Occupational Information Network (O*NET)

The Occupational Information Network (O*NET) is the database of worker and occupational attributes that succeeds the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) as the primary source of information on occupations in the U.S. economy. Although the DOT had held this distinction for many years, numerous events—including the explosion of new occupations that accompanied the Internet and technology age, the decline in blue-collar industrial and manufacturing occupations, the dynamic nature of many of today’s jobs, and theoretical and methodological advances in our understanding of work and job analysis—necessitated a new system for collecting and disseminating occupational information. The DOL responded by sponsoring the development of a computerized repository of occupational information that would permit rapid revision of the data, as well as ...