BLS OES wage lookup by occupation and state
Pick a state and an occupation to see how many people do that job there, what the median and mean annual wage are, and how far that sits above or below the national figure — from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program.
How it works
Three steps, no account.
- 1
Pick a state
Choose any state. OEWS publishes state and metro estimates; it does not publish county wages.
- 2
Pick an occupation
Select from the common occupations list, or choose All occupations for the overall state wage picture.
- 3
Compare to the nation
The result shows state employment, median and mean wage next to the national figure, with the percentage gap.
Common questions
What is OES / OEWS data?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program: annual employment counts and wage estimates for roughly 800 occupations, by state and metro area. OES is the program's former name; the data is the same.
Is the wage median or mean?
Both are shown. The median is the midpoint — half of workers earn less. The mean is pulled upward by high earners, so the two differ most in occupations with a long pay tail.
How often is it updated?
Annually. BLS publishes each spring for the previous May reference period, so the most recent estimate is usually about a year old.
Why does an occupation show no estimate for my state?
BLS withholds estimates that do not meet its disclosure or reliability standards, which happens with small occupation-state combinations.
Do these wages include benefits?
No. OEWS reports straight-time gross pay including incentive pay, but excludes employer-paid benefits, overtime premiums and non-production bonuses.
Related: the underlying dataset and the other free lookups.
Build the list for one county and see whether the names are right.
Ask in plain language. RepVector finds the universe, enriches each target from its own website, scores it 0–100, and hands you a ranked call list with phones, addresses and named contacts.
3 free runs — no card required.