What is BLS wages and employment?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates employment and pay for jobs. It publishes national, state, local, and industry figures.
- Full name
- Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
- Published by
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Edition in EduInsights
- May 2025
- Current availability
- Used in the current EduInsights data release.
Why it matters
Why we use BLS wages and employment
These estimates let us compare typical pay and employment for jobs across places and industries.
How many people do the job
BLS estimates the number of workers in that job and place.
What the job pays
Hourly and yearly figures show pay before deductions. The pay range shows lower, middle, and higher earners.
Where the job is unusually common
The share helps you spot places or industries where the job makes up more of the workforce.
Good to know
What to keep in mind
- Pick one map
- National, state, and local figures overlap. Adding them together would count many workers twice.
- Employment is not hiring
- This counts jobs that already exist. Look at projections when you want expected openings.
- Some very high salaries stop at a floor
- BLS sometimes says pay is at least a certain amount instead of publishing an exact higher figure.
On its own
Questions this source can answer by itself
These questions need no facts from another source.
- What does a job typically pay?
- How many people work in this job?
- Where is this job more common?
With other sources
Questions this source helps answer
We use another source only when it describes the same college, field, career, place, or time.
- What do careers related to a field pay?
- How do current employment and projected openings differ?
Where it stops
What this source cannot tell you
- These are estimates, not the pay offered by one employer.
- Some figures are hidden when BLS cannot publish them safely.
- The files overlap and cannot always be added together.
Use this source in a real question.
Ask about a college, field, career, place, or change over time.
