The O*NET® Content Model
The Content Model is the conceptual foundation of O*NET. The Content Model provides a framework that identifies the most important types of information about work and integrates them into a theoretically and empirically sound system.
The Content Model was developed using research on job and organizational analysis. It embodies a view that reflects the character of occupations (via job-oriented descriptors) and people (via worker-oriented descriptors). The Content Model also allows occupational information to be applied across jobs, sectors, or industries (cross-occupational descriptors) and within occupations (occupational-specific descriptors). These descriptors are organized into six major domains, which enable the user to focus on areas of information that specify the key attributes and characteristics of workers and occupations.
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Content Model Outline — Summary (PDF - 69 KB)
Content Model Outline — Detailed (PDF - 210 KB)
Content Model Outline — Detailed including descriptions (PDF - 420 KB)
Content Model Outline (Excel format) (XLS - 151 KB)
Worker Characteristics — enduring characteristics that may influence both performance and the capacity to acquire knowledge and skills required for effective work performance. Worker characteristics comprise enduring qualities of individuals that may influence how they approach tasks and how they acquire work-relevant knowledges and skills. Traditionally, analyzing abilities has been the most common technique for comparing jobs in terms of these worker characteristics. However, recent research supports the inclusion of other types of worker characteristics. In particular, interests, values, and work styles have received support in the organizational literature. Interests and values reflect preferences for work environments and outcomes. Work style variables represent typical procedural differences in the way work is performed.
Abilities — Enduring attributes of the individual that influence performance
Occupational Interests — Preferences for work environments. Occupational Interest Profiles (OIPs) are compatible with Holland's (1985, 1997) model of personality types and work environments.
Work Values — Global aspects of work composed of specific needs that are important to a person's satisfaction. Occupational Reinforcer Patterns (ORPs) are based on the Theory of Work Adjustment (Dawis & Lofquist, 1984).
Work Styles — Personal characteristics that can affect how well someone performs a job.
Worker Requirements — descriptors referring to work-related attributes acquired and/or developed through experience and education. Worker requirements represent developed or acquired attributes of an individual that may be related to work performance such as work-related knowledge and skill. Knowledge represents the acquisition of facts and principles about a domain of information. Experience lays the foundation for establishing procedures to work with given knowledge. These procedures are more commonly known as skills. Skills may be further divided into basic skills and cross-functional skills. Basic skills, such as reading, facilitate the acquisition of new knowledge. Cross-functional skills, such as problem solving, extend across several domains of activities.
Basic Skills — Developed capacities that facilitate learning or the more rapid acquisition of knowledge
Cross-Functional Skills — Developed capacities that facilitate performance of activities that occur across jobs
Knowledge — Organized sets of principles and facts applying in general domains
Education — Prior educational experience required to perform in a job
Experience Requirements — requirements related to previous work activities and explicitly linked to certain types of work activities. This domain includes information about the typical experiential backgrounds of workers in an occupation or group of occupations including certification, licensure, and training data. For example, information about the professional or organizational certifications required for entry and advancement in an occupation, preferred education or training, and required apprenticeships will be documented by this part of the model.
Experience and Training — If someone were being hired to perform this job, how much of the following would be required?
Basic Skills - Entry Requirement — Entry requirement for developed capacities that facilitate learning or the more rapid acquisition of knowledge
Cross-Functional Skills - Entry Requirement — Entry requirement for developed capacities that facilitate performance of activities that occur across jobs
Licensing — Licenses, certificates, or registrations that are awarded to show that a job holder has gained certain skills. This includes requirements for obtaining these credentials, and the organization or agency requiring their possession.
Occupation-Specific Information — variables or other Content Model elements of selected or specific occupations. Occupation-specific information details a comprehensive set of elements that apply to a single occupation or a narrowly defined job family. This domain parallels other Content Model domains because it includes requirements such as work-related knowledge, skills, and tasks in addition to the machines, equipment, tools, software, and information technology workers may use in their workplace. Labor market information defined by the industry or occupation is also provided here. This domain is particularly important when developing specific applications of O*NET information. For example, it is necessary to refer to occupation-specific descriptive information to specify training, develop position descriptions, or redesign jobs.
Tasks — Occupation-Specific Tasks
Tools and Technology — Machines, equipment, tools, software, and information technology workers may use for optimal functioning in a high performance workplace.
Workforce Characteristics — variables that define and describe the general characteristics of occupations that may influence occupational requirements. Organizations do not exist in isolation. They must operate within a broader social and economic structure. To be useful, an occupational classification system must incorporate global contextual characteristics. O*NET provides this information by linking descriptive occupational information to statistical labor market information. This includes compensation and wage data, employment outlook, and industry size information. Much of this information is collected outside of the O*NET program's immediate scope. Collaborative efforts with organizations such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Defense, Career One Stop, the U.S. Bureau of the Census, and the Employment and Training Administration facilitate these labor market information linkages.
Labor Market Information — Current labor force characteristics of occupations
Occupational Outlook — Future labor force characteristics of occupations
Occupational Requirements — a comprehensive set of variables or detailed elements that describe what various occupations require. This domain includes information about typical activities required across occupations. Task information is often too specific to describe an occupation or occupational group. The O*NET approach is to identify generalized work activities (GWAs) and detailed work activities (DWAs) to summarize the broad and more specific types of job behaviors and tasks that may be performed within multiple occupations. Using this framework makes it possible to use a single set of descriptors to describe many occupations. Contextual variables such as the physical, social, or structural context of work that may impose specific demands on the worker or activities are also included in this section.
Generalized Work Activities — General types of job behaviors occurring on multiple jobs
Detailed Work Activities — Detailed types of job behaviors occurring on multiple jobs
Organizational Context — Characteristics of the organization that influence how people do their work
Structural Characteristics
- Organizational Structure
- Decision Making System
- Decentralization and Employee Empowerment
Have Control Over Unit or Department
- Have Influence Over Decisions
- Monitor Data on Quality/Costs/Waste/etc.
- Determine Work Flow or Order of Tasks
- Invest in New Equipment and Technology
- Develop New Products, Services, and Procedures
- Individual versus Team Structure
- Percent of Time in Intact Team
- Job Characteristics
- Skill Variety
- Job Variety
- Complex or High Level Skills Required
- Variety of Tasks Required
- Task Significance
- Significance or Importance of Job
- Job Quality Affects Lots of People
- Job Itself Is Very Significant
- Task Identity
- Job Involves Whole Piece of Work
- Can Do Entire Piece of Work
- Can Finish What You Start
- Autonomy
- Autonomy and Freedom in Job
- Chance for Initiative and Judgment
- Opportunity for Independence and Freedom
- Feedback
- Extent of Feedback From Doing Job Itself
- Doing Job Provides Chances for Feedback
- After Finishing Job, Know Own Performance
- Job Stability and Rotation
- Number of Supervisors in Past Year
- Number of Work Teams in Past Year
- Number of Work Group Reorganizations in Past Year
- Number of Times Nature of Job Changed
- Job Rotation Practices
- Human Resources Systems and Practices
- Recruitment and Selection
- Recruitment Operations
- Sources of People for Current Job
- Selection Assessment Methods Used
- Assessment Methods Used to Select for Job
- Training and Development
- Training Methods
- Training Methods Used in Company
- Training Topics and Content
- Areas of Recent Formal Training
- Extent and Support of Training Activities
- Recent Technical Skill Training
- Reward System
- Basis of Compensation
- Compensation Package Components
- Benefits
- Benefit Components
- Social Processes
- Goals
- Individual Goal Characteristics
- Achieve Most Important Individual Goal
- How Many Quantitative Individual Goals
- Goal Feedback
- How Many Specific Individual Goals
- When Get Information on Individual Goals
- Informal, Job-Relevant Feedback
- Meet One-on-One With Supervisor on Goals, Training, and Development
- Roles
- Role Conflict
- Often Receive Conflicting Requests
- Work With Groups With Different Focuses
- You and Your Supervisor Agree About Job
- Supervisor Makes Conflicting Requests
- Role Negotiability
- Negotiate Changes in Role with Supervisor
- Significant Input Into Way You Do Job
- Role Overload
- Get Assignments without Adequate Resources
- Given Enough Time to Do Work
- Too Much for One Person to Do
- Culture
- Organizational Values
- Guiding Principles of Organization
- Taking Chances; Going Out on a Limb
- Fairness; Justice
- Precision
- Stability
- Getting Things Done
- Caring About Employees
- Innovation
- Aggressiveness
- Valuing Customers
- Providing High Quality Products
- Openness and Honesty
- Flexibility, Adapting to Change
- Supervisor Role
- Supervisor Friendly and Supportive
- Supervisor Takes Active Role
- Supervisor Provides Clear Vision
- Supervisor Solves Problems
Work Context — Physical and social factors that influence the nature of work
Primary occupational information source for Content Model items:
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U.S. Department of Labor O*NET Data Collection Program |
Supplemental sources of information:
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U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics  |
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U.S. Department of Labor America's Career InfoNet |
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U.S. Department of Labor Office of Apprenticeship |
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U.S. Department of Education Classification of Instructional Programs |
Other indicators:
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Data not currently available |