How to find and check a role
Find one of 830 detailed roles from BLS. Read its pay, job count, place patterns, and limits. Keep that exact SOC code in view.
830 detailed roles from one fixed source release
The job library has 830 detailed rows from BLS for May 2025. These span 22 main job groups. Each row keeps the BLS job title and six-digit SOC code. It also keeps the U.S. pay figures, job count, and link to the main group.
The list is not a set of résumé skills. It is not a list of open jobs. It is a source index for wage questions. Search narrows the official titles. A result opens a page for that exact code. If no title fits, change the words and read nearby official names before choosing a number.
Long official titles stay long because shortening them can change the meaning. WageScope may use a short page heading around the title, but the source name and code remain visible. A title ending in all other still has its own code and data row. It is not a catch-all page for any work.
Why the role's code matters
SOC is the Standard Occupational Classification system. BLS uses it to group work into named rows. The first two code digits point to a major group. The full six digits point to one detailed occupation. WageScope uses the full code for the page and the major group only for nearby-role links.
Two job titles can share words and still have different codes. Two codes can have close wage medians and still cover different work. WageScope does not merge them because a search tool thinks the names are alike. It does not use a job post to rewrite the official BLS identity.
When a role name feels broad, use the code as the anchor. Read the wage page. Check nearby SOC roles. Then inspect a real listing to see the employer's own title and needs. This order keeps a broad survey label from becoming a claim about one post.
Median, mean, and percentiles each have a use
Median marks the middle of the wage spread. Mean adds all wage values and splits the total by the number of jobs behind the estimate. A mean above the median can show that high values pull the average up. It does not tell us why those values are high.
The 10th, 25th, 75th, and 90th percentiles show more of the spread. Each point is a rank mark. It is not a worker level. It is not a time-to-pay rule. The middle half runs from the 25th to the 75th point. The broader shown span runs from the 10th to the 90th.
Some occupations have annual-only pay. Some high fields are top coded. WageScope uses the published period and state. It does not make an hourly number from an annual-only row. It does not guess a number above a top code. It shows not published when the source is blank.
Job counts do not show open jobs
BLS employment is the estimated number of wage and salary jobs in scope. It can show that one occupation has a much larger covered job base than another. It does not show how many posts are open now. It does not count people who work for themselves.
A national role page can show large metro job bases and high local shares. Employment answers how many covered jobs. Jobs per 1,000 answers how much of a local job base the role takes. Location quotient compares that local share with the national share. These fields do not form one demand score.
Job posts can help you learn about a firm. Each post has its own check date. A job with a large BLS count can have no close matches here today. A job with several matches can have a small BLS count. We keep both facts clear. Neither one predicts future hiring.
The same role can differ by place
Each occupation shard can hold national, state, metro, and nonmetro rows from the same pinned release. The page ranks only rows with the same published wage field. It leaves blank rows out of a rank. It keeps the denominator visible so rank 4 of 300 is not shown as rank 4 with no frame.
A high local median does not prove a large job base. A high location quotient does not prove high pay. A large job count does not prove a high share. WageScope shows separate pay, scale, and share lists because each one can lead to a different place.
Open a local page before using a place number. The local page adds the full wage ladder, state and U.S. bench marks, job scale, role mix, survey care, and exact BEA price context when present. It keeps the same SOC code from the national page.
Use major groups to keep looking, not to infer fit
The 22 major groups give the library a clear structure. A detailed role can link to other official roles in its group. WageScope can sort those peers by a published national median or find close wage marks. The link comes from the SOC family, not a model guess.
A nearby role is not a skill match. It is not a career path. It can have different tasks, training, work settings, and job counts. WageScope does not have approved duty or skill data in this BLS wage artifact, so it does not invent those facts to make a page longer.
Use a peer list as a search aid. Open the peer page. Check its code, wage spread, national job count, place pattern, and current strict job matches. Then use a job listing and your confirmed work history if you want to judge fit.
A strict title match protects the wage page
Public job search can show a broad set of matches to help you explore. A job card on a wage page needs a closer match. We check that the employer's title fits the job type. We leave out unclear matches, even if that means no cards appear.
The strict rule does not say BLS classified the listing. It says the employer title passed a MeritLog match check. The card keeps its source and seen date. WageScope does not copy the job description into page content, use job words to reach the word floor, or add JobPosting schema to a wage page.
The next step is to open one job. A full listing can show needs that an official occupation title cannot. Tailor only from confirmed work facts. A wage field, rank, or job count cannot become a résumé claim. The public role page remains read only.
Why the date stays beside the answer
May 2025 OEWS estimates is the wage source used across WageScope. The reference period is May 2025. BLS published the release on May 15, 2026. A current job post may have a newer date, but that does not make the government wage row newer. Each source keeps its own clock.
We check the BLS tables each week. If a full new release is out, we stop calling our older data the latest. We check the new files and review their use before release. We do not change an old date to look fresh. Each new source must pass the same data and page checks.
BEA price-level data has a separate clock. The current WageScope price source is for 2024. It was published on February 19, 2026. WageScope shows the wage and price periods together when both are used. It never says the two sources describe the same month.
What a current listing can and cannot add
A job card shows a firm, title, place, source, and check date. We keep only close matches between the employer's title and the BLS job type. A wage page may have no matching cards. We leave out unclear matches, even when this means a useful post does not appear.
A listing may show posted pay. That range belongs to one employer post. It never enters the BLS median, mean, percentile, employment count, or price-level proxy. A list of posts also does not become a hiring score. The BLS row and the public catalog answer different questions on different clocks.
Each wage page must explain its source data well enough to stand on its own. We do not count job-post text toward that review. Posts can change or close at any time. If no jobs match, or job search is down, you can still read the wage data. We say what happened and do not fill the list with sample jobs.
What WageScope does with a visit
This page uses public government facts and job details cleared for public use. It does not read your Career Memory, private jobs, pasted job text, private pay, or saved résumé. Opening a role or place does not add a fact to your private record. It does not start an AI task.
This page does not build a private profile from your search, role, place, pay, or job cards. Public analytics tools may get the page URL while they are on. These tools are GA4, Ahrefs, and Meta. Use Your Privacy Choices or Global Privacy Control to turn that off. You can use WageScope without signing in.
To work on a résumé, choose a job and enter the private MeritLog flow. You check the work facts used in each draft. A BLS wage, area rank, job count, or price estimate cannot become a claim about your work. You can still use the public page when the private tools are closed.