Career Pathway Charts
North Carolina classifies all careers into 11 career pathways.
- Agricultural and Natural Resources Technologies
- Arts and Sciences
- Biological and Chemical Technologies
- Business Technologies
- Commercial and Artistic Production Technologies
- Construction Technologies
- Engineering Technologies
- Health Sciences
- Industrial Technologies
- Public Service Technologies
- Transport Systems Technologies
The charts on the career pathway pages show trends in occupations based on these pathways. These charts allow comparison of careers within each career pathway. The following information is listed on these career pathway charts.
- SOC codes
- Minimum Postsecondary Education Required
- Growth Outlook
- Number of Current Workers in NC
- Average Entry-Level NC Salaries
- Average NC Salaries
SOC Codes
Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system classifies all careers and assigns a unique number to each. This SOC number can be used to follow up with other career databases. The links in the NC Career Pathway charts link to the Occupational Information Network O*NET OnLine website, which is maintained by the US Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration.
Minimum Postsecondary Education Required
Minimum education is the usual minimum level of postsecondary (after high school) education required for each career.
Some careers have on-the-job training (OJT), which means that you go straight to the job and learn while you work.
- short OJT - Short on-the-job training (less than one month)
- mod. OJT - Moderate on-the-job training (1 to 12 months)
- long OJT - Long on-the-job training (more than one year). Long OJT usually includes community college or trade school courses.
Some careers require further education after high school before starting the career.
- 1,2 year - One- or two-year program at a trade school or community college
- Associate - Associate's degree - two-year degree program at a community college
- Bachelor - Bachelor's degree - four-year degree program at a college or university
- Bach+work - Bachelor's degree plus related work experience
- Master - Master's degree - two or more years after Bachelor's degree
- Doctorate - Doctorate degree - three or more years after Bachelor's degree
- Profess. - Professional degree - three or more years after Bachelor's degree
- work exp. - Work experience in a related occupation
Growth Outlook
Growth outlook is the projected growth of the number of career openings per year in North Carolina from 2002 to 2012. High growth means that the number of openings are increasing, so the likelihood of getting a job in this career is good. Low growth means that there may not be any openings, so the likelihood of getting a job in this career is not very good.
- low - below average projected growth rate (less than 1% growth per year)
- moderate - average projected growth rate (between 1 and 2.1% growth per year)
- high - above average projected growth rate (over 2.1% growth per year)
Black text indicates that growth outlook data is not available.
Number of Current Workers in NC
Current workers (2002 data) is the number of people in North Carolina who are full-time and part-time employees, workers on paid vacation or other type of paid leave, workers assigned temporarily to other units and paid owners, officers and staff of incorporated firms. This excludes proprietors, owners and partners of unincorporated firms, unpaid family workers, workers on unpaid leave and contractors and temporary agency employees not on the company payroll.
Average Entry-Level NC Salaries
Salary entry is the estimated average salary (June 2005) for all entry-level (first-year) workers in this career in North Carolina.
Salary includes straight time, gross pay, exclusive of premium pay. Base rate, cost-of-living allowances, tips, guaranteed pay, hazardous-duty pay, incentive pay, commissions, production bonuses and on-call pay are included. Excluded is back pay, jury duty pay, overtime pay, severance pay, shift differentials, non-production bonuses and tuition reimbursements.
Average NC Salaries
Salary all is the estimated average salary (June 2005) for all workers in this career in North Carolina.
This information comes from multiple data tables from the NC Employment Security Commission - Labor Market Information. Blanks in this table represent missing data, some due to confidentiality because of small numbers of workers in an occupation.
This information is from the North Carolina Career Outlook Handbook.
This research was compiled and analyzed by Chris Droessler