Separate employment, growth, and openings
See this course’s project requirements
Assemble a local career evidence brief using the six lesson outputs.
Keep your working files in your own notebook or software. Save a private description, checklist, and work link in My Proof.
What to include
- Define two or three occupation matches and the statistical and practical areas.
- Compare dated wage measures and show two gross-pay scenarios.
- Distinguish employment, projections, and a checked posting sample.
- Include task evidence and an access comparison with unresolved questions.
- Provide source links, a weighted decision, sensitivity check, and review trigger.
Review and revise
Use these criteria to check your work and choose what to improve.
- Comparability: occupation matches, geography, period, and wage statistic remain visible and incompatible data are flagged.
- Numeracy: pay, growth, travel-time, and weighted-score calculations can be reproduced from the stated inputs.
- Interpretation: employment, projections, postings, and personal access are kept distinct without promises.
- Decision quality: the conditional recommendation follows the evidence and changes appropriately in the sensitivity check.
Want more background?
The idea in everyday life
An occupation can employ many people while growing slowly. Another can grow quickly from a small base and still produce fewer opportunities. Advertisements add a different kind of evidence because postings can repeat, expire, or cover several locations. Keeping these measures separate helps you avoid chasing an impressive percentage without understanding its scale.
Stock, change, and opportunities answer different questions.
One step at a time.
Use the sample or information you have permission to use. Keep your work as you go. You can pause between steps.
- 1
Create three labeled fields: employment estimate, projected change, and openings or postings. Note that OEWS supplies employment and wage estimates, not a count of current vacancies or a forecast.
- 2
For any projection you use, record its publisher, geography, start and end years, and whether the number is growth or average annual openings. Keep state projections distinct from local employment estimates.
- 3
Practice percent change using the fictional figures below: subtract the starting count from the ending count, then divide by the starting count. Also retain the numerical change so the size is visible.
- 4
Inspect a small fictional posting list for duplicates, expired dates, and inaccessible locations. Call the remaining count a checked sample, not the whole market. Write one question the data cannot answer, such as whether beginners are being hired.
See how it works.
Fictional practice case: occupation A grows from 1,000 to 1,100 jobs over a stated decade; B grows from 200 to 240. A adds 100 jobs, or 10%; B adds 40, or 20%. Rowan refuses to conclude that B supplies twice as many opportunities. Separately, the sample posting list contains eight entries for A. Four distinct entries are excluded: two duplicates, one expired ad, and one in inaccessible Lake County. Four remain as a checked sample. Neither four postings nor 100 projected additions is a guaranteed vacancy count for next month. Rowan records the forecast period and asks how many current employers accept entry-level applicants.
Did you cover these?
- Show both numeric and percentage change.
- Record the projection period and geography.
- Label a posting sample and remove specified duplicates.
What to finish
A measure-classification sheet with two growth calculations and a cleaned posting sample.
Watch for this
Equating a growth percentage, an employment count, and today’s vacancies.
How can I tell I understand it?
You can state what each number measures and what it cannot establish.
Quick knowledge check
Answer all 3 questions. Get at least 2 right and the lesson completes automatically.
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Answer all 3 questions above and get at least 2 right. You can review the explanations and try again.
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Sources and further reading
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Source & access notes · checked 2026-09-10
Read geography, wage definitions, median/mean, and data-not-collected sections. OEWS describes employment and wages, not current vacancies; benefits and self-employment coverage have limits.
Access: The specific BLS directory or methods page is public and free. Optional data-table downloads need no paid subscription; supplied fictional data make the exercises usable without downloads.
Reuse: This specific BLS — OEWS frequently asked questions resource supports the cited lessons. Life Starter’s scenarios, calculations, scripts, and questions are original; no source worksheet, logo, or endorsement is reused. Free reading is not a general reuse license.
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