H3 means "High wage, High Skill, and High Demand." An occupation is considered high wage when it pays wages that equal or exceed wages for all occupations in the same region in at least four of eight wage metrics.

All occupations that require an education level of some college or a higher, or that require a high school diploma (or equivalent) plus long-term on-the-job training, an apprenticeship, or an internship or residency, are considered High Skill.

The number of annual openings, net change in employment, and growth rate determine whether an occupation is High Demand.

An occupation must meet the criteria for all three— High Wage, High Skill, and High Demand— to be classified as an H3 occupation.

The H3 methodology is available here.

Career Clusters are groupings of occupations that share the same field and require similar skills. National Career Clusters organize tens of thousands of occupations in order to assist students with career planning and to assist incumbent and dislocated workers with upskilling and retraining in similar career fields. The Nebraska Department of Education adopted National Career Clusters to create the Nebraska Career Clusters Model or the Nebraska Career Education Model.

Otherwise known as the Nebraska Career Education model, the Nebraska Career Clusters Model was developed by the Nebraska Department of Education to reorganize national career clusters into larger career cluster fields. The Nebraska Career Clusters Model can expose students and job seekers to related careers within larger career fields.

SOC code stands for Standard Occupational Classification code. Federal statistical agencies use SOC codes to classify occupations for the purposes of collecting, calculating, and disseminating data.

The SOC system classifies all workers into one of 867 detailed occupations, which are then organized into 59 broad occupations, 98 minor groups, and 23 major groups. These groupings are determined according to the degree of similarity between occupations' job duties, required skills, and necessary education and/or training.

NDOL's Occupational Projections provide an estimate of future employment at major, minor, and detailed occupational levels. Projections are classified according to the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system. The finest level of detail available in NDOL's Projection is at the six-digit detailed occupation level. Detailed occupations are then grouped into minor groups at the three-digit level. These minor groups add up to 23 major groups, represented at the two-digit level.

Projections are only produced for 22 of the 23 major occupational groups. NDOL does not produce projections for the military-specific major occupational group.

Updated long-term Occupational Projections are released every two years. The process begins with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) calculating their projections for the nation as a whole. States then develop projections for their local areas. New national projections are released in the last quarter of odd-numbered years, and new state-level projections are released by the beginning of August in even- numbered years.

The Nebraska Department of Labor (NDOL) creates occupational projections by merging industry projections data with staffing patterns from the BLS Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) program to create an industry-occupational matrix. This matrix shows the ratios of employment by occupation in a specific industry, which becomes the basis for occupational projections. NDOL uses the same process to calculate both statewide and regional projections.

Internships are temporary, paid or unpaid positions that provide on-the-job training and work experience. A list of paid internship opportunities with Nebraska businesses is available online at Intern Nebraska.

Career Readiness is a free, online course that helps users improve basic skills for job readiness. Some topics the course covers are seeking employment, communication, conflict resolution, teamwork and leadership, and financial and personal well-being.

My Next Move is an interactive tool for job seekers and students who wish to learn more about their career options. This website offers information on tasks, skills, education, salary, and more for over 900 different careers. Users can find careers through keyword search, by browsing industries that employ different types of workers, or through the O*NET Interest Profiler.

My Skills My Future is a website that helps laid-off workers and other career changers find and explore new occupations. The site allows users to identify occupations that require similar skills and knowledge as their current or previous job, learn more about these occupations, locate local training programs, and apply for jobs.

NEworks is a Nebraska Department of Labor website designed to assist job seekers and students search for the right job and help employers find strong job candidates. The site extracts thousands of job openings from nearly every employer in Nebraska. Employers can post job openings on NEworks and search for job candidates. Job Seekers can use the site to search for the latest job openings, post their resumes online, find career guidance, search for training and education programs, and more.

In addition to serving as a hub for the state's workforce services, the site provides publications and labor market data on workforce trends, employment, wages, occupations, industries, and more for the state and its smaller geographic regions.

Nebraska Career Connections is an online education, career exploration, and planning tool for students, parents, educators, job seekers, and employers. It is funded through a public-private partnership. The website's tools are free to all Nebraska students grades 7 — 12 and adult job seekers.

O*NET Online is the premier national source of occupational information. It provides occupational descriptions and key data for students, job seekers, educators, and researchers nationwide. O*NET uses occupational surveys to systematically compile and update their data. Occupational information and descriptions from O*NET are easily searchable from their online occupational and career exploration tools.