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Getting Started with onet2r

Source: vignettes/getting-started.Rmd
getting-started.Rmd

onet2r helps you move from occupation search to analysis-ready O*NET tables, archived O*NET releases, and BLS OEWS wage and employment context. Current O*NET Web Services calls require a free API key from the O*NET developer portal. Store it in .Renviron as ONET_API_KEY=your-api-key-here so scripts do not contain secrets.

The live Web Services examples are opt-in for package builds because CRAN and CI should not depend on an external API. Everything else in this article uses local files through actual onet2r functions.

tibble::tibble(
  setting = c("ONET_API_KEY configured", "live vignette API calls enabled"),
  value = c(has_onet_key, run_live)
) |>
  knitr::kable(digits = 3, align = "l")
setting value
ONET_API_KEY configured FALSE
live vignette API calls enabled FALSE

Search the Current O*NET API

When live calls are enabled, the first step is usually onet_search(), followed by a detail endpoint such as onet_skills() or onet_abilities().

if (run_live) {
  onet_search("software developer", start = 1, end = 5) |>
    knitr::kable(digits = 3, align = "l")
} else {
  tibble::tibble(
    live_api_example = "skipped",
    reason = "Set ONET_API_KEY and ONET2R_RUN_LIVE_VIGNETTES=true to run onet_search()."
  ) |>
    knitr::kable(digits = 3, align = "l")
}
live_api_example reason
skipped Set ONET_API_KEY and ONET2R_RUN_LIVE_VIGNETTES=true to run onet_search(). 
if (run_live) {
  onet_skills("15-1252.00", start = 1, end = 5) |>
    knitr::kable(digits = 3, align = "l")
} else {
  tibble::tibble(
    live_api_example = "skipped",
    reason = "Set ONET_API_KEY and ONET2R_RUN_LIVE_VIGNETTES=true to run onet_skills()."
  ) |>
    knitr::kable(digits = 3, align = "l")
}
live_api_example reason
skipped Set ONET_API_KEY and ONET2R_RUN_LIVE_VIGNETTES=true to run onet_skills().

Read an Archived O*NET Table

The Web Services API serves the current release. Historical work uses the downloadable archive tables. onet_archive_read() normalizes those archive files into tibbles with stable columns.

abilities <- onet_archive_read(
  "30.3",
  "Abilities",
  path = archive_303,
  release_date = "2026-05-01"
)

abilities |>
  select(
    release_version,
    onet_soc_code,
    soc_code,
    element_id,
    element_name,
    data_value,
    source_date,
    domain_source
  ) |>
  head(8) |>
  knitr::kable(digits = 3, align = "l")
release_version onet_soc_code soc_code element_id element_name data_value source_date domain_source
30.3 15-1252.00 15-1252 1.A.1.a.1 Oral Comprehension 4.35 2025-07-01 Analyst
30.3 15-1252.00 15-1252 1.A.1.b.1 Problem Sensitivity 4.50 2024-07-01 Analyst
30.3 29-1141.00 29-1141 1.A.1.a.1 Oral Comprehension 4.71 2025-08-01 Incumbent
30.3 29-1141.00 29-1141 1.A.1.b.1 Problem Sensitivity 4.90 2024-08-01 Incumbent
30.3 11-1011.00 11-1011 1.A.1.a.1 Oral Comprehension 4.50 2025-07-01 Incumbent
30.3 11-1011.00 11-1011 1.A.1.b.1 Problem Sensitivity 4.22 2024-07-01 Analyst
30.3 41-1011.00 41-1011 1.A.1.a.1 Oral Comprehension 4.15 2025-06-01 Analyst

Add Labor-Market Context

BLS OEWS estimates add employment and wage scale to O*NET occupation rows. The modern weighting path creates an explicit reference-SOC weight panel.

oews <- onet_oews_national(2024, path = sample_oews)
weights <- onet_weight_panel_oews(oews, year = 2024)
#> Dropped 2 OEWS aggregate rows; keeping "detailed" occupations.

weights |>
  knitr::kable(digits = 3, align = "l")
reference_soc_code year employment weight_share source source_taxonomy reference_taxonomy
11-1011 2024 211230 0.040 OEWS 2018 SOC 2018 SOC
15-1252 2024 1847900 0.353 OEWS 2018 SOC 2018 SOC
29-1141 2024 3175400 0.607 OEWS 2018 SOC 2018 SOC

To answer a concrete question, take one ability, treat the O*NET values as the user-supplied occupation score, and aggregate with OEWS employment.

oral_scores <- abilities |>
  filter(element_id == "1.A.1.a.1") |>
  transmute(onet_soc_code, measure_score = data_value)

oral_aggregate <- onet_measure_aggregate(
  oral_scores,
  weights,
  measure_id = "oral_comprehension_fixture"
)

oral_aggregate |>
  select(-coverage, -provenance) |>
  knitr::kable(digits = 3, align = "l")
measure_id aggregate total_employment covered_employment employment_coverage_share n_occupations n_reference_soc
oral_comprehension_fixture 4.574 5234530 5234530 1 4 4 

onet_provenance(oral_aggregate) |>
  knitr::kable(digits = 3, align = "l")
measure_id measure_release weight_source weight_year source_taxonomy reference_taxonomy bridge_used crosswalk_path
oral_comprehension_fixture NA OEWS 2024 2018 SOC 2018 SOC FALSE 2018 SOC -> 2018 SOC

Compare Two Archive Releases

For historical analysis, build a panel, reconcile adjacent releases, and inspect comparability flags before interpreting changes.

panel <- onet_panel(
  "Abilities",
  versions = c("30.2", "30.3"),
  scale = "IM",
  archives = c(`30.2` = archive_302, `30.3` = archive_303),
  release_dates = c(`30.2` = "2026-02-01", `30.3` = "2026-05-01")
)

changes <- onet_panel_reconcile(
  panel,
  bridge = onet_crosswalk_bridge("2019", "2019")
)

changes |>
  select(
    to_soc_code,
    element_name,
    from_value,
    to_value,
    value_change,
    change_type,
    safely_comparable
  ) |>
  arrange(desc(abs(value_change))) |>
  head(8) |>
  knitr::kable(digits = 3, align = "l")
to_soc_code element_name from_value to_value value_change change_type safely_comparable
29-1141 Problem Sensitivity 4.60 4.90 0.30 recode_or_recalc_flag FALSE
15-1252 Oral Comprehension 4.12 4.35 0.23 real_update TRUE
41-1011 Oral Comprehension 4.00 4.15 0.15 real_update TRUE
11-1011 Oral Comprehension 4.38 4.50 0.12 real_update FALSE
15-1252 Problem Sensitivity 4.50 4.50 0.00 stale_carryforward TRUE
29-1141 Oral Comprehension 4.71 4.71 0.00 resampled_stable TRUE
11-1011 Problem Sensitivity 4.22 4.22 0.00 stale_carryforward TRUE 
changes |>
  count(change_type, name = "rows") |>
  arrange(desc(rows)) |>
  knitr::kable(digits = 3, align = "l")
change_type rows
real_update 3
stale_carryforward 2
resampled_stable 1
recode_or_recalc_flag 1

Next Steps