Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis has unveiled an new online tool that offers information on more than 900 occupations in a simple format that just about anyone can use. The tool, called My Next Move, is a supplement to the labor departments “mySkills myfuture” website, which helps seasoned job seekers find occupations that match their skill set. My Next Move is especially useful for first-time job seekers, students, and young adults interested in finding careers that match their interests. According to Solis, the department created the tool for a number of reasons.

“This administration is committed to expanding opportunities for all Americans,” Solis said. “That includes ensuring all workers — those with years of experience and those just entering the work force — have the information they need to make informed career decisions and get good jobs.”

“By leveraging technology in a user-friendly tool, My Next Move will help those seeking career guidance learn more about work opportunities in fields that are of interest to them and that are likely to have job openings today and well into the future.”

The tool streamlines the department’s Occupational Information Network (O.NET) Interest Profiler, which, since 2001, consisted of 180 questions in order to match a users interests with possible occupations. The streamlined version requires answers to 60 questions. In addition to the using the interest profiler to find job matches, users can search for jobs by industry and occupation. The streamlined version of O.NET is available for the first time as part of My Next Move.

Users can also search for jobs in three categories:

-Careers with a “bright outlook” in growing industries
-Jobs that are part of the “green” economy
-Occupations that have a Registered Apprenticeship program

According to a U.S. Department of Labor News Release about My Next Move, each occupation that a user selects has an easy-to-read, one-page profile, including information about what knowledge, skills and abilities are needed; the occupation’s outlook; the level of education required; technologies used within the occupation; and other, similar jobs. In addition, each occupation page includes direct links to local salary information, training opportunities and relevant job openings.

To access My Next Move, visit: http://mynextmove.dol.gov.

More than 57.2 million job seekers visit job placement sites each month, according to a Forbes report about the best ways to find a job. The three most popular sites include CareerBuilder.com, Yahoo! HotJobs, and Monster.com. Although these sites have been around for more than a decade, a number of other sites have cropped up, stealing the market share from the top three.

Other job placement sites such as Simply Hired, Indeed, Snagajob.com, and Beyond.com gather postings from other job sites and reorganize them to make them easier to surf.

“Many corporate companies post job openings on their own corporate Web sites, so aggregators knock out the necessity to go around from site to site targeting specific companies,” says Chuck Schilling, research director at Nielsen.

Certainly the rotten economy is driving demand for more job sites. But there’s a heavy psychological component at work here, too. Newer sites carry “the shiny-and-new syndrome,” says Lorne Epstein, recruiting expert and author of You’re Hired! Interview Skills to Get the Job, so even if another site does the same thing, there is a hope that a newer site will do it better.

Job seekers also use government job sites to search for employment. The two top government websites are USAJOBS.gov and GovernmentJobs.com. These sites attract 2.8 million and 1 million visitors a month, respectively.

If you’re serious about finding a job in any professional career, you have to be on LinkedIn. Also, if you have a job but might be interested in a new job, the advice is the same.

Hopefully you’ve already heard this from others and you already have a profile. In that case do research on how to beef it up and get more prospective employers to find it.

If you haven’t heard this, or you’ve just been lazy about getting going, then get on there now and put up a profile!

Here’s some interesting information from a recent Fortune article on how LinkedIn will fire up your career.

If you need a job, or just want a better one, here’s a number that will give you hope: 50,000. That’s how many people the giant consulting firm Accenture plans to hire this year. Yes, actual jobs, with pay. It’s looking for telecom consultants, finance experts, software specialists, and many more. You could be one of them — but will Accenture find you?

To pick these hires the old-fashioned way, the firm would rely on headhunters, employee referrals, and job boards. But the game has changed. To get the attention of John Campagnino, Accenture’s head of global recruiting, you’d better be on the web.

To put a sharper point on it: If you don’t have a profile on LinkedIn, you’re nowhere. Partly motivated by the cheaper, faster recruiting he can do online, Campagnino plans to make as many as 40% of his hires in the next few years through social media. Says he: “This is the future of recruiting for our company.”

Facebook is for fun. Tweets have a short shelf life. If you’re serious about managing your career, the only social site that really matters is LinkedIn. In today’s job market an invitation to “join my professional network” has become more obligatory — and more useful — than swapping business cards and churning out résumés.

Companies explain that LinkedIn is more effective at finding qualified candidates, but it’s also more cost effective as well since employers don’t have to pay a recruiter.

Now it’s time to get started!