Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics - Measuring Earnings and Employment Growth
About
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Occupation Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program is government’s most geographically-detailed source of information on detailed occupations and wages earned. It is also the principal source for BLS employment projections.
About the OES Data
The OEWS program produces employment and wage estimates annually for over 800 occupations, and more than 450 industries (at the national level). National occupational estimates for specific industries are also available. OEWS survey data contain interesting information on the occupational composition of the nation's industries, including information on STEM occupations and educational requirements. Additional data charts and maps as well as FAQs are available on the BLS website. These estimates are available for the nation as a whole, for individual states, for metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas and local areas - this includes 375 MSAs, 34 metro divisions and more than 170 metro areas.
Listen to the audio presentation for more information!
What the Data Offers
In collecting data on employees in nonfarm establishments, the OEWS data are geographically and economically detailed and categorized with Standard Occupational Coding (SOC). For each occupation, data are shown for employment totals plus the mean annual and hourly wages, and the annual wages at the 10th, 25th, 50th (median), 75th, and 90th percentiles. Data are issued about a year after the reference period.
Because the survey design incorporates data from a 3-year reference period, great care must be used in using OEWS data for historical analyses (to avoid overlapping years, only every 4th year can be chosen for historical comparisons). The survey includes about 1.2 million establishments. BLS initiated the OEWS in 1971, and data are available online for 1997 and later. OEWS data before 1997 do not include state, metropolitan, or nonmetropolitan areas.
Watch the online OEWS video and Get ready to test your knowledge of occupations in the United States!
The OEWS website and database includes:
- most recent local data in alphabetical order by locality
- state data by occupation and industry
- MSA and non-MSA data by occupation and industry
- MSA and non-MSA data by county or town
- BLS how-to advice on identifying occupations in states and localities used in conjunction with OES customized searches in the BLS Query System
- historical OEWS data (starting in 1999)
- other OEWS publications.
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- Posted by: Damon Jones
- Posted in: LMI Central