REALITY+CHECK

South Dakota Reality Check

T he Labor Market Information Center (LMIC) is finally releasing Reality Check, the latest Internet application in our arsenal of career exploration tools. We believe you will find this application especially helpful for clients whose expectations of what they will ultimately earn don't match up with....well, reality. Reality Check will assist seekers in researching what they can ultimately expect to earn based on their level of educational attainment and compare this to to the type of lifestyle desired.

It is important to note Reality Check references median wage data. A median wage is defined as the wage at which 50 percent of workers in a given occupation earn that wage or less and 50 percent earn that wage or more. Although the wages provided in South Dakota Reality Check are state specific, the source for this information is the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Therefore, wages presented in the application will not match those published on the Labor Market Information and Career InSite Web sites, as the mean (or average) wages are highlighted on these sites. It is also important to note the LMIC "updates" the BLS wage data by incorporating quarterly increases in the Employer Cost Index (ECI) to reflect more current trends. The decision was made to use the BLS median wage data due to a statistical methodology which allows for the publication of a greater number of occupations than when using the mean wage.

The link to South Dakota Reality Check is housed within the Career InSite application : []