<p>The title pretty much says it all, but lets just say I wanted to be a ChemE (hypothetical situation here, I don't think I'm cut out for it). The job outlook says it's only gonna grow 6% (which the current job market is growing slow anyway, so that's pretty slow. Average for all occupations is 14%.) </p>
<p>Or, in contrast, what about jobs like environmental engineers, who expects to have a 22% increase?</p>
<p>Or what about other factors, like salaries?</p>
<p>So what is the question here? Should you trust the figures in the OOH? I would say the best answer is “mostly”. It is the best source available for this sort of thing. That said, it is also actively trying to predict the future, which is obviously not always very accurate.</p>
<p>In short, they do a good job but they aren’t infallible.</p>
<p>True, they are really the only ones who do this sort of thing. I was just wondering because unless there is a sudden change (like the almost random need for more nurses) would it be more likely to be true than false? Then again, I would almost have a hard time trusting any career that has a huge amount of growth on there, because that field is more likely to become saturated. Maybe I should start to think the opposite of the OOH?</p>
<p>There are so many sudden changes in the world, along with inaccuracies in the methodology, that the OOH is often seldom better than a toss-up as far as predictions go.
Definitely pay it some mind, but they are wrong about as often as they are right.</p>
<p>@BeachyPeachy the only reason actively betting against the OOH could work is if you assume everybody is using the OOH to determine their career choices. The honest truth is that most people are completely oblivious to the existence of this report, and it will in no way affect their choices. Note also that “growth rate” isn’t really as important as “number of new jobs”, which of course you can calculate from the other information they provide. Consider the whole picture: salary, new jobs, current jobs, and entry requirements. </p>
<p>@NeoDymium it seems pretty hard to conclusively say they’re “wrong” as often as they’re “right”. They aren’t answering multiple-choice questions, they’re trying to pull reasonable numbers more or less out of thin air. If they say that a field is going to grow by 10% and it only grows by 8%, is this “right” or “wrong”? If nothing else, the report is immensely useful in that it provides current figures, which can be assumed to be more-or-less accurate; knowing what a field currently pays and how many people are working in it does give a pretty good indication of the state of things, and if the projections are positive, all the better.</p>
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What their methodology really does is extrapolate based on current trends. If nothing changes, then their prediction should be pretty close.
But things change all the time. Basing a career off of OOH reports is a not-so-safe gamble.</p>