you submit. Your search results are displayed as a list of occupations ranked based on how well they matched the keyword. Each occupation on your list is provided a score. Click on the score provided at the left of the screen to view the matches to the keyword(s) you entered.
Relevance Score - The search strategy used in the keyword search employs a combination of occupational information, such as associated alternate titles, description, and tasks. A raw score is calculated based on the number of matches across the different data elements and their respective weights. This maximum score becomes the normalization factor. The scores are translated to a 0 to 100 relevance ranking by the following formula: relevance ranking = (score / maximum score) * 100. Thus, the occupation with the highest relevance ranking will be 100. Those occupational titles receiving less that the maximum score will receive a lower ranking. The lowest possible ranking is 0.
In the following example, the user enters the keyword "dental", to search for a "Dental Laboratory Technician".
This search returns occupations which contain the keyword "dental" in their occupational information. An occupation like "Dental Laboratory Technicians", which contains the word "dental" in its title, receives a high score. An occupation like "Medical Secretaries", which contains the detailed work activity "maintain dental or medical records", receives a lower score.
In this search, the occupation "Dental Laboratory Technicians" appears near the top of the list. (Note: Updates to databases used in the keyword result may alter items displayed in the example below.)
Relevance Score |
Code | Occupation |
|---|---|---|
| 100 |
31-9091.00 | Dental Assistants |
| 99 |
51-9081.00 | Dental Laboratory Technicians |
| 90 |
29-1021.00 | Dentists, General |
| . . . | ||
| 33 |
43-6013.00 | Medical Secretaries |
For any occupation listed, select its title to see more information about the corresponding occupation. For more information on these options, see OnLine Help for Summary, Details, or Custom Report.
Quick Search by O*NET-SOC Code
Example #1 - Enter an 8-digit O*NET-SOC or partial code to list matching O*NET-SOC occupations. For example, entering a complete code of "41-3031.00":
yields a single entry for Securities, Commodities, and Financial Services Sales Agents.
1 O*NET-SOC code matching "41-3031.00"
| Code | Occupation |
|---|---|
| 41-3031.00 | Securities, Commodities, and Financial Services Sales Agents |
Example #2 - Entering a partial code of "41-3031"
yields the 3 matching O*NET-SOC occupations listed below.
3 O*NET-SOC codes matching "41-3031"
| Code | Occupation |
|---|---|
| 41-3031.00 | Securities, Commodities, and Financial Services Sales Agents |
| 41-3031.01 | Sales Agents, Securities and Commodities |
| 41-3031.02 | Sales Agents, Financial Services |
Example #3 - Entering "41"
will yield a list of all 24 O*NET-SOC occupations within this group.
For any occupation listed, select its title to see more information about the corresponding occupation. For more information on these options, see OnLine Help for Summary, Details, or Custom Report.
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