BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook

What it does

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes median pay, typical entry-level education, headcount and projected ten-year change for hundreds of occupations, with the survey methodology written out rather than implied. It is the antidote to crowd-sourced salary sites, because nobody is self-selecting into the sample. The trade-off is grain and lag: national medians, published annually, always a year or two behind the market.

Best for

• Sanity-checking a salary claim
• Choosing a field rather than a job

Where it stops