Notice2026-11542
Modernizing Federal Workforce Information Tools: Request for Information (RFI) on Online Career Tools and the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) Program
Primary source
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Published
June 9, 2026
Issuing agencies
Labor DepartmentEmployment and Training Administration
Abstract
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL or the Department), Employment and Training Administration (ETA) seeks public input to inform two related modernization efforts that together aim to strengthen the nation's public workforce information infrastructure. First, ETA is soliciting input to inform the design and implementation of a modernized online career site, currently delivered through CareerOneStop.org--a public-facing workforce information website that helps job seekers explore occupations, locate training programs, identify local services, and connect to job listings. Second, ETA is soliciting input to inform a modernization of the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) Program, which publishes detailed descriptions of occupational employment and serves as a foundational data resource for workforce tools and services across the country. These two efforts are closely linked: a modernized career site is only as good as the occupational and skills data that powers it. O*NET data informs how CareerOneStop presents occupations, skills, and pathways to users--and improvements to O*NET's timeliness, granularity, and interoperability will directly expand what a modernized site can offer. DOL is therefore seeking input on both efforts together, and respondents are encouraged to consider how improvements in one area could strengthen the other. Please note that this RFI is issued for information-gathering purposes only; it is not a solicitation or an offer for procurement. DOL will not award contracts or grants based on responses to this notice and will not respond individually to commenters. Comments may inform program and policy planning, including potential future notices and procurement activities. DOL expects that any possible procurement activity will be posted on the GSA Multiple Award Schedule.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 91 Issue 110 (Tuesday, June 9, 2026)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 91, Number 110 (Tuesday, June 9, 2026)]
[Notices]
[Pages 34833-34836]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2026-11542]
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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Employment and Training Administration
Modernizing Federal Workforce Information Tools: Request for
Information (RFI) on Online Career Tools and the Occupational
Information Network (O*NET) Program
ACTION: Request for information; request for comments.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL or the Department),
Employment and Training Administration (ETA) seeks public input to
inform two related modernization efforts that together aim to
strengthen the nation's public workforce information infrastructure.
First, ETA is soliciting input to inform the design and implementation
of a modernized online career site, currently delivered through
<a href="http://CareerOneStop.org">CareerOneStop.org</a>--a public-facing workforce information website that
helps job seekers explore occupations, locate training programs,
identify local services, and connect to job listings. Second, ETA is
soliciting input to inform a modernization of the Occupational
Information Network (O*NET) Program, which publishes detailed
descriptions of occupational employment and serves as a foundational
data resource for workforce tools and services across the country.
These two efforts are closely linked: a modernized career site is only
as good as the occupational and skills data that powers it. O*NET data
informs how CareerOneStop presents occupations, skills, and pathways to
users--and improvements to O*NET's timeliness, granularity, and
interoperability will directly expand what a modernized site can offer.
DOL is therefore seeking input on both efforts together, and
respondents are encouraged to consider how improvements in one area
could strengthen the other. Please note that this RFI is issued for
information-gathering purposes only; it is not a solicitation or an
offer for procurement. DOL will not award contracts or grants based on
responses to this notice and will not respond individually to
commenters. Comments may inform program and policy planning, including
potential future notices and procurement activities. DOL expects that
any possible procurement activity will be posted on the GSA Multiple
Award Schedule.
DATES: To be ensured consideration, comments are due by August 10,
2026.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments in response to the RFI described in
this notice by one of the following methods:
Electronic submission: Submit comments related to Online Career
Tools by email to: <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#4807262421262d0b293a2d2d3a1c2727243b1a0e01082c2724662f273e"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="357a5b595c5b50765447505047615a5a594667737c75515a591b525a43">[email protected]</span></a>. Submit comments
related to O*NET by email to: <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#de91909b8a8c98979ebab1b2f0b9b1a8"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="703f3e352422363930141f1c5e171f06">[email protected]</span></a>.
Postal Mail and hand delivery/courier: Written comment submissions
may be mailed or delivered to Attn: Steven Rietzke, Office of Workforce
Investment, U.S. Department of Labor, 200 Constitution Avenue NW, Suite
C-4510, Washington, DC 20210.
Instructions: This Request for Information invites comments from
job seekers, workers, employers, HR practitioners, state and local
workforce agencies, training and education providers, credentialing
bodies, developers, researchers, and other interested stakeholders.
Respondents may address either the Online Career Tools or O*NET
sections of this RFI or may address both. Label all Online Career Tools
submissions with ``Online Career Tools RFI.'' Label all O*NET
submissions with ``O*NET RFI.'' If you respond to both sections, please
provide two separate submissions. Please submit your comments by only
one delivery method (i.e., Email or postal mail; Email is highly
preferred).
Instructions for Submitting Comments
<bullet> Clearly label your submission with the applicable subject
line (see Addresses section above) to indicate whether your comments
address Section I (Online Career Tools), Section II (O*NET), or both.
<bullet> Identify your stakeholder group (e.g., job seeker,
employer, developer, state workforce agency) at the top of your
response.
<bullet> Focus on the questions most relevant to your expertise.
Respondents are not required to address every question.
<bullet> Include organization and contact information if you are
commenting on behalf of an institution and are willing to be contacted
for follow-up.
<bullet> Do not include sensitive PII or confidential information;
all submissions will be posted publicly.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Steven Rietzke, Office of Workforce Investment (OWI), U.S.
Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, 200
Constitution Avenue NW, Room C-4510, Washington, DC 20210, Telephone:
(202) 693-3912 (this is not a toll-free number), Email:
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#226d4c4e4b4c47614350474750764d4d4e5170646b62464d4e0c454d54"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="6e21000207000b2d0f1c0b0b1c3a0101021d3c28272e0a010240090118">[email protected]</span></a> for questions about online career
[[Page 34834]]
tools, or <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#a1eeefe4f5f3e7e8e1c5cecd8fc6ced7"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="216e6f647573676861454e4d0f464e57">[email protected]</span></a> for questions about O*NET.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
The following sections request public input to inform modernization
of ETA's online career tools and advancement of ETA's O*NET Program.
These activities, and this RFI, are carried out pursuant to section 15
of the Wagner-Peyser Act, which requires the Secretary of Labor to
oversee the development, maintenance, and continuous improvement of a
nationwide workforce and labor market information system (29 U.S.C.
49l-2; Secretary's Order 6-2010, 75 FR 66268).
Section I: Modernizing Online Career Tools--Public Input To Inform
Design and Implementation
Background: CareerOneStop is a nationally recognized public
platform that helps individuals explore occupations, locate training
programs, identify local services, and connect to job listings. While
CareerOneStop is widely used and valued, the current experience can be
fragmented and difficult to navigate, and the platform is hosted under
an older operational model. A modernized site could do significantly
more--speeding reemployment, sharpening employer-worker matching, and
opening clearer pathways to higher-wage work. DOL, through ETA, aims to
transition to a Federally hosted and modernized site experience that is
simpler, more guided, and better connected to timely skills and
occupational information.
ETA envisions that the modernized site will deliver a clean,
mobile-first user interface with consolidated resources, even stronger
data integration with occupational information to support skills-based
navigation, AI-powered functionality, and clearer connections to
employment and training opportunities. ETA anticipates a phased
approach, beginning with stabilizing and improving core user pathways
(e.g., job search, occupation exploration, training identification,
service location), followed by deeper skills-aware guidance as Federal
datasets and capabilities mature.
This effort supports the broader objectives described in America's
Talent Strategy, including:
<bullet> Worker Mobility: enabling clear, actionable navigation to
jobs and training, including through the innovative use of technology
and labor market data;
<bullet> Integrated Systems: reducing fragmentation and aligning
public-facing tools; and
<bullet> Flexibility & Innovation: leveraging data and technology
responsibly to improve outcomes in an AI-driven economy.
Relationship to Occupational Information (O*NET)
In parallel with this website modernization and as described in
Section II of this notice, DOL is exploring opportunities to improve
the accuracy, granularity, relevance, currency, and interoperability of
occupation-and skills-related data through the O*NET Program--e.g.,
linked data using RDF-based standards, formats and APIs, clearer skills
terminology, and methods to keep information current and reflective of
how employers and workers describe work today. Input to this section of
the RFI may inform how a modernized career site uses such data to
support skills-based navigation and other user functions. Section II of
this RFI solicits additional O*NET-specific input.
What DOL Is Envisioning for a Modernized Career Site
Based on initial internal planning, stakeholder engagement, and
preliminary concepts, DOL is considering features such as:
<bullet> Simplified Navigation & Guided Journeys for common tasks
(job exploration, training identification, and service location),
designed for mobile-first use and accessibility, including AI-powered
functionality.
<bullet> Integrated Job Search Connections, with clearer pathways
from occupation/skills information to relevant openings.
<bullet> Skills-Aware Exploration that helps users understand role
requirements and map transferable skills, supported by improved
occupational/skills data integration.
<bullet> Training and Credential Pathways (e.g., connections to
programs, credentials, Registered Apprenticeships) with better
alignment to employer needs and clearer next steps.
<bullet> Local Service Navigation with updated service locators and
improved state/local integration where feasible.
<bullet> Developer/Data Capabilities (e.g., highly interoperable
linked data, documented APIs, consistent data structures) to support
ecosystem use and embedding by states, institutions, and partners.
Request for Public Comments
DOL invites input from state and local workforce agencies and
practitioners, training and credentialing providers, job seekers,
workers, employers and HR practitioners, developers and researchers,
and other interested stakeholders. Respondents do not need to address
every question; please focus on those most relevant to your
perspective. When responding, if applicable, identify your stakeholder
group (e.g., employer, state workforce agency, developer).
Online Career Tools Modernization Questions
A. Current Use, Pain Points, and Priorities (All Stakeholders)
1. How do you currently use CareerOneStop? Describe your top three
tasks on the site and what works well today. What specific elements or
tools do you find most valuable, and why?
2. What are the most significant pain points (e.g., navigation
complexity, mobile usability, discoverability of features, content
clarity)? Please provide examples.
3. What would make the site easier to use? Suggest improvements
(e.g., guided flows, consolidated entry points, clearer action steps,
language access, accessibility features, AI-powered functionality).
4. What are the most important uses of CareerOneStop within the
workforce system (state and local levels)? If you embed or reference
CareerOneStop content, feeds, or tools in state portals or partner
systems, please describe how and what improvements would help.
5. What features should CareerOneStop not attempt to build because
they already exist elsewhere? How should the information and features
contained within CareerOneStop interact with other tools?
6. If you utilize Application Programming Interface (API) services
from CareerOneStop, what information are you most interested in and how
do you use it?
B. Job Seekers and Workers
1. When exploring occupations, training, or jobs, what information
do you need first and how should it be presented (e.g., skills, tasks,
local wages, entry pathways, credential options)?
2. What are the greatest gaps in the online career information
marketplace that CareerOneStop should seek to fill?
3. How could the site better support job searches that incorporate
what you have done and learned before, also sometimes referred to as
transferable skills and skills-based navigation (e.g., showing adjacent
roles, short-term training options to bridge to the next job)?
4. What features would make it easier to move from exploration to
action (e.g., save/share plans, personalized prompts, local service
connections, application readiness)?
[[Page 34835]]
C. Employers and HR Practitioners
1. What tools or data would help you describe roles in skills-based
terms and find qualified talent (e.g., skills libraries, templates,
alignment to occupation/skills data)?
2. What terminology, granularity of skills, or task-level
information is most useful for job descriptions and screening? Where do
current resources fall short?
3. How could a modernized site better connect employers to training
partners, Registered Apprenticeship pathways, and regional talent
initiatives?
D. State and Local Workforce Agencies & Practitioners
1. How do you integrate CareerOneStop content, tools, or feeds into
state/local portals, case management, or service workflows? What
technical and policy features would improve integration or reduce
duplication (e.g., APIs, data standards, sign-on)?
2. What do frontline staff need in a public site to guide customers
efficiently (e.g., consolidated entry points, modular tools, shared
eligibility standards, clear local handoffs)?
3. What reporting, outcome visibility, or quality signals (e.g.,
credential outcomes, alignment to local demand) would be most helpful
to your operations?
4. How well does national O*NET occupational data reflect the
realities of your regional labor market? Where do local employer needs,
wage patterns, or in-demand occupations diverge meaningfully from
national profiles, and what would a more locally adaptable occupational
data resource need to look like?
E. Education and Training Providers and Credentialing Bodies
1. How could modernized occupational/skills data and the public
site help you align education or training programs to workforce needs
(e.g., clearer competency statements, industry validation, crosswalks
to occupations)?
2. What information or features would make it easier to present
education or training program options to the public and support
informed choice (e.g., duration, cost, outcomes, pathway maps)?
3. Where does current data not match how education or training
programs teach skills or how employers describe requirements? What
would improve clarity and alignment?
F. Developers, Researchers, and Data Users
1. What are the biggest barriers to building on public workforce
data today (e.g., formats, documentation, update frequency, API
features, etc.)?
2. What data structures or taxonomies (skills, tasks, tools/
technologies, credentials) would be most useful? At what level of
specificity should job-level variation be represented?
3. If the modernized site exposes new APIs or structured data, what
capabilities, filters, or metadata would you want (e.g., links across
occupations, skills, training, and jobs)?
G. Cross-Cutting Topics (All Stakeholders)
1. Mobile-first and accessibility: What would ensure the experience
is fully accessible, usable on low-bandwidth connections, and supports
language access?
2. AI-powered functionality: What applications of AI would be most
impactful and how might they be most effectively integrated into the
user experience?
3. Privacy, transparency, and responsible use of technology: If the
site offers personalized or AI-assisted features--such as occupation
recommendations, skills matching, or guided job search--what
safeguards, disclosures, or controls do you expect? How should the site
communicate when and how AI is being used?
4. Artificial intelligence and automation: How are AI tools--
including AI-assisted job search, resume screening, and skills
inference--changing how workers and employers use labor market
information? What should a modernized career site do to help users
navigate a labor market increasingly shaped by AI, including
understanding which occupations and skills are most affected?
5. Integration: Which external resources (e.g., job search,
training catalogs, Registered Apprenticeships, local services) should
be seamlessly connected, and how?
6. Measures of success: What outcomes should DOL prioritize for the
modernized site (e.g., faster reemployment, successful transitions to
high-demand roles, improved user satisfaction)?
Section II: Advancing the Occupational Information Network (O*NET)
Program
Background: The Occupational Information Network (O*NET) Program is
a Federal data program that publishes detailed descriptions of
occupations and the work performed within them. Organized by the O*NET
Content Model, the Program collects and reports information on the work
performed in occupations, the skills of the people employed in
occupations, and the workplace environment in which occupational work
is performed. The O*NET Program sources data from job incumbents,
occupational experts, and job postings, and the O*NET-SOC taxonomy
includes about 1,000 detailed occupations. In recent years, the O*NET
Center has also developed advanced methodologies to streamline and
enhance the production of certain O*NET data using natural language
processing (NLP) and other machine learning (ML) techniques.
Advancements in the publication of O*NET data also include the recent
launch of the web services 2.0 API platform and the publication of the
O*NET database in JSON-LD format.
Context: Labor markets are evolving quickly, particularly in an AI-
driven economy, and employers increasingly describe their talent needs
in terms of specific capabilities, tasks, tools and technologies, and
credentials. While O*NET publishes this information at the occupational
level, this structure can make it difficult to understand the specific
skill or work requirements of specialized jobs within occupations, as
well as identifying patterns that cut across job families or
industries. Ensuring that O*NET remains useful in a skills-driven
environment may therefore require improvements that help data users
more easily understand, compare, and apply information in terms of the
skill profiles of jobs.
In addition, O*NET may benefit from approaches that help keep
occupational information current as new roles emerge, existing roles
evolve, and industries adopt new technologies, including AI. This
includes exploring ways to represent skill-related information in
formats that reflect how employers and workers describe their needs
today, as well as further leveraging data from job postings to provide
timelier insights into changing skill demands and occupational trends.
Together, these considerations may help O*NET better support skills-
based hiring, training alignment, and other workforce needs.
Through this section of the Request for Information, ETA seeks
input on how O*NET can continue to serve as a trusted, accessible
resource that supports skills-based hiring, aligns education and
training programs with workforce needs, and enables developers and
researchers to build effective tools and services for the public.
[[Page 34836]]
Request for Public Comments
ETA is soliciting input from its stakeholders and the public on any
or all of the following categories of information and questions.
Response to this request for information is voluntary. Respondents do
not need to address every category or question and may elect to focus
their comments on those categories and questions that relate to their
expertise or perspective. To the extent possible, please clearly
indicate the question(s) addressed in your response.
O*NET Modernization Questions
A. For Employers and HR Practitioners
1. What information about occupations and/or job requirements
(including skills, tasks, tools/technologies, or credentials) do you
wish existed that doesn't today?
2. What tools would most help you move toward skills-based hiring?
3. What existing resources or platforms are you already using to
understand workforce-related needs, and where do they fall short?
B. For Education and Training Providers and Credentialing Bodies
1. How are you currently using O*NET, and what prevents deeper use?
2. Are there ways O*NET could better help you assess job
requirements across occupations or job families?
3. What would make it easier to align your programs to labor market
skill demands?
4. What existing resources or platforms are you already using to
understand workforce-related needs, and where do they fall short?
C. For Developers and Other Data Users
1. What are the biggest barriers to building on O*NET data today?
2. What data formats, update frequencies, or API capabilities are
missing?
3. What are the necessary changes to O*NET's data infrastructure to
ensure interoperability with other education and workforce data
sources?
4. As an O*NET data user, what aspects of O*NET data are unclear
and could be better communicated?
5. Are there ways O*NET could better help you identify or compare
skills or job-requirement similarities across occupations or job
families?
6. What existing data sources or platforms are you already using to
analyze workforce-related needs?
D. For All Stakeholders
1. What are the most important functions and features of O*NET to
benefit today's labor market?
2. What is the optimal level of detail needed to understand
specific roles within an O*NET SOC occupation?
3. How can O*NET data and profiles better capture the adoption of
AI tools among tasks and work activities?
4. Do you have additional comments or information that would be
helpful to the Department, beyond the questions listed above?
E. Questions Related to Job Postings Data & More Granular Skills
Information
1. How can information from job postings be used to help identify
the skills, tasks, tools/technologies, or credentials associated with
today's jobs?
2. To what extent do job postings accurately reflect real work
requirements across different occupations, industries, geographies, or
employer sizes? Where are they misleading or incomplete?
3. How can job-posting data help surface emerging occupations or
changes in job requirements? What approaches or safeguards would make
this information most useful?
4. If O*NET were to incorporate more detailed or timely skill-
related information, what types of insights would be most valuable?
(Examples may include specialized tasks, new tools or technologies, or
patterns shared across related occupations.)
5. How can AI be leveraged to help O*NET keep up with the pace of
change in the economy? What approaches would make this most effective
and useful?
Henry Maklakiewicz,
Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training, Labor.
[FR Doc. 2026-11542 Filed 6-8-26; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4510-FN-P
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