Where the numbers come from.

Source

Dataset

Used for

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)

Employment Projections 2025–2035

Annual openings and 10-year employment change for each occupation. These are national projections, not observed counts, and they are not available by metro area.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)

OEWS, May reference period (2021–2025 releases)

Employment estimates and median pay by occupation and metro area. Because OEWS is a sample survey, metro-level sampling error can be larger than a one-year change.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)

SOC 2018 occupation codes and the SOC 2010 crosswalk

Standard occupation codes and names. When an occupation code splits, early counts for the new code can look artificially low because some filings still use the old code. We use the crosswalk to identify those cases.

U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) · OFLC

LCA disclosure data (Form ETA-9035), 26 quarters, FY2020 Q1 to FY2026 Q2

Shows which employers filed LCAs, where they filed them, and for which occupations. An LCA is an employer filing with the U.S. Department of Labor used in the H-1B process. We count distinct case numbers, extensions and changes of employer included.

U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) · OFLC

LCA worksite appendix

We use the worksites listed on each filing to assign filings to metro areas. Because one filing can list multiple worksites, metro-area totals can add up to more than the national total.

U.S. Department of Education · NCES

IPEDS (programs, school directory, admissions)

Shows which schools offer which majors, along with completions and international graduates by year. Admissions data provides acceptance rates and SAT scores.

U.S. Department of Education · NCES

CIP 2020 major codes

Standard codes and names for majors, used to connect major data across tables.

U.S. Department of Education

CIP 2020 to O*NET-SOC crosswalk

Links programs of study to related occupations for classification purposes. It does not rank occupations or show where graduates usually work.

U.S. Department of Education

College Scorecard

Tuition for each school. We use out-of-state tuition. The figure is per school, not per major, and it is before financial aid.

U.S. Census Bureau

American Community Survey (ACS) 2020–2024

Shows the share of employed people ages 25–34 with a bachelor’s degree in a given major who work in the occupation you’re viewing. Unlike the major–occupation crosswalk, this is an observed share.

National Science Foundation (NSF)

2023 NSCG survey

Shows what people working in an occupation studied. We use it only for teaching occupations. Because NSF uses its own major codes, these majors can’t be matched directly to schools.

Office of Management and Budget (OMB)

Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSA), 2023 delineation

We use “metro area” to mean a Census Bureau metropolitan area: a core city and the counties tied to it. Tables include metropolitan areas only. Because boundaries can change between versions, a few metro areas can’t be compared directly with older tables.

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)

ZIP code to CBSA crosswalk

We use it to match each worksite address on a filing to its metro area. An address that can’t be matched stays outside any metro area. We don’t guess.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)

STEM Designated Degree Program List 2024

Lists the CIP codes eligible for the 24-month STEM OPT extension, for 36 months of OPT in total. We don’t verify the CIP code of an individual program at an individual school.