O*NET Occupation Data Scraper

Scrape O*NET OnLine — the US Department of Labor's official occupation reference database covering 900+ standardized (SOC) occupations. Look up a specific occupation by SOC code, search by keyword, or browse by Job Zone, Bright Outlook, Job Family, Industry, Career Cluster, STEM category, or Hot Technology. Get tasks, skills, knowledge areas, abilities, work activities, work context, wages (national + state percentiles), employment outlook, and related occupations. HTTP-only via the public onetonline.org website. No login, no API key, no proxy required.

What this actor does

• Nine modes: bySocCode, search, browseByJobZone, browseByBrightOutlook, browseByJobFamily, browseByIndustry, browseByCareerCluster, browseBySTEM, browseByHotTechnology
• Deep occupation profiles: tasks, work activities, work context, skills, knowledge, abilities, work styles, interests
• Wages: national median + full percentile breakdown (10th/25th/50th/75th/90th), with optional US-state-level percentiles
• Employment outlook: current employment, projected growth label, projected job openings, top employing industries
• Bright Outlook & Job Zone tagging on every occupation, with dedicated browse modes for each
• Taxonomy browse: Job Family (23 SOC major groups), Industry (20 sectors), Career Cluster (14 clusters), STEM category, and Hot Technology (176 employer-demand software/tools)
• Related occupations & professional associations for career-pathing and enrichment
• Empty fields are omitted

Data source

This actor scrapes the free, public onetonline.org website (ONET OnLine), maintained by the US Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration. It does not use the key-gated ONET Web Services API (services.onetcenter.org), which requires a registered account — everything here comes from the same pages a visitor sees in their browser.

Output per occupation (mode = bySocCode)

• socCode, title, description, sampleJobTitles[]
• brightOutlook, updatedYear
• tasks[] — { task, category (Core/Supplemental), importance }
• workActivities[], detailedWorkActivities[]
• workContext[] — { name, description, responses[], topResponse, topResponsePercent }
• jobZone — { jobZoneLabel, jobZoneTitle, education, relatedExperience, jobTraining, examples, svpRange }
• apprenticeshipTitles[]
• softwareSkills[] — { category, examples[] }, hotTechnologies[]
• essentialSkills[], transferableSkills[], knowledge[], abilities[], workStyles[] — each { name, description, importance }
• careerInterestTypes[], specificInterestAreas[] — RIASEC-style interest ratings
• educationLevels[] — { level, percent }
• medianHourlyWage, medianAnnualWage, wageDataYear
• wagePercentiles — { national: { annualWage, hourlyWage }, state?, stateCode?, stateName? } (10th/25th/50th/75th/90th)
• employmentCount, employmentDataYear
• projectedGrowthLabel, projectedGrowthPeriod, projectedJobOpenings, projectedJobOpeningsPeriod
• topIndustries[] — { industry, percentEmployed }
• relatedOccupations[], professionalAssociations[]
• onetUrl, onetDetailsUrl
• recordType: "occupation", scrapedAt

Output per occupation (mode = search / browseByJobZone / browseByBrightOutlook / browseByJobFamily / browseByIndustry / browseByCareerCluster / browseBySTEM / browseByHotTechnology)

• socCode, title, onetUrl, brightOutlook
• featuredMatch — best-match flag (mode=search only)
• jobZoneValue, jobZoneBrowseLabel — (mode=browseByJobZone only)
• brightOutlookCategory — (mode=browseByBrightOutlook only)
• jobFamilyValue, jobFamilyLabel — (mode=browseByJobFamily only)
• industryValue, industryLabel — (mode=browseByIndustry only)
• careerClusterValue, careerClusterLabel — (mode=browseByCareerCluster only)
• stemOccupation, stemCategoryValue, stemCategoryLabel — (mode=browseBySTEM only)
• hotTechnologyName — (mode=browseByHotTechnology only)
• recordType: "occupationSummary", scrapedAt

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
mode	string	bySocCode	bySocCode / search / browseByJobZone / browseByBrightOutlook / browseByJobFamily / browseByIndustry / browseByCareerCluster / browseBySTEM / browseByHotTechnology
socCodes	array	["15-1252.00"]	SOC codes to look up (mode=bySocCode), format ##-####.##
wageState	string	–	Optional US state for wage percentiles (mode=bySocCode)
searchQuery	string	electrician	Keyword to search occupation titles (mode=search)
jobZone	string	4	Job Zone bucket to browse (mode=browseByJobZone)
brightOutlookCategory	string	0	Bright Outlook category to browse (mode=browseByBrightOutlook)
jobFamily	string	15	Job Family (SOC major group) to browse (mode=browseByJobFamily)
industry	string	51	Industry sector to browse (mode=browseByIndustry)
careerCluster	string	060100	Career Cluster to browse (mode=browseByCareerCluster)
stemCategory	string	0	STEM category to browse (mode=browseBySTEM)
hotTechnology	string	Python	Employer-demand technology name to browse (mode=browseByHotTechnology)
titleContains	string	–	Keep only occupations whose title contains this text
brightOutlookOnly	boolean	false	Keep only Bright Outlook occupations
maxItems	int	50	Hard cap (1–1000)
proxyConfiguration	object	AUTO	Optional fallback; not required for this public site

Example: full occupation profile by SOC code

{
  "mode": "bySocCode",
  "socCodes": ["15-1252.00", "29-1141.00"],
  "wageState": "CA"
}

Example: keyword search

{
  "mode": "search",
  "searchQuery": "registered nurse",
  "brightOutlookOnly": true,
  "maxItems": 20
}

Example: browse by education/experience level

{
  "mode": "browseByJobZone",
  "jobZone": "4",
  "titleContains": "engineer"
}

Example: browse high-growth occupations

{
  "mode": "browseByBrightOutlook",
  "brightOutlookCategory": "1",
  "maxItems": 100
}

Example: browse by Job Family

{
  "mode": "browseByJobFamily",
  "jobFamily": "15",
  "maxItems": 50
}

Example: browse by Industry

{
  "mode": "browseByIndustry",
  "industry": "62",
  "maxItems": 50
}

Example: browse by Career Cluster

{
  "mode": "browseByCareerCluster",
  "careerCluster": "060100"
}

Example: browse STEM occupations

{
  "mode": "browseBySTEM",
  "stemCategory": "1"
}

Example: occupations that use a specific technology

{
  "mode": "browseByHotTechnology",
  "hotTechnology": "Python"
}

Use cases

• HR tech & ATS platforms — enrich job requisitions with standardized SOC task/skill data
• Job boards & career sites — power "explore this career" pages with real O*NET content
• Resume/job-matching tools — match candidate skills against occupation skill profiles
• Workforce development — identify Bright Outlook occupations for training program design
• Compensation benchmarking — pull national and state wage percentiles per occupation
• Career guidance & counseling apps — surface Job Zone education requirements and related occupations

FAQ

What is O*NET OnLine? O*NET OnLine is the US Department of Labor's free public database describing the world of work — occupation descriptions, tasks, skills, wages, and outlook for 900+ standardized occupations, based on the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system.

Is this affiliated with the US Department of Labor or O*NET? No. This is an independent, third-party actor that scrapes the public onetonline.org website. It is not endorsed by or affiliated with the US DOL, ETA, or the O*NET program.

Why isn't this actor using the official O*NET Web Services API? The official API (services.onetcenter.org) requires a registered account and API credentials. This actor uses the same free public website instead, so it works with zero configuration.

What's the difference between "Job Zone" browse values and an occupation's individual Job Zone? Every occupation has its own Job Zone (1–5) shown in its full profile. The browse page groups Job Zone 1 together with Job Zone 2 ("1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed") because O*NET OnLine doesn't publish a standalone Job Zone 1 browse bucket.

Why do some softwareSkills categories show fewer examples than the site lists? Categories with many examples show a "N more" link on the site that loads extra names via a pop-up, not in the page's initial HTML. The examples returned are the ones visible without that extra click.

How current is the wage and employment data? Wages and employment figures come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics data currently published on ONET OnLine (median wages, percentiles, employment counts, and projected growth), refreshed by ONET/BLS on their own schedule.

Can I get wage percentiles for a specific US state? Yes — set wageState (mode=bySocCode) to a two-letter US state code to include that state's wage percentiles alongside the national figures.

Does this actor require a proxy? No. onetonline.org is a public, unauthenticated site with no known IP-based blocking. The proxyConfiguration field exists only as a fallback and can be left at its default.

What is a "Hot Technology"? O*NET flags specific software/tools (e.g. Python, AWS, Salesforce) as "Hot Technologies" when employer job postings show rapidly growing demand for them. mode=browseByHotTechnology returns every occupation that reports using the selected technology.

What is a "Career Cluster"? O*NET's 2024-revised Career Clusters group occupations by broad career pathway (e.g. Digital Technology, Healthcare & Human Services) — a newer, coarser grouping than Job Family, aimed at career-exploration tools.

Are there browse axes on onetonline.org that this actor doesn't support? Yes, a few, deliberately excluded because they don't return reliable structured data without extra per-record requests or JavaScript rendering:

• Training & Credentials and Job Openings on the Web (per-occupation sections) are interactive state/ZIP-code search widgets with no static list content — they redirect to third-party sites (state training boards, CareerOneStop/ZipRecruiter) rather than returning data.
• "Green" occupations — O*NET OnLine has retired this as a standalone browse category; it no longer appears on the site.
• STEM sub-categories shown in the site's own dropdown (e.g. "Architecture and Engineering" under "Research, Development, Design, and Practitioners") 404 when requested directly — only the top-level STEM categories are exposed.