How to Write Trade Job Descriptions Using O*NET (Skills, Tasks, Pay Range)

Your Last Job Post Probably Cost You Two Weeks and the Wrong Candidate

Here's how it usually goes: you need a journeyman electrician, so you pull up your last posting, swap the date, change a line or two, and hit publish. Three weeks later you've got fifteen applications — four are plausible, one is strong, and that one already accepted somewhere else. The rest of the interview pile? People who saw "electrician" and applied to everything with that word in the title.

The problem isn't your recruiting hustle. It's the job description itself. When it's vague — "must be a team player," "experience required," no pay range — it attracts vague applicants. Specific descriptions attract specific people: a journeyman who actually knows how to read a single-line diagram and expects to earn somewhere in your range.

Two free government datasets can fix this for every trade role you hire. O*NET OnLine gives you the verified skills, tasks, knowledge areas, and experience level for every trade occupation. BLS OEWS data gives you the pay percentiles you need to anchor a real pay range in the posting. This article shows you exactly how to combine them into a trade job description that earns its space on Indeed — and how to skip the two or three hours of spreadsheet archaeology that process normally takes.

What O*NET and BLS OEWS Actually Give You (and Why Both Matter)

Before we build anything, a quick orientation on each source — because they do different jobs.

O*NET (onetonline.org) is a comprehensive occupational database maintained by the U.S. Department of Labor. For every trade occupation, it publishes a full profile: the tasks a worker performs day-to-day, the skills they need, the knowledge areas they draw on (electrical theory, mechanical principles, safety regulations), the tools they use, and the work context — indoors vs. outdoors, physical demands, exposure to hazards. It also assigns each occupation a Job Zone (1 through 5), which describes how much education, training, and experience the role typically requires. Job Zone 1 means little preparation; Job Zone 5 means extensive preparation. Most journey-level trade roles land in Job Zone 3 or 4 — several years of on-the-job training or an apprenticeship, plus often a license. Understanding a role's Job Zone helps you write the "qualifications" section honestly. (For a deeper look at how Job Zones map to the trades, see our O*NET Job Zones explained for trades.)

BLS OEWS (Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics) is a national survey of about 1.1 million establishments, published each May, that produces employment counts and wage estimates — mean, median, and percentiles (10th, 25th, 75th, 90th) — for 800+ occupations across national, state, and metro levels. This is your pay-range source. When you put a salary range in a job posting, it should trace back here, not to "what we paid the last guy" or a quick Indeed salary estimate.

Neither dataset alone is enough. O*NET has no wage data. BLS OEWS has no skills or task list. Used together, they give you the two things a strong trade job description needs: what the person will actually do and what you should actually pay them.

The Four Sections Every Trade Job Description Needs

Strong trade job descriptions are short enough to read on a phone and specific enough that a qualified candidate recognizes themselves in it. Four sections cover everything:

1. Role overview — one short paragraph: the trade, the level (apprentice / journeyman / foreman), where the work happens, and who they report to.
2. Day-to-day tasks and duties — pulled from O*NET's task list, filtered to your actual scope of work.
3. Required skills and qualifications — O*NET's skills and knowledge list, plus license/certification requirements and Job Zone context.
4. Pay range and how to apply — a BLS-anchored min/max range, plus your benefits hook and the next step.

Let's walk each one through a real example.

Building the Sections: A Worked Example with an Electrician Role

We'll use journeyman electricians (SOC 47-2111) because the BLS data is clean and the ONET profile is rich. The method works identically for HVAC, plumbing, welding, carpentry — any trade with a SOC code. (For a full walkthrough of how to read an ONET occupational profile, see O*NET occupational profiles for the trades.)

Role overview

One paragraph. Tight. Example:

"Mid-size commercial electrical contractor in [your city] is hiring a journeyman electrician for commercial and light-industrial new construction and service work. You'll report to a project foreman and work primarily at job sites within a 50-mile radius of our shop."

That's it. No buzzwords, no mission-statement throat-clearing.

Tasks and duties from O*NET

Go to onetonline.org, search "electrician," and open the 47-2111 profile. O*NET lists dozens of tasks; pick the eight to twelve that match your actual work. For a commercial journeyman role, the most relevant typically include things like:

• Installing, maintaining, and repairing electrical wiring, equipment, and fixtures according to relevant codes
• Reading and interpreting blueprints, schematics, and wiring diagrams
• Inspecting electrical systems and components for hazards, defects, or non-compliance
• Testing electrical systems using tools such as oscilloscopes, voltmeters, and ammeters
• Directing and training workers who install, maintain, or repair electrical wiring or fixtures

Use O*NET's language, lightly edited for plain English. It's already specific, already verified, and already written at the right level of precision. You're not copying wholesale — you're selecting and adapting. That's the intended use of the dataset.

You don't need to list every task O*NET includes; filter ruthlessly. If your commercial operation never does residential panel upgrades, don't list it — you'll attract candidates whose experience doesn't match your actual pipeline.

Skills and qualifications from O*NET

The O*NET profile for electricians identifies core skills (troubleshooting, critical thinking, equipment maintenance), knowledge areas (electrical concepts, building construction, safety and government regulations), and the licensing reality for your jurisdiction. Job Zone for electricians is typically Zone 3 — requiring several years of on-the-job training or a registered apprenticeship, plus a journeyman license in most states.

Your qualifications section can translate that directly:

• Journeyman electrician license in [state] (required)
• Completion of a recognized electrical apprenticeship program or equivalent field experience
• Ability to read single-line diagrams and blueprints
• Proficiency with standard electrical test instruments
• Familiarity with NEC and local code requirements
• Valid driver's license; reliable transportation to job sites

This is far more useful to a candidate than "3–5 years of experience preferred" — and far more useful to you during screening.

Pay range anchored to BLS data

Here's where most trade job postings fall apart. Either there's no range at all, or there's a range that was invented by feel or inherited from years ago. Here's how to build one from real data.

According to BLS OEWS data (May 2024, national):

• Electrician (SOC 47-2111) median: $62,350/year
• 10th percentile: $39,430/year
• 90th percentile: $106,030/year

(For the current figure in your area, visit bls.gov/oes — national medians are a starting point, not a local rate.)

To set a posting range, use the percentiles as anchors rather than just listing the median. A simple method: take your market position (do you want to pay at the 50th percentile to fill the role, or at the 75th to win competitive candidates?), then build a band with a spread around it.

Worked example — not a prescription, just the method in action:

Say you want to post a journeyman electrician role and you intend to pay somewhere in the middle of the market. Using the May 2024 national figures:

• Band minimum: ~$54,000 (roughly mid-50th-percentile range, rounded)
• Band midpoint: ~$62,000 (near the national median of $62,350)
• Band maximum: ~$70,000 (roughly halfway between median and 75th percentile)

The posting range would read something like: "$54,000–$70,000 depending on experience and licensure" — accurate, honest, and specific enough that a $85,000-expecting journeyman self-selects out, saving you both time.

If you're in a high-cost metro, your local figures will likely be higher than the national median. Pull the state or MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area — the BLS term for a major metro labor market) figure from bls.gov/oes before you post. If that metro cell is suppressed (BLS doesn't publish estimates for areas with very small samples), fall back to the state figure and say so.

For a complete guide to building percentile-anchored salary bands — not just for job postings but for offer letters — see our skilled trades wage benchmarking guide.

Applying the Same Method to HVAC and Welding

The four-section structure and the two-source method work across every trade. A few data points to illustrate:

HVAC mechanics and installers (SOC 49-9021): BLS median $59,810/year (May 2024, national); 10th percentile $39,130; 90th percentile $91,020. O*NET's task list for this occupation includes diagnosing and repairing equipment malfunctions, testing for proper refrigerant charge and airflow, and maintaining service records — all highly specific and directly useful in a job posting. (Check bls.gov/oes for your state or metro figure before posting.)

Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers (SOC 51-4121): BLS median $51,000/year (May 2024, national); 10th percentile $38,130; 90th percentile $75,850. O*NET highlights process-specific knowledge (MIG, TIG, stick, flux-core) and quality-inspection tasks — exactly the kind of specificity that separates 47 generic applications from 12 targeted ones.

In each case, the process is the same: look up the SOC code in O*NET for tasks and skills; look up the same SOC code in BLS OEWS for the wage percentiles; build your four sections. The whole thing takes under an hour once you know where the data lives — or under ten minutes with a pre-built template.

The Pay Range Question: To Post or Not to Post

Pay transparency laws are expanding in a growing number of states and localities — and regardless of the legal requirements in your jurisdiction, posting a range is increasingly expected by candidates in a competitive trade labor market. We won't tell you what your state's specific law requires; verify that with your employment attorney or the relevant state labor agency. What we can say: a posting with no range often reads as an invitation for candidates to waste their time and yours.

If you're unsure what range to post, the BLS data gives you a defensible starting point. A range built from published percentiles is easier to explain to a candidate than one built from gut feel — and easier to defend internally when a foreman asks why the new hire is making $4 more per hour than he does.

For help turning that range into a full offer letter once the candidate says yes, see how to write a trade offer letter.

Get the Template and Skip the Blank Page

If you'd rather start from a pre-built, ONET-sourced, BLS-anchored template than build one from scratch, the Trade Job Description Pack includes ready-to-edit job description templates for the most common trade roles — electrician, HVAC, plumber, welder, carpenter, and more — with the ONET task and skill sections already populated, pay-range placeholders tied to the current BLS percentiles, and a fill-in-the-blank structure you can have posted in under 20 minutes.

Or, if you want to explore the full wage-intelligence platform — salary bands, O*NET profiles, and the band generator, all in one place — take a look at our plans starting at $199/month.

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This article includes information from ONET OnLine, developed by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration. ONET is a registered trademark of the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration.