The Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OES) program conducts a semi-annual survey to produce estimates of employment and wages for specific occupations. The OES program collects data on wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments in order to produce employment and wage estimates for about 800 occupations. Data from self-employed persons are not collected and are not included in the estimates. The OES program produces these occupational estimates by geographic area and by industry. Estimates based on geographic areas are available at the National, State, Metropolitan, and Nonmetropolitan Area levels. The Bureau of Labor Statistics produces occupational employment and wage estimates for over 450 industry classifications at the national level. The industry classifications correspond to the sector, 3-, 4-, and 5-digit North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) industrial groups. More information and details about the data provided can be found at http://www.bls.gov/oes

The Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) Survey is a federal-state cooperative program between the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and State Workforce Agencies (SWAs). The BLS provides the procedures and technical support, draws the sample, and produces the survey materials, while the SWAs collect the data. SWAs from all fifty states, plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands participate in the survey. Occupational employment and wage rate estimates at the national level are produced by BLS using data from the fifty states and the District of Columbia. Employers who respond to states' requests to participate in the OEWS survey make these estimates possible.

The OEWS survey collects data from a sample of establishments and calculates employment and wage estimates by occupation, industry, and geographic area. The semiannual survey covers all non-farm industries. Data are collected by the Employment Development Department in cooperation with the Bureau of Labor Statistics, US Department of Labor. The OEWS Program estimates employment and wages for approximately 830 occupations. It also produces employment and wage estimates for statewide, Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs), and Balance of State areas. Estimates are a snapshot in time and should not be used as a time series.

The OEWS estimates are published annually.

SOURCE: https://www.bls.gov/oes/oes_emp.htm

The National Compensation Survey (NCS) program produces information on wages by occupation for many metropolitan areas.The Modeled Wage Estimates (MWE) provide annual estimates of average hourly wages for occupations by selected job characteristics and within geographical _location. The job characteristics include bargaining status (union and nonunion), part- and full-time work status, incentive- and time-based pay, and work levels by occupation. The modeled wage estimates are produced using a statistical procedure that combines survey data collected by the National Compensation Survey (NCS) and the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) programs. Borrowing from the strengths of the NCS, information on job characteristics and work levels, and from the OES, the occupational and geographic detail, the modeled wage estimates provide more detail on occupational average hourly wages than either program is able to provide separately. Wage rates for different work levels within occupation groups also are published. Data are available for private industry, State and local governments, full-time workers, part-time workers, and other workforce characteristics.

Graph and download economic data for Average Hourly Earnings of All Employees, Total Private (CES0500000003) from Mar 2006 to Jul 2025 about earnings, average, establishment survey, hours, wages, private, employment, and USA.

About this Dataset

This dataset combines automation probability data with a breakdown of the number of jobs and salary in each occupation by state within the USA. Automation probability was acquired from the work of Carl Benedikt Freyand Michael A. Osborne; State employment data is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Note that for simplicity of analysis, all jobs where data was not available or there were less than 10 employees were marked as zero.

How to Cite this Dataset

If you use this dataset in your research, please credit the authors.

Salary Data

@misc{u.s. bureau of labor statistics, title={Occupational Employment Statistics}, url={https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm}, journal={U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS}}

Automation Data

@article{frey_osborne_2017, title={The future of employment: How susceptible are jobs to computerisation?}, volume={114}, DOI={10.1016/j.techfore.2016.08.019}, journal={Technological Forecasting and Social Change}, author={Frey, Carl Benedikt and Osborne, Michael A.}, year={2017}, pages={254–280}}

License

License was not specified at the source.

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The Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC) is a measure of the cost of labor. The compensation series includes wages and salaries plus employer costs for individual employee benefits. Employee benefit costs are calculated as cost-per-hour-worked for individual benefits ranging from employer payments for Social Security to paid time off for holidays.

The Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) program publishes a quarterly count of employment and wages reported by employers covering 98 percent of U.S. jobs, available at the county, MSA, state and national levels by industry.

More information and details about the data provided can be found at http://www.bls.gov/cew

Graph and download economic data for Employment Level - Nonagriculture, Government Wage and Salary Workers (LNS12032188) from Jan 1948 to Jul 2025 about nonagriculture, salaries, workers, 16 years +, wages, household survey, government, employment, and USA.

The Employment Cost Index (ECI) measures the change in the cost of labor, free from the influence of employment shifts among occupations and industries. The total compensation series includes changes in wages and salaries and in employer costs for employee benefits.

The Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) and National Compensation Survey (NCS) programs have produced estimates by borrowing from the strength and breadth of each survey to provide more details on occupational wages than either program provides individually. Modeled wage estimates provide annual estimates of average hourly wages for occupations by selected job characteristics and within geographical location.

Graph and download economic data for Employed: Paid at prevailing federal minimum wage: Government wage and salary workers: 16 years and over (LEU0204926300A) from 2000 to 2024 about paid, minimum wage, salaries, workers, 16 years +, federal, wages, government, employment, and USA.

Graph and download economic data for Employed: Percent of hourly paid workers: Paid total at or below prevailing federal minimum wage: Government wage and salary workers: 16 years and over (LEU0204926500A) from 2000 to 2024 about paid, minimum wage, salaries, workers, hours, percent, 16 years +, federal, wages, government, employment, and USA.

VITAL SIGNS INDICATOR
Jobs by Industry (EC1)

FULL MEASURE NAME
Employment by place of work by industry sector

LAST UPDATED
December 2022

DESCRIPTION
Jobs by industry refers to both the change in employment levels by industry and the proportional mix of jobs by economic sector. This measure reflects the changing industry trends that affect our region’s workers.

DATA SOURCE
Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) - https://www.bls.gov/cew/downloadable-data-files.htm
1990-2021

CONTACT INFORMATION
vitalsigns.info@bayareametro.gov

METHODOLOGY NOTES (across all datasets for this indicator)
Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) employment data is reported by the place of work and represent the number of covered workers who worked during, or received pay for, the pay period that included the 12th day of the month. Covered employees in the private-sector and in the state and local government include most corporate officials, all executives, all supervisory personnel, all professionals, all clerical workers, many farmworkers, all wage earners, all piece workers and all part-time workers. Workers on paid sick leave, paid holiday, paid vacation and the like are also covered.

Besides excluding the aforementioned national security agencies, QCEW excludes proprietors, the unincorporated self-employed, unpaid family members, certain farm and domestic workers exempted from having to report employment data and railroad workers covered by the railroad unemployment insurance system. Excluded as well are workers who earned no wages during the entire applicable pay period because of work stoppages, temporary layoffs, illness or unpaid vacations.

The location quotient (LQ) is used to evaluate level of concentration or clustering of an industry within the Bay Area and within each county of the region. A location quotient greater than 1 means there is a strong concentration for of jobs in an industry sector. For the Bay Area, the LQ is calculated as the share of the region’s employment in a particular sector divided by the share of California's employment in that same sector. For each county, the LQ is calculated as the share of the county’s employment in a particular sector divided by the share of the region’s employment in that same sector.

Data is mainly pulled from aggregation level 73, which is county-level summarized at the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) supersector level (12 sectors). This aggregation level exhibits the least loss due to data suppression, in the magnitude of 1-2 percent for regional employment, and is therefore preferred. However, the supersectors group together NAICS 11 Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting; NAICS 21 Mining and NAICS 23 Construction. To provide a separate tally of Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting, the aggregation level 74 data was used for NAICS codes 11, 21 and 23.

QCEW reports on employment in Public Administration as NAICS 92. However, many government activities are reported with an industry specific code - such as transportation or utilities even if those may be public governmental entities. In 2021 for the Bay Area, the largest industry groupings under public ownership are Education and health services (58%); Public administration (29%) and Trade, transportation, and utilities (29%). With the exception of Education and health services, all other public activities were coded as government/public administration, regardless of industry group.

For the county data there were some industries that reported 0 jobs or did not report jobs at the desired aggregation/NAICS level for the following counties/years:

Farm:
(aggregation level: 74, NAICS code: 11) - Contra Costa: 2008-2010 - Marin: 1990-2006, 2008-2010, 2014-2020 - Napa: 1990-2004, 2013-2021 - San Francisco: 2019-2020 - San Mateo: 2013

Information:
(aggregation level: 73, NAICS code: 51) - Solano: 2001

Financial Activities:
(aggregation level: 73, NAICS codes: 52, 53) - Solano: 2001

Unclassified:
(aggregation level: 73, NAICS code: 99) - All nine Bay Area counties: 1990-2000 - Marin, Napa, San Mateo, and Solano: 2020 - Napa: 2019 - Solano: 2001

The Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) program publishes a quarterly count of employment and wages reported by employers covering 98 percent of U.S. jobs, available at the county, MSA, state and national levels by industry.

More information and details about the data provided can be found at http://www.bls.gov/cew

The Business Employment Dynamics (BED) is a set of statistics generated from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) program. These quarterly data series consist of gross job gains and gross job losses statistics from 1992 forward. These data help to provide a picture of the dynamic state of the labor market.

For more information and data visit: https://www.bls.gov/bed/

United States - Total wages and salaries, BLS was 11076.97400 Bil. of $ in January of 2023, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, United States - Total wages and salaries, BLS reached a record high of 11076.97400 in January of 2023 and a record low of 1479.18700 in January of 1982. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for United States - Total wages and salaries, BLS - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on August of 2025.

The Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) program provides several different types of data files. These files are available for download. Data classified using the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) are available from 1990 forward [in this archived dataset, through 2024], and on a more limited basis from 1975 to 1989. NAICS-based data files from 1990 to 2000 were re-constructed from data classified under the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system. NAICS-based data files from 1975 to 1989 contain only totals by-ownership. NAICS data can be downloaded from the NAICS-Based Data Files table below.Data classified using the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system is available from 1975 through 2000. SIC data can be downloaded from the second table below titled SIC-Based Data Files.

Graph and download economic data for Employed full time: Wage and salary workers: Eligibility interviewers, government programs occupations: 16 years and over (LEU0254500500A) from 2000 to 2024 about occupation, full-time, salaries, workers, 16 years +, wages, government, employment, and USA.

The National Compensation Survey (NCS) is an annual survey of the incidence and provisions of selected benefits provided by employers. The survey collects data from a sample of approximately 18,000 private sector and State and local government establishments. The data are presented as a percentage of employees with access to employee benefit programs and for some benefits, percentage of employees who participate in them.

VITAL SIGNS INDICATOR Income (EC5)

FULL MEASURE NAME Worker income by workplace (earnings)

LAST UPDATED October 2016

DESCRIPTION Income reflects the median earnings of individuals and households from employment, as well as the income distribution by quintile. Income data highlight how employees are being compensated for their work on an inflation-adjusted basis.

DATA SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau: Decennial Census Count 4Pb (1970) Form STF3 (1980-1990) Form SF3a (2000) https://nhgis.org

U.S. Census Bureau: American Community Survey Form B08521 (2006-2015; place of employment) http://api.census.gov

Bureau of Labor Statistics: Consumer Price Index All Urban Consumers Data Table (1970-2015; specific to each metro area) http://data.bls.gov

CONTACT INFORMATION vitalsigns.info@mtc.ca.gov

METHODOLOGY NOTES (across all datasets for this indicator) Income data reported in a given year reflects the income earned in the prior year (decennial Census) or in the prior 12 months (American Community Survey); note that this inconsistency has a minor effect on historical comparisons (for more information, go to: http://www.census.gov/acs/www/Downloads/methodology/ASA_nelson.pdf). American Community Survey 1-year data is used for larger geographies – metropolitan areas and counties – while smaller geographies rely upon 5-year rolling average data due to their smaller sample sizes. Quintile income for 1970-2000 is imputed from Decennial Census data using methodology from the California Department of Finance (for more information, go to: http://www.dof.ca.gov/Forecasting/Demographics/Census_Data_Center_Network/documents/How_to_Recalculate_a_Median.pdf). Bay Area income is the population weighted average of county-level income.

Income has been inflated using the Consumer Price Index specific to each metro area; however, some metro areas lack metro-specific CPI data back to 1970 and therefore adjusted data is unavailable for some historical data points. Note that current MSA boundaries were used for historical comparison by identifying counties included in today’s metro areas.