Our Data Sources
At GoTradeSchools.com, every number you see – wages, job growth, school listings, rankings, and licensing – comes from primary U.S. government data, not estimates or marketing. We pull directly from federal agencies, label the release year, and link back to the original source so you can verify it yourself.
The table below shows each dataset we rely on and the exact vintage currently in use. Our wage figures come from BLS OEWS, job-growth figures from BLS Employment Projections, our school directory from IPEDS 2024, and our outcomes data from College Scorecard.
| Data | Provider | Vintage |
|---|---|---|
| Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) | U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics | May 2025 |
| Employment Projections | U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics | 2024-2034 |
| Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System | National Center for Education Statistics (IPEDS) | 2024 |
| College Scorecard (school-level outcomes) | U.S. Department of Education | latest release |
| College Scorecard (field-of-study earnings) | U.S. Department of Education | latest release (updated 2026-06-12) |
| Occupational licensing requirements | CareerOneStop (U.S. Department of Labor) | latest release (updated 2026-02-22) |
| Registered apprenticeship programs | CareerOneStop / Apprenticeship.gov (U.S. Department of Labor) | latest release (updated 2025-10-25) |
| CPI inflation & JOLTS labor turnover | U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics | latest release (updated 2026-06-14) |
| Fair Market Rents (rent by county/metro) | U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development | FY2025 (updated 2026-06-14) |
| O*NET occupation profiles (skills, tasks, tools, job zones) | U.S. Department of Labor (O*NET / Employment & Training Admin.) | O*NET 29.1 (updated 2026-06-13) |
How to Read These
- BLS OEWS (Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics) – the wage and salary figures shown on our trade career pages: median pay, average pay, and the full pay range by occupation and state.
- BLS Employment Projections – the job-growth and future-openings numbers: how fast a trade is expected to grow and roughly how many openings to expect each year.
- IPEDS (Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System) – our directory of schools: institution names, locations, programs offered by CIP code, and whether training is available online.
- College Scorecard – the school-level outcomes behind our rankings: graduation and retention rates, median graduate earnings, and average net price.
- CareerOneStop (U.S. Department of Labor) – state-by-state licensing requirements for the trades, plus registered apprenticeship programs you can apply to.
If a number ever looks out of date, check the vintage column above. We refresh these sources as each agency releases new data.