Salary
Annual median wages provide a measure of typical earning potential for an occupation or labor market.
Better career decisions start with better context.
LaborCove combines career and labor-market data into a consistent framework for comparing occupations and geographic markets across the United States.
01
What LaborCove Measures
LaborCove evaluates occupations and geographic markets using multiple labor-market indicators rather than relying on a single statistic such as salary.
Employment
Employment levels help measure the size and depth of the market for a career.
Job Growth
Projected employment growth provides context about the expected direction of occupational demand.
Unemployment
Local unemployment conditions provide additional context about the strength of a geographic labor market.
Labor Force Participation
Labor force participation provides context about economic engagement within a geographic market.
Market Momentum
LaborCove evaluates changes in labor-market conditions to help identify markets that are strengthening or weakening.
02
How the LaborCove Score Works
LaborCove transforms labor-market indicators into comparable measures and combines them using a selected scoring model.
Collect
Career and economic data are organized by occupation, geography, and reporting period.
Standardize
Metrics with different units and scales are transformed into comparable measures.
Weight
Each scoring model assigns different importance to salary, growth, employment, and labor-market conditions.
Rank
Careers and markets are ranked relative to comparable opportunities using the selected scoring model.
03
Scoring Models
Different users have different priorities. LaborCove scoring models allow the same underlying labor-market data to be evaluated from different perspectives.
Balanced Opportunity
Evaluates careers using a broad combination of salary, employment, growth, and labor-market strength.
Income Focused
Places greater emphasis on earning potential when ranking career opportunities.
Growth Focused
Places greater emphasis on projected occupational growth and expanding career opportunities.
Stability Focused
Places greater emphasis on employment scale and broader labor-market stability.
04
Data Sources
LaborCove is built using publicly available United States labor-market and economic datasets.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational employment, wage, unemployment, labor force, and labor force participation data.
Employment Projections Programs
Occupational employment projections and expected job-growth measures.
LaborCove Derived Metrics
Standardized scores, momentum measures, opportunity scores, and rankings calculated from the underlying public datasets.
Important Considerations
LaborCove rankings are designed to support career research and comparison. Rankings are relative measures based on available data, selected scoring models, reporting periods, and LaborCove methodology.
LaborCove does not predict individual employment outcomes, guarantee future earnings, or replace personal, educational, financial, or professional career advice.
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