Why The Career Index?



State and federal agencies are increasingly being asked to do more with less.

The Career Index represents a unique "force multiplier" for your front lines. It has been officially adopted by the states of Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois, Iowa and Texas and is used by more than 8,000 users in 46 other states. Why?

  • It has been designed with a counselor's workflow in mind.
  • It creates better outcomes in a shorter period time.
  • It provides better, more complete and easy to understand information, especially critical, local information - everything your counselors and providers need to quickly determine if a job is suitable and economically viable on a local level.
  • It has more current, local job openings than any other system - including access to the huge "hidden job market."
  • It is by far the easiest career information system to use in the market.
  • It's free. Free to the state, to their counselors, their providers and even their consumers. There is no license to buy, no updates or maintenance to pay for, no technical infrastructure to create and no hidden costs.

Simply put, The Career Index is the most comprehensive career information system available in America today - and arguably the easiest to use.

To watch a short video on how to use The Career Index click on a link below:
For high definition, click here.

For normal screens, click here.

Note: If you need closed captioning, click on the "CC" button at the bottom of the video when it appears.

Frequently Asked Questions:

How much does it cost to use The Career Index? It is always free of charge.

What is the "catch"? There really is none. We hope that our basic Informed Choice application can provide you with an idea of the power of our technology. At the same time, counselors have an effective tool to use where they do not need to worry about purchasing.

Can clients and consumers use it too? Yes, it is free for anyone to access. In fact, we include several tools for counselors to make it simple and easy to invite the consumers to use The Career Index.

Can I access information that is not in our state? Yes, The Career Index includes local career information for all areas in the U.S.

Where do you get your information? The foundation of the information in The Career index is O*NET 15. We then link the latest information from sources such as The Bureau of Labor Statistics, The Department of Labor, state labor market information divisions, The Department of Education, The Department of Defense, The Department of Commerce as well as credible private sources such as Indeed and SimplyHired and Google. A complete list of sources is included in every report produced by The Career Index.

How often is the information updated? Constantly! Job openings are updated in real-time. So is local salary information and job trends. Information from BLS and the Departments of Labor, ED, Commerce and Defense as well as State Labor Market Divisions is updated when new information from the relevant agency is available.

How long does it take to learn to use The Career Index? If you can master Google, you can produce your first, complete occupational report in about 5-10 minutes. When you first create an account, you will be presented with a closed-captioned video that will show you how. That said, there are a lot of "hidden gems" in The Career Index. We have learned a considerable amount of tips and tricks from our users that we share in free, online training sessions.

Why do users need to register? In order to continuously make The Career Index the best it can be for our users, we need to know who they are and how they use it. We constantly improve the system and with registration we can inform you of the upgrades and how to use them. Your email address is strictly confidential and is never provided to any third party outside The Career Index. For more information about our privacy policy click here.

The Career Index includes:

  • Two types of local salary information: The latest state and local salary data from The Bureau of Labor Statistics AND ultra-current salary data culled from the latest, local job ads from employers.
  • The latest employment projections available from the State Labor Market Information Division as well as 5-year job posting trends showing you which way the market is moving for a particular occupation.
  • More than 6 million current job openings, updated in real-time. We even include e-mail alerts summarizing new postings for your selected occupation and area on a daily basis.
  • License Requirements and Certifications by occupation for your state.
  • Education and Experience Requirements. We include OJT information and typical qualification statements, job zone levels and more.
  • Knowledge, Skills and Abilities as well as work activities, work context, tasks, tools, work styles and work values from O*NET 15. We have invented a new way of displaying this information that makes it easier to determine if a certain disability may require job modifications or prevent someone from succeeding in this job.
  • More than 200,000 related training programs linked to occupations and displayed on a convenient map. We include information on costs, length, accreditation, graduation rates, financial aid and much more.
  • Access to Local Employers and the Hidden Job Market related industries, expected growth and links to related local employers with address, phone, website and street view, all neatly plotted on a map.
  • And there is more, like career videos, automatic translations of military titles to civilian counterparts, detailed industry references and staffing patterns, DOT conversions, career ladders, and much more.