What this does
Jobs Trends is the labor-market page for one state at a time. It puts two kinds of numbers on one page:
- Official statistics that cover the whole workforce: what workers in a career earn (the BLS wage survey), how that pay has moved over about twenty years, before and after inflation, the ten-year job outlook for the U.S. and your state, the routes people take into the career, and statewide hiring, quits and job openings.
- A sample of job postings collected from public sources: how many postings mention a career, which metros and employers they come from, what experience level they ask for, what pay they advertise and how the count moves month to month.
You can look at the whole state, or narrow everything to one career or one degree, one metro, one experience level and one industry.
It helps a student see where a career is in demand and what it pays where they live. It helps a parent check whether pay in a career has kept up with prices. It helps a counselor show the routes into a career, from on-the-job training to a degree, next to the employers and metros that are hiring.
Samantar is not a job board. You cannot apply for jobs here, no single posting is ever shown, and employer names are plain text, not links. The postings are a sample, so read them as direction, not as a count of every open job.
Before you start
- Pick a state. Jobs Trends needs one. With no state chosen, the page shows only Pick a state to see jobs trends. and the Showing data for menu. Choose the state where you plan to live or work. Every number on the page then comes from that state's own data. See Choosing a state.
- Know the career you care about. The page is most useful with one career chosen. The surest way is to open it from a career's own page: the link Hiring demand for [career] → on a career's detail page, or Hiring demand for this career → on a career hub, opens Jobs Trends with that career already chosen. You can also search for a career on the page itself (see "What happens after you pick" below for the difference).
- Start statewide. The page always opens at All [State], even if you chose a metro on an earlier page. Pick a metro after the page loads if you want one.
- Expect a thin sample in some states. In states where postings come only from free public sources, many careers have too few postings to chart. Wages, the outlook and hiring figures still show, because they come from official statistics.
In this guide, [State], [metro] and [career] stand for the names the page fills in.
Step by step
- Open Jobs Trends from the top menu, the home page tile, or a career page's Hiring demand for [career] → link. The title area shows Jobs Trends (or Jobs Trends — [career] when you arrived with a career) and a line Data refreshed [date] · postings from [first date] to [last date].
- If no state is set, choose one in Showing data for. The page reloads for that state.
- Read the amber notice that starts Samantar is not a job board. It says how much of the active market the postings cover in your state.
- Look at Headline numbers for [State]: total postings, how many metros they come from and how many careers they cover. Below it, Where these job postings come from lists each source and when its postings were collected.
- In Filters, click the box under Search career or degree (it shows e.g. nurse, software, finance, electrician…) and type at least two letters. A list opens with a Careers group and a Degrees group. Each row shows a name and [number] postings. A row that matched another name for the career reads [career] — matched: [the name you typed].
- Click a career or a degree. Every postings chart and number on the page narrows to it, a chip Career: [career] (or Degree: [degree]) with Remove ✕ appears under the box, and the title and headings name your pick. For a career, the career sections appear: Also known as, Paths into [career], BLS benchmark, the 10-year employment outlook, the two wage charts, the metro concentration table, Top employers per metro, Postings over time and the AI Outlook block.
- To narrow by place, open the [State] metro menu and pick a metro. Headings switch to the metro's name, the metro's unemployment chart appears, and the metro is lifted to the top of the concentration table. The menu's Statewide / remote postings — postings charts only narrows only the postings blocks (see the controls table).
- To narrow by level, click one of the Experience level chips, such as Entry · no degree. Each chip shows how many postings it would leave.
- To narrow by industry, pick one in Industry.
- In Paths into [career], use Pathway type, Max total cost, Max duration, License required and Military pathway to filter the route cards. In Texas, click View Texas schools ([number]) on a card to see each school's graduate earnings.
- Compare Salary stats (pay advertised in postings) with BLS benchmark (pay workers actually earn). Why two numbers? explains the gap.
- Read the 10-year employment outlook: the U.S. column and the [State] column each show their own base year and target year.
- Hover over a bar in Postings by metro to see the count, how many places a bar covers and, where available, how concentrated postings are against local employment.
- Read Wage Trajectory and Real Wage Trajectory. Hover over a year to see each line's dollar value.
- In Top employers per metro, click a metro's name to open its list of employers.
- Scroll on to Postings over time, Industry mix & top occupations, Hiring demand in [State], the unemployment chart (only with a metro chosen) and Employer geography in [State], where you can hover over a dot to see the employer and its posting count.
What happens after you pick a career on the page, and when you arrive with one
Arriving with a career already chosen (from a career page, a career hub, the old Jobs History address or any link that carries the career): the title reads Jobs Trends — [career], a line under it reads Showing for: [career], the chip Career: [career] with a Remove ✕ button sits under the search box, and the card headings name the career: Headline numbers for [career] in [State], Salary stats for [career] in [State], BLS benchmark for [career], 10-year employment outlook for [career], Where [career] concentrates in [State] and so on. Until the page has looked up the name, the chip reads Career chosen. Links in the top menu carry the career to the next page.
Picking a career in the search box on the page works the same way. All the data switches to the career you clicked (the headline tiles, every postings chart, the salary card, the BLS benchmark, the outlook, the concentration table, the employers, the wage charts, the paths, the other names and the AI Outlook), and so do the title, the Showing for: line, the chip and every heading. The search box empties, ready for another search. The career is written into the page address, so reloading keeps it and the top-menu links carry it to the next page. Picking a different career, or a degree, replaces it everywhere.
To go back to the whole state, click Remove ✕ on the chip. The career (or degree) leaves the page address, the title goes back to Jobs Trends, the headings go back to [State], and the career sections close.
Every control explained
| Control | Where | What it changes | Default | Tips |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Showing data for | Above the title | Switches the whole page to another state and reloads it. Switching between two states drops the chosen career, degree and metro, because those belong to one state. | The state you chose last | With no state set the page shows only a prompt and this menu. |
| Search career or degree | Filters card | After two letters, lists matching careers and degrees from the postings in your state. Short searches of up to four letters match whole words only, so "law" does not match "lawn". Common short forms work: RN, CPA, MBA and the like. | Empty | Only careers and degrees that appear in at least one posting in your state are listed. A career with no postings is still on its career page. |
| Clear (next to the box) | Filters card | Empties the box and closes the list. | Hidden until you type | It does not remove a career or degree you already picked; use Remove ✕ on the chip for that. |
| Search results list (Careers, Degrees) | Under the box | Clicking a row narrows the page to that career or degree. Picking a career replaces any degree, and the other way round. | Closed | [number] postings on the right is how many postings carry that career or degree. No matches for "[text]". means nothing in your state's postings matched. |
| Career: [career] / Degree: [degree] chip with Remove ✕ | Under the box | Shows the career or degree the page is narrowed to. Remove ✕ drops it from the page and from the page address and goes back to the whole state. | Hidden until a career or degree is chosen | Shown both after an on-page pick and when you arrive with a career or degree in the page address. |
| Experience level chips: All levels, Entry · no degree, Entry · UG/grad, Mid, Senior, Executive, Unclassified | Filters card | Narrows every postings chart, the salary card and the map to postings at that level. One chip is active at a time. | All levels | The number on each chip is how many postings you would see if you clicked it, given the other filters. Entry · no degree = open to people without a bachelor's; Entry · UG/grad = asks for a bachelor's or higher. Headline tiles do not follow this filter. |
| [State] metro: All [State], [metro] ([number]), Statewide / remote postings — postings charts only ([number]) | Filters card | Narrows the page to one metro: headline tiles, postings charts, salary card, cost-of-living line, wage charts, map. It moves the metro to the top of the concentration table and opens its employer list. With a real metro it also shows that metro's unemployment chart and hides Postings by metro. | All [State], every time the page opens | Metros are listed by posting count, largest first; metros with no postings are left out. The count in brackets is only in the menu: headings and chart notes use the metro's name alone, e.g. Wage Trajectory for [career] in [metro]. Statewide / remote postings — postings charts only holds postings with no fixed place or no city. It narrows only the postings blocks: Postings by experience level, Postings by metro, Industry mix & top occupations, Salary stats (advertised pay), Postings over time, Employer geography and the experience-chip counts; Salary stats and Monthly posting volume are then headed [State] statewide / remote postings. Everything else stays statewide and keeps the state's name: the headline tiles, the cost-of-living line, BLS benchmark, the outlook, the wage charts, the concentration table and employers, and Hiring demand. |
| Industry | Filters card | Narrows every postings chart, the salary card and the map to one industry. | All industries | Only industries with at least five postings are offered, each with its count. Headline tiles do not follow this filter. |
| Pathway type chips: No formal credential, On-the-job training, Apprenticeship, Certificate, Associate's, Bachelor's, Master's, Professional doctorate, Research doctorate | Paths into [career] | Shows only route cards of the chosen types. You can turn on several. | None on (all types shown) | Filters stay set when you switch to another career. |
| Max total cost: Any, Free ($0), Under $5,000, Under $25,000, Under $75,000 | Paths into [career] | Hides routes whose top-end cost is above the limit. | Any | A route with no cost on record is hidden once you set a limit. |
| Max duration: Any, 6 months or less, 1 year or less, 2 years or less, 4 years or less | Paths into [career] | Hides routes that take longer. | Any | A route with no duration on record is hidden once you set a limit. |
| License required: Any, No license needed, License required | Paths into [career] | Keeps routes with, or without, a required license. | Any | |
| Military pathway: Any, Military path available | Paths into [career] | Keeps routes flagged as having a military path. | Any | This flag comes from the career's route data; Samantar has no separate military data. |
| Reset filters | Paths into [career], in the line Showing [n] of [total] pathways | Clears all five route filters. | Shown only when a filter is on | |
| View [State] schools ([number]) | Each route card | Opens a window listing the schools in your state that teach that route, with graduate earnings. | Closed | Works in Texas only. Elsewhere the button reads School outcomes not yet available for [State] and cannot be clicked. No [State] school data means no school matched that route. |
| Filter by institution or award level... | Schools window | Narrows the school table as you type, by school name or award level. | Empty | The count line changes to Showing [n] of [total] institutions. |
| Close ×, the Esc key, or a click outside the window | Schools window | Closes the window. | — | |
| About this rating | AI Outlook block | Opens the chart of task exposure by year, the most exposed tasks and the sources. | Closed | Shown only for a career, not for a degree. |
| Metro rows in Top employers per metro | Top employers card | Click a metro's line to open or close its list of employers. | All closed, except the metro you chose in the metro menu, which opens and moves to the top | The concentration table above it cannot be sorted or clicked. |
| Chart hover (all charts) | Every chart | Shows the value under the pointer. On Postings by metro it adds Across [n] places, Active jobs (BLS CES) and Concentration where available. | — | Charts have no zoom or range controls. |
| Map dots and city labels | Employer geography in [State] | Hovering a dot shows [employer] — [n] postings ([city]). A city label turns green when it matches the metro you chose. | — | The map cannot be zoomed or moved. |
| Top menu links, including Jobs History | Top of the page | Go to other pages, carrying your state and the career or degree you have chosen. | — | Jobs History (where it still shows) comes straight back to this page. |
| Report a problem | Page footer | Opens an email to Samantar with the page name filled in. | — | Say which state, career and metro you had chosen. |
Reading the results
The cards appear in this order from top to bottom. Some show only when a career is chosen, a metro is chosen, or the sample is large enough; each part below says when.
Title area and the not-a-job-board notice
- Data refreshed [date] · postings from [first] to [last]: the date the postings were last collected for your state, then the earliest and latest posting dates held. No ingest run recorded yet. means no collection has finished for that state.
- Showing for: [career] (or [degree]): appears whenever a career or degree is chosen, whether it came in the page address or you picked it on the page.
- The amber notice reads, word for word: "Samantar is not a job board. We do not host job applications, do not recruit, and do not refer candidates to employers. The numbers on this page come from a sample of public [State] job postings ([coverage]) and are shown to surface market trends — typical pay, in-demand metros, employer concentration, cert/license signals — not absolute hiring volume. Salary, employer, and metro figures are statistical estimates based on what's been collected; they may include outliers, mis-tagged postings, or unit-conversion errors. Nothing on this page is financial, career, or employment advice — see the disclaimer in the footer." The [coverage] words are explained under "The postings sample" below.
AI Outlook (career only)
When a career is chosen, an AI Outlook block appears directly under the amber notice, above Headline numbers. It shows a colored label, a short reason, a What this means: line and, under About this rating, a chart of P(substituted) and P(augmented) by year with an 80% band, a list headed Top exposed tasks: and a Sources: line naming the research publishers. The percentages describe the share of a typical workday's task time that AI could take over or assist, not the share of people who lose their jobs. The ratings are a fixed research catalog, the same in every state. If a career is not in the catalog yet, the block says the rating is not yet available. It does not appear for a degree: picking a degree, or removing the career with Remove ✕, clears it.
Headline numbers
| Item | Meaning | Unit | How it is computed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total postings / Postings for this career (sub-line Deduped) | Postings held for your state, or for the chosen career | Count | Every posting collected for the state, after duplicates are removed, narrowed by the career and metro you chose |
| [State] metros (with at least 1 posting) | How many metros the postings come from | Count | Distinct metros; reads 1 when you chose a metro |
| Distinct occupations (no career chosen) | How many careers the postings were matched to | Count | Distinct careers across the postings |
| Share of [state abbreviation] postings (career chosen; sub-line vs all [state abbreviation] postings) | How big a slice of all the state's postings this career is | Percent | Career's postings (in the chosen metro, if any) divided by all postings in the state |
| Coverage note: [n]% of postings carry an experience-level label … | Shown when fewer than 85% of postings have an experience level | Percent | Postings with a level divided by all postings; the rest form the Unclassified chip |
The headline tiles follow the career and the metro only, not the experience, industry or degree filters.
Where these job postings come from
One notice and one line per source: [source]: [n] postings, collected [month] – [month]. The dates are when Samantar collected the postings, not when they were posted. See "The postings sample" below for the wording of each notice. The card stays hidden if this information cannot be loaded.
Also known as (career only)
Up to twelve other job titles people use for the career, from the O*NET occupation database. Use them to check you picked the right career. The row is hidden when the career has none.
Paths into [career] (career only)
One card for every route into the career: no formal credential, on-the-job training, apprenticeship, certificate, associate's, bachelor's, master's or doctorate. The routes come from O*NET's education, training and experience data, sorted into these types by Samantar. Each card shows:
- a tag: primary, common, alternate or rare, for how often people take this route;
- Typical duration: Immediate, months ([n] mo) or years;
- Typical cost: Free, a dollar range, or up to $[n], for the whole route;
- Starting wage and Confidence, when the route data has them;
- flags License: [license name] and Military path; in Texas, a short Texas note where one exists;
- the school button described in the controls table.
The schools window (Texas only) is titled [State] schools for [route], lists schools alphabetically, and has the columns Institution, Award level, Cohort (graduates in the group), Median 1y wage, Median 5y wage and Median 10y wage (median yearly earnings one, five and ten years after graduating). The figures come from the U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard, for the most recent graduating class with earnings on record. A dash means the federal data was withheld because the class was small, not that there were no graduates. Routes such as on-the-job training or apprenticeship have no school list.
Salary stats (pay advertised in postings)
Headed Salary stats — [State]-wide, Salary stats — [metro], or Salary stats for [career] in [State or metro], with the tag 📈 Advertised in current postings (sample). All figures are yearly dollars and follow every filter on the page.
| Tile | Meaning | How it is computed |
|---|---|---|
| Entry salary (p25) | "Roughly the entry-level floor for this filter." | The 25th percentile of advertised yearly pay |
| Median (p50) | "Middle of the wage distribution." | The 50th percentile |
| 75th percentile | Three in four advertised salaries are at or below this | The 75th percentile |
| Mean | Average advertised salary | Sum divided by count |
| Typical range (P10–P90) | The middle 80% of advertised salaries | 10th to 90th percentile; the sub-line explains the filter (below) |
| Salary coverage | [n] of [total] postings include a salary | Postings with a usable salary, after the outlier filter, divided by all matching postings |
For each posting, Samantar takes the middle of the advertised range (or the one figure given) and turns it into a yearly amount: hourly pay times 2,080 hours, weekly pay times 52, monthly pay times 12. Percentiles are then read from the sorted list.
The salary-outlier filter. Before any salary figure is computed, every yearly amount below $20,000 or above $1,000,000 is removed. Amounts under $20,000 a year are almost always a weekly or hourly rate stored as yearly pay, a per-shift rate or a typo (a full-time job at the federal minimum wage pays about $15,080 a year). Amounts over $1,000,000 are treated as errors too. The removed postings count toward nothing: not the percentiles, not the mean, not Salary coverage. When anything was removed, the Typical range tile says so: "Middle 80% of the postings that pass our salary sanity floor. [n] suspect posting(s) excluded (raw range was $[lowest] – $[highest] — likely wrong-unit or mis-tagged data)." The filter is always on and has no control. (The old one-page guide described a different rule based on percentiles; that rule is no longer used.)
If fewer than 30 postings with a usable salary remain after the filter, the whole Salary stats card is hidden, together with Why two numbers?. No partial figures are shown.
Under the tiles, a cost-of-living line may read Cost of living in [place] is about [n]% above (or below) the U.S. average, or roughly equal to the U.S. average, followed by (BLS CPI, [month or "annual"] [year]). It compares the BLS Consumer Price Index for the place with the U.S. City Average. BLS publishes a price index for only a few metros; for other places the line adds, in italics, that it shows the BLS average for your state's own region (Northeast, Midwest, South or West), or the U.S. City Average, as the closest proxy. The line is hidden when no index is available for the place, its region or the U.S.
BLS benchmark (career only)
Tagged 📊 Actual wages paid (BLS OEWS survey), with the line "[State]-wide survey of actual wages paid to currently-employed workers in this career." Four tiles in yearly dollars: Entry (P25) ("Conservative entry-level estimate."), Median (P50), 75th percentile and Mean. They come from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for your state, May 2024. This card is statewide only: it does not change with the metro, experience or industry filters. It is hidden if BLS publishes no statewide figure for the career.
Why two numbers? appears when both cards show. Advertised pay comes from the postings sample, not every posting lists pay, and employers often advertise the bottom of a pay band, so it usually runs lower. The BLS figure is what workers in the career actually earn. The page's own advice: postings for "what's the open-roles market doing right now"; BLS for "what does this career pay."
10-year employment outlook (career only)
Two columns, U.S. National and [State] Statewide. Each column shows its own row:
- BASE YEAR and TARGET YEAR: the years the projection starts and ends. Read these for each column, because the two columns can cover different years. The U.S. column comes from BLS Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034. The state column comes from the state's long-term occupational projections via Projections Central: 2022 to 2032 for most states, 2024 to 2034 for New York (from the New York State Department of Labor) and Hawaii. The intro sentence above the columns names the same years as each column.
- JOBS (BASE) and JOBS (TARGET): the number of jobs in the career in those years.
- CHANGE: the projected change in jobs, with an up or down arrow, as a percentage.
- ANNUAL OPENINGS: the average number of openings each year over the period, from growth plus people leaving the career.
- Typical entry education: the education BLS says people typically need to enter.
A column with no projection for the career is hidden; if neither has one, the whole card is hidden. After you pick a degree, the card shows Select a career above to see the 10-year outlook., because projections exist for careers, not degrees. A projection is an estimate, not a promise.
Too few postings to chart
Every chart built from posting counts needs at least 30 postings behind it. When your filters leave fewer, this card replaces them and reads No postings in [State] match this filter. or Only [n] posting(s) in [State] match(es) this filter, too few to chart (we need at least 30)., then a sentence on how much of the market your state's postings cover, then "Wages, job openings and the 10-year outlook on this page come from official statistics and are complete." The experience, metro, industry, postings-over-time and map cards hide while it shows.
By experience level in [State or metro]
- Postings by experience level: one bar per level (the same six levels as the chips), counting postings under all your filters.
- Postings by metro: the fifteen metros or towns with the most postings, and one bar Other [State] towns for the rest. Postings in the statewide bucket that name a real town are shown under the town's name; postings with no fixed place show as Statewide / remote. Hover for Postings: [n], Across [n] places (on the "Other" bar), and, for metros covered by the BLS Current Employment Statistics survey, Active jobs (BLS CES): [n] (total jobs in the metro, latest month) and Concentration: [x]× expected (the metro's share of postings divided by its share of jobs; above 1 means more postings than its size suggests). This chart hides when you pick a single metro. It does not follow the metro menu otherwise.
Wage Trajectory for [career] in [place] (career only)
Three lines by year, in dollars of each year (not adjusted for inflation): p10 (dashed, the bottom 10% of earners, roughly the entry level), Median (p50) (filled) and p90 (dashed, the top 10%, roughly the senior level). Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, every year on record for the career up to May 2024. The footnote gives the place and Coverage: [first year]–[last year] ([n] years).
The chart follows the metro menu. For each year it uses the metro's own figure when BLS published one, and the statewide figure otherwise, so a metro chart can mix metro years and statewide years. When every year is statewide (always the case with All [State]), the footnote adds Showing [State] statewide (no metro-level data for this career). When some years are the metro's and some statewide, it adds Years without metro data use statewide figures. No wage history yet for this career and metro. means BLS has no figures for it.
Real Wage Trajectory for [career] in [place] (inflation-adjusted)
The same median wage, restated in dollars of the latest year using the BLS Consumer Price Index for all urban consumers (U.S. City Average, yearly averages). Above the chart:
- Real growth [first year]→[last year]: [±n]%: how much buying power the median gained or lost, in green when it beat inflation by more than one point, red when it fell more than one point behind, blue in between.
- Nominal pay growth: [±n]%: the change in the median before adjusting for prices.
- Inflation (CPI): +[n]%: how much prices rose over the same years.
The colored line is Median pay (in [year] dollars); the dashed gray line If pay had only matched inflation stays flat at the first year's value. Above the gray line is real growth; below it is a real pay cut. The footnote says whether the median outpaced inflation, fell behind inflation or kept pace with inflation. Not enough wage data with matching CPI values to compute inflation-adjusted wages. appears when no year has both a wage and a price index.
Where [career] concentrates in [State] (career only)
A table of the ten metros where the career makes up the largest share of postings compared with the state as a whole:
- Metro; selected marks the metro you chose, which moves to the top.
- Postings (this career); (low sample) marks metros with fewer than 20.
- LQ (Location Quotient) = (the career's share of postings in this metro) ÷ (the career's share of postings statewide). Above 1.0 means the career is more concentrated here than across the state. Because it is a ratio of ratios, it holds up even when the sample under-counts some places.
- All postings (metro): every posting in that metro.
A metro needs at least five postings for the career to be listed. Postings with no fixed place are left out. If you chose a metro, a line above the table reads Your selected metro: [metro] — LQ [x], ranks [r] of [n], and adds (low sample) or — below the cutoff to appear in the table below when that applies. When no metro qualifies, the table says the career is a niche role with only a few postings in the sample, or that there are no postings for it yet.
Top employers per metro (career only)
For each metro in the table above, a line [metro] — LQ [x], [n] postings that opens to a numbered list [employer] — [n] postings (last seen [date]): up to ten employers with the most postings for the career, ties broken by the most recent posting. Employer names are as written in the postings. The card hides when no metro qualified.
Postings over time (career or degree only)
A line of postings per month, headed Monthly posting volume — [State or metro]. If the chosen metro has no history for the career, it shows the whole state and the heading says (state level — no posting history for [metro]). Below: Data window: [first month] → [last month]. [n] of [total] postings have a date stamp ([n]% coverage). It needs at least 30 dated postings. Postings are counted by the month they were posted, and the newest month is usually still filling in.
Industry mix & top occupations in [State or metro]
- Top industries: up to twelve industries with the most postings (at least five each).
- Top occupations: up to fifteen careers with the most postings. It is hidden while a career is chosen, because the automatic matching of postings to careers is not reliable enough to suggest related careers. It is replaced by Too few postings per career to rank occupations here: the most common career has fewer than 30 postings. when the leader has under 30.
Hiring demand in [State]
Three tiles, Job openings, [month year], Hires, [month year] and Quits, [month year]: people per month across all industries, with [n]% rate and [±n]% vs a year earlier. A line chart shows five years of the three series. Source line: BLS JOLTS state estimates, seasonally adjusted · [month] – [month], plus · latest month preliminary when BLS has not finalized the last month. This card is statewide and ignores every filter.
[metro] unemployment trend (metro only)
Appears only when you choose a real metro. A line of the metro's monthly unemployment rate (percent, not seasonally adjusted) over up to five years, from the BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics. Source line: BLS LAUS · [n] months ending [year-month]. The newest month is a first estimate that BLS revises.
Employer geography in [State]
A map of your state with a dot for each employer location in the matching postings (up to 500 dots). Larger dots mean more postings at that spot. The line above reads Showing [n] employer-location points ([n] of [total] matching postings have lat/lng — [n]% coverage)., then how many remote postings there are and the top remote employers, and how many postings could not be placed. Hover a dot for the employer, count and city. The map is not drawn for the District of Columbia, and it hides under the 30-posting floor.
The postings sample
The postings are an accumulating sample: Samantar keeps every posting it has collected for the state, removes duplicates (including the same federal listing seen twice), and never deletes old ones. Since October 2026 new postings come only from free public sources, mainly federal USAJobs listings and a small number of employer job boards (The Muse). Before that, Samantar also bought postings from paid job-data providers. It stopped in October 2026 and kept what those providers had supplied as dated history: Texas and California hold several months of it, and Florida, New York, Illinois and Georgia hold a one-time snapshot from October 2026. Other states have free sources only.
The Where these job postings come from card shows one of three notices, chosen from your state's data:
- Several months of paid history: "Includes job postings collected from paid job-data providers between [month] and [month]. Postings since then come from free public sources only."
- A one-time snapshot: "Most job postings shown for [State] come from a one-time snapshot collected from paid job-data providers in [month]. We no longer use paid providers, so new postings come only from free public sources, mainly federal USAJobs listings and a small number of employer job boards. Those are a small sample that leans toward government and tech roles."
- Free sources only: "Job postings for [State] come from free public sources only, mainly federal USAJobs listings and a small number of employer job boards. This is a small sample that leans toward government and tech roles, not a full picture of the job market."
The last two end with: "Wages, employment, education and cost-of-living figures come from official federal statistics and are complete." Source lines name USAJobs (federal listings), The Muse (employer job boards), and, where kept, paid providers such as Adzuna (paid provider).
The coverage words in the amber notice and the concentration footnote compare the postings held with the state's latest monthly job openings from BLS JOLTS: an estimated [n]% of the active market when that share is 1% or more, less than 1% of the active market below that, and only part of the active market when no openings figure is available. In free-source states they start with mostly federal job listings,. It is a rough guide: the postings span many months, the openings figure is one month.
Each figure is produced as described in how the figures are produced.
Worked example
A parent in Pennsylvania checking registered nursing for their daughter.
- On the Registered Nurses career page, with Pennsylvania chosen, they click Hiring demand for Registered Nurses →. Jobs Trends opens titled Jobs Trends — Registered Nurses, with Showing for: Registered Nurses under it and the metro menu at All Pennsylvania.
- The amber notice says the Pennsylvania postings are mostly federal job listings and cover less than 1% of the active market. Where these job postings come from shows the free-sources notice and a line for USAJobs.
- The AI Outlook block sits under the notice with its label and a short reason. Opening About this rating shows the task-exposure chart by year.
- Headline numbers for Registered Nurses in Pennsylvania shows a small count of postings, the metros they come from and the career's share of the state's postings as a percentage.
- Also known as lists other titles for the job. Paths into Registered Nurses shows cards for an associate's and a bachelor's route with duration, cost range and a license flag; the school button reads School outcomes not yet available for Pennsylvania.
- There are fewer than 30 nursing postings with a salary, so Salary stats does not appear. BLS benchmark for Registered Nurses does: four yearly dollar figures from the May 2024 survey.
- The 10-year employment outlook for Registered Nurses shows the U.S. column from 2024 to 2034 and the Pennsylvania column from 2022 to 2032, each with jobs at both ends, the percentage change and openings per year.
- Too few postings to chart replaces the experience and metro charts, explains the 30-posting minimum and reminds them that wages and the outlook are complete.
- Wage Trajectory for Registered Nurses in All Pennsylvania shows the three pay lines over many years, with the footnote noting statewide figures. Real Wage Trajectory shows whether the median beat inflation over that span, with the three growth figures above the chart.
- The concentration table says nursing is a niche role in the current Pennsylvania sample, so Top employers per metro does not appear. Hiring demand in Pennsylvania shows the state's latest openings, hires and quits.
- They pick Pittsburgh in the metro menu. The wage charts switch to Pittsburgh's figures where BLS has them, and a Pittsburgh unemployment trend chart appears.
What they take away: what nurses in Pennsylvania earn and whether that pay has kept up with prices, how many nursing jobs the state expects, and the routes in. The postings say little in this state, and the page says so.
Common questions
- Why does a value show "—"?
- The figure is missing in the source: BLS did not publish it, the career has no projection, the route has no cost on record, or a school's class was too small for federal data to be released. Samantar never fills a gap with a guess.
- Why is there no 10-year outlook for my career?
- Neither BLS nor your state publishes a projection for it, so the card is hidden. If only one column shows, only that geography has a projection. After picking a degree, the card asks you to pick a career, because projections are made for careers.
- Why are the Salary stats missing?
- Fewer than 30 postings with a usable salary match your filters after the $20,000 to $1,000,000 filter. Remove a filter or choose All [State]. The BLS benchmark still shows what workers earn.
- Why are advertised pay and BLS pay different?
- They measure different things. Postings show what employers advertise now, often the bottom of a pay band, and only some postings list pay. BLS shows what all workers in the career earned in May 2024, from a survey of employers.
- Why don't I see "Too few postings" in Texas but do in Ohio?
- States differ in how many postings Samantar holds. Texas and California kept months of postings from paid providers; states with free sources only, mostly federal listings, have far fewer, so many filters drop below 30.
- Why can't I find my career in the search box?
- The box lists only careers and degrees that appear in at least one posting in your state. Open the career from Careers and use its Hiring demand link: wages, outlook and paths show even with no postings.
- How do I go back to the whole state after choosing a career?
- Click Remove ✕ on the Career: [career] chip under the search box. The page drops the career, from the address too, and shows [State] as a whole.
- I chose a metro on another page. Why does Jobs Trends open at All [State]?
- The page always opens statewide on purpose. Pick the metro again in the [State] metro menu.
- Why do similar careers show very different posting numbers?
- Postings are matched to careers automatically from their titles and text, and the sample leans toward government and tech roles. A career employers advertise under many titles, or mostly outside federal listings, can look smaller than it is. Use the BLS figures for size.
- Why did the newest month change since yesterday?
- New postings are added as they are collected, so the latest month of Postings over time fills in over time. The newest month of unemployment and of hires, openings and quits is a first estimate that BLS revises.
- Why is there no school list outside Texas?
- School-level graduate earnings are matched to routes only for Texas so far. Elsewhere the button says outcomes are not yet available for your state.
- Why does the cost-of-living line mention a region?
- BLS publishes a price index for only a few metros. For others the line uses the average for your state's BLS region (Northeast, Midwest, South or West), or the U.S. City Average when there is none, as the closest proxy, and says so in italics.
- Why is the map missing?
- It hides under the 30-posting floor, and it is not drawn for the District of Columbia, where nearly every posting maps to one point.
- What does "Statewide / remote postings — postings charts only" mean in the metro menu?
- Postings with no fixed place or no city. Choosing it narrows the postings blocks to those postings (the postings charts, advertised pay, postings over time and the map). The headline tiles, wages from BLS, the cost-of-living line, the outlook and hiring demand stay statewide, which is why their headings keep the state's name.
What this does NOT do
- It is not a job board. You cannot apply, no single posting is listed, and employer names are not links.
- It is not advice. Nothing here tells you which career to choose.
- Its figures are estimates, not guarantees: the postings are a sample, wages are from May 2024, and projections and AI ratings are forecasts.
- It does not count every open job. Use Hiring demand in [State] for official openings.
- It stores nothing about you. You need no account; signing in is only for saving reports, and this page has no save button.
- It shows school-level earnings for routes into a career in Texas only.
Related
- Open Jobs Trends
- Jobs History: where the old history page's sections are now.
- A career's detail page: the usual way in, with the Hiring demand link.
- Careers: find a career by name or credential.
- Non-Degree Pathways: certificates, licenses and direct-entry routes with cost and pay.
- Compare careers: put careers side by side.
- Most-hired careers right now and Real-wage winners and losers on the state pages.
- Choosing a state and Privacy and limits.