08/31/2026

NCDA Urges Human-Centered Modernization of Federal Career Information Systems

 

For Immediate Release

August 31, 2026

 

NCDA Urges Human-Centered Modernization of Federal Career Information Systems

 

Association identifies eight priorities for strengthening public career tools amid artificial intelligence and labor market change.

WASHINGTON, August 26, 2026 — As artificial intelligence, automation and shifting skill demands transform the labor market, the National Career Development Association (NCDA) is calling on federal policymakers to modernize the nation’s career information systems while preserving transparency, accessibility and public trust.

In comments submitted to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration, NCDA identified eight priorities for modernizing the Occupational Information Network, known as O*NET, and CareerOneStop. These public resources support career exploration, career counseling, workforce planning, talent development, and education and training decisions nationwide. 

The modernization effort is more than a technology upgrade. Federal occupational information influences how students choose educational pathways, graduates enter the labor market, workers navigate career transitions, employers communicate talent needs, and workforce organizations develop regional strategies.

For career development professionals, O*NET and CareerOneStop are essential infrastructure. Practitioners use occupational information to connect people’s interests, values, and abilities with employment opportunities, credentials, wages, working conditions, and long-term career mobility.

“Those working in career development must help people respond to labor market change while shaping the public systems that influence workforce outcomes,” said Dirk Matthews, NCDA President. “Our engagement must ensure that career information remains trustworthy, inclusive and useful to people making consequential decisions about education, work and economic opportunity.”

Eight Priorities for Modernization

Artificial intelligence is changing job tasks, interdisciplinary occupations are expanding, and employers increasingly need combinations of technical, digital and human capabilities. NCDA supports preserving O*NET and CareerOneStop as free, evidence-based and nationally comparable resources while advancing eight recommendations:

1. Include career practitioners in modernization governance. Career counselors, workforce navigators, higher education career advisors, K-12 counselors, rehabilitation counselors and other frontline experts should participate in advisory activities, user testing and implementation.
2. Establish a transparent evidence framework. Job postings, employer input, state labor market information and AI-assisted analysis can improve timeliness. However, users should be able to identify each data source’s date, geography, methodology, confidence level and limitations.
3. Build responsible AI safeguards into career tools. AI-assisted recommendations should be explainable, protect privacy, provide user control and opt-out options, and connect individuals with qualified human guidance when needed.
4. Make accessibility and inclusion measurable requirements. Modernized systems should be mobile-first, multilingual, compatible with assistive technologies, and usable in low-bandwidth environments. These features are especially important for rural residents, people with disabilities, veterans, first-generation students and adult learners.
5. Improve information about skills, tasks, technologies and credentials. Users need clearer information about transferable skills, emerging technologies, short-term credentials, apprenticeships, remote work, hybrid occupations and pathways into sectors such as advanced manufacturing and information technology.
6. Strengthen connections across education and workforce systems. Greater interoperability would allow occupational data to connect more effectively with education and training programs, credential registries, registered apprenticeships, wage records and state labor market systems.
7. Add regional relevance without compromising national comparability. Career services teams, workforce boards, and economic development leaders need localized information on wages, employer demand, training availability, and credential requirements, along with consistent national occupational profiles.
8. Invest in long-term research on careers in an AI-shaped economy. Research should examine occupational convergence, changing job tasks, hybrid roles, skills-based hiring, credential quality, and the effects of algorithmic career guidance. 

“Policy decisions about occupational data affect how college graduates, job seekers and practitioners understand opportunity,” said Steven Thomas, NCDA Government Relations Committee Co-Chair. “Modernization must reflect changing tasks, hybrid skills and new routes to career mobility without allowing automated systems to narrow people’s choices. The goal should be to expand informed options, not replace professional judgment.”

Frontline Expertise at the Policy Table

Career counselors, educators, workforce advisors, and career services leaders understand how people interpret occupational information, where users encounter barriers, and how data shape education and employment decisions. Their experience can help policymakers design tools that respond to labor market change without overlooking individual circumstances or reinforcing historical patterns of occupational sorting.

“Effective workforce policy depends on collaboration among employers, educators, workforce agencies, economic development organizations and those who help people navigate career change,” said Sarah JanTausch, NCDA Government Relations Committee Co-Chair. “Employers and managers should care because career information systems influence the strength and adaptability of future talent pipelines. Advocacy and coalition-building can ensure modernization reflects both economic needs and workers’ experiences.”

Over the next 12 to 36 months, career practitioners and advisors should monitor how federal agencies integrate real-time labor market data, credential information and AI-generated insights into public career tools. Standards for algorithmic transparency, privacy, accessibility, regional adaptation and human oversight will also require sustained attention.

NCDA encourages career development professionals, educators, employers and workforce leaders to participate in public policy discussions, respond to public comment opportunities and contribute evidence from practice. Frontline expertise is essential to ensuring that modernized systems expand opportunity, support informed career decisions and strengthen the nation’s workforce.

About NCDA

The National Career Development Association advances career development through professional standards, credentials, research, publications, professional learning and advocacy. Founded in 1913, NCDA supports practitioners working across education, workforce development, government, nonprofit organizations, private practice and employer settings. Learn more at www.ncda.org.  For more information, contact Executive Director, Deneen Pennington at dpennington@ncda.org.