To measure employment, BLS runs a monthly survey called the Current Population Survey. About 60,000 eligible households are in the sample, as of November 2026. That means approximately 110,000 people each month. A person counts as employed if they did any work at all for pay or profit during the survey week. This includes part-time and temporary work as well as regular full-time work.

BLS expects the US economy to add 5.9 million jobs from 2025 to 2035, as of November 2026. Total employment would grow from 170.3 million to 176.2 million. That is 3.5 percent, which is slower than the 10.9 percent growth of 2015 to 2025. The jobs that would add the most are home health and personal care aides at 847,300, stockers and order fillers at 250,700, and fast food and counter workers at 223,300. Registered nurses would add 194,700 jobs, about 6 percent more on top of 3,465,400 jobs in 2025. General and operations managers would add 181,300.

A job that grows fast does not always add many jobs. A job with 2,000 workers growing 20 percent adds only 400 jobs. A job with a million workers growing 5 percent adds 50,000. BLS expects wind turbine technicians to grow 30 percent from 2025 to 2035, and solar photovoltaic installers to grow 37 percent. These are small jobs, with about 11,800 and 31,100 workers in 2025. BLS expects farmers, ranchers and other agricultural managers to decline 3 percent from 2025 to 2035. Even so, about 70,800 openings a year are expected. Many job openings come from replacement, not growth. They come from workers who move to other jobs or leave work, such as to retire. Software developers and testers would grow 10 percent. That adds 185,400 jobs to the 1,905,400 they had in 2025.

Getting ready for jobs differs a lot, and O*NET groups jobs into Job Zones, from very little preparation up to extensive preparation. Physicians and surgeons typically need a bachelor's degree and a medical degree, which takes 4 more years. They then need 3 to 9 years of internship and residency, and a subspecialty adds a fellowship of 1 to 3 years. Police and detectives must graduate from their agency's training academy and then do on-the-job training, and most candidates must be at least 21 years old. Licensing rules for jobs often vary by state, so BLS does not keep information on them. CareerOneStop's License Finder lets people search them by state, occupation or agency.

Counting also shows how long people stay in jobs. The median number of years that wage and salary workers had been with their current employer was 4.1 years in January 2026, up from 3.9 years in January 2024. Workers born from 1957 to 1964 held an average of 12.9 jobs from ages 18 to 58. They held 5.6 jobs between ages 18 and 24, then 4.5 from 25 to 34, 2.9 from 35 to 44, 2.2 from 45 to 54 and 1.3 from 55 to 58.

Words to know

• employed: doing paid work
• survey: set of questions
• median: middle value
• residency: hospital training
• replacement: filling vacated jobs