What is Occupational Requirements Survey?
This BLS survey describes what jobs require. It covers mental demands, physical demands, schedules, education, training, and experience.
- Full name
- Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Requirements Survey
- Published by
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Edition in EduInsights
- 2018 and 2023 final; 2025 preliminary
- Current availability
- Used in the current EduInsights data release.
Why it matters
Why we use Occupational Requirements Survey
This survey explains what jobs demand, including physical effort, working conditions, education, training, and experience.
What the job asks of people
You can see mental demands, physical demands, and working conditions for a job group.
How the workday is set up
The survey covers schedules, pace, breaks, and how much choice workers have over their work.
What employers expect before hiring
Education, training, experience, and other preparation appear as separate requirements.
Good to know
What to keep in mind
- The percentage is about workers, not companies
- It tells you how many workers face a requirement. One workplace may still look quite different from another.
- Two releases may not make a trend
- BLS sometimes changes a question or method. Check that the measure stayed the same before comparing years.
On its own
Questions this source can answer by itself
These questions need no facts from another source.
- How much decision-making does a job require?
- Which physical demands are common in a job?
- What preparation do workers usually need?
With other sources
Questions this source helps answer
We use another source only when it describes the same college, field, career, place, or time.
- Which job demands sit beside observed AI use?
- How do job requirements differ across related careers?
Where it stops
What this source cannot tell you
- The estimates describe job groups, not every workplace.
- BLS warns against treating successive releases as a time series.
- The source does not measure pay or future hiring.
Use this source in a real question.
Ask about a college, field, career, place, or change over time.
