Welcome to OEWN - Oklahoma Employment and Wage Network
The Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) program has changed its name to Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) to better reflect the range of data available from the program. Data released on or after March 31, 2021, will reflect the new program name. Webpages, publications, and other materials associated with previous data releases will retain the Occupational Employment Statistics name.
Employment and Wage estimates for the State, the Balance of State (BOS), and Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA) may be accessed using the Oklahoma Employment and Wage Network (OEWN). OEWN is an interactive web service that allows the user to view a wide range of data, including employment estimates (where available).
A data user can view more detailed information about an occupation by clicking on the occupation. Examples are the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) code and definition, median wage history and ranges, and a breakdown of the top areas for that particular occupation in the state.
The Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey is a semiannual survey measuring occupational employment and wage rates for wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments in the United States. The OEWS data available from BLS include cross-industry occupational employment and wage estimates for the nation; over 580 areas, including states and the District of Columbia, metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), nonmetropolitan areas, and territories; national industry-specific estimates at the NAICS sector, 3-digit, most 4-digit, and selected 5- and 6-digit industry levels; and national estimates by ownership across all industries and for schools and hospitals.
The OEWS survey is a cooperative effort between BLS and the State Workforce Agencies (SWAs). BLS funds the survey and provides the procedures and technical support, while the SWAs collect most of the data. OEWS estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.1 million establishments. Each year, two semiannual panels of approximately 179,000 to 187,000 sampled establishments are contacted, one panel in May and the other in November. Responses are obtained by Internet or other electronic means, mail, email, telephone, or personal visit. The May 2021 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2021, November 2020, May 2020, November 2019, May 2019, and November 2018. The unweighted sampled employment of 82 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 62 percent of total national employment. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 67.2 percent based on establishments and 64.5 percent based on weighted sampled employment.
Changes and special procedures in the May 2021 estimates
With the May 2021 estimates, the OEWS program has implemented a new estimation method. This new model-based method, called MB3, has advantages over the previous estimation method, as described in the Monthly Labor Review article at www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2019/article/model-based-estimates-for-the-occupational-employment-statistics-program.htm. For more information, see the May 2021 Survey Methods and Reliability Statement at www.bls.gov/oes/methods_21.pdf.
The May 2021 estimates are the first OEWS estimates based entirely on survey data collected using the 2018 SOC. The May 2019 and May 2020 estimates were based on a combination of survey data collected using the 2010 SOC and survey data collected using the 2018 SOC and used a hybrid of the two classification systems. See www.bls.gov/soc/2018 and www.bls.gov/oes/oes_ques.htm#qf10 for more information.
May 2021 OEWS data are available for most 2018 SOC detailed occupations. To improve data quality, the OEWS program has replaced some 2018 SOC detailed occupations with SOC broad occupations or OEWS-specific aggregations.
The May 2021 OEWS estimates use the metropolitan area definitions delineated in Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Bulletin 17-01. For more information, please see www.bls.gov/oes/current/msa_def.htm.
Response rates for the May 2021 estimates were negatively affected by the difficulty of collecting data from employers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Lower response rates may negatively affect data availability and data quality.
Occupational Employment and Wage Network represents May 2020 employment and wage estimates. However, wages in the five previous panels have been adjusted to the May 2019 reference period by using the over-the-year wage changes in the most applicable national Employment Cost Index series. For additional information, see the Technical Notes for May 2019 OES Estimates.
The employment data are benchmarked to an average of the May and November employment levels. The most recent wage data are for May 2020. The May 2020 OEWS estimates are based on the 2017 NAICS classification system.
To enter the system, please click on OEWN
Technical Notes
The following technical notes should be able to guide users through the new Oklahoma Employment and Wage Network. If you have questions or if you cannot find an answer to your question here, please feel free to contact us. You may reach us via e-mail at oes@oesc.state.ok.us or by phone at (405) 557-5387.
Once you have selected a geographic area, click on that label and you will be presented with a screen that shows the first occupations available for that geographic area. Occupations are arrayed in alphabetical order by its Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) major group. For more information on the Standard Occupational Classification coding system, please following this link to the Bureau of Labor statistics: http://www.bls.gov/soc/home.htm.
The Major Groups are list below with the exception of 55-0000 Military Occupation. Currently, we do not collect data for this major group.
- 11-0000 Management Occupations
- 13-0000 Business and Financial Operations Occupations
- 15-0000 Computer and Mathematical Occupations
- 17-0000 Architecture and Engineering Occupations
- 19-0000 Life, Physical, and Social Service Occupations
- 21-0000 Community and Social Service Occupations
- 23-0000 Legal Occupations
- 25-0000 Education, Training, and Library Occupations
- 27-0000 Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media Occupations
- 29-0000 Healthcare Practitioner and Technical Occupations
- 31-0000 Healthcare Support Occupations
- 33-0000 Protective Service Occupations
- 35-0000 Food Preparation and Serving Related Occupations
- 37-0000 Building and Grounds Cleaning and Maintenance Occupations
- 39-0000 Personal Care and Service Occupations
- 41-0000 Sales and Related Occupations
- 43-0000 Office and Administrative Support Occupations
- 45-0000 Farming, Fishing, and Forestry Occupations
- 47-0000 Construction and Extraction Occupations
- 49-0000 Installation, Maintenance, and Repair Occupations
- 51-0000 Production Occupations
- 53-0000 Transportation and Material Moving Occupations
Data for each occupation will be listed in two parts: the first is the annual wage and the second is for hourly wages. There are a few occupations for which no hourly data is available (typically, these are workers in the musical or entertainment industries, teachers, pilots and flight attendants.)
Each occupation has the following categories: Occ. Code, est. empl., mean wage, mean % RSE, 10th pct, 25th pct, median wage, 75th pct, and 90th pct. Each category is defined below
Occ. Code: This is the Standard Occupational Classification code for that occupation.
Est. Empl.: This is the estimate of employment for that occupation based upon the sample; it is not the employment collected from the survey itself. The OEWS survey defines employment as the number of workers who can be classified as full-time or part-time employees, including workers on paid vacations or other types of leave; workers on unpaid short-term absences; salaried officers, executives, and staff members of incorporated firms; employees temporarily assigned to other units; and employees for whom the reporting unit is their permanent duty station regardless of whether that unit prepares their paycheck. The survey excludes the self-employed, owners/partners of unincorporated firms, and unpaid family workers. Employees are reported in the occupation in which they are working, not necessarily for which they were trained.
Mean Wage: the estimated total wages for an occupation divided by its weighted survey employment.
RSE: Statistics based on establishment surveys are subject to both sampling and nonsampling error. When a sample of the population is surveyed, there is a chance that the sample estimate of a characteristic may differ from the population value of that characteristic. The difference between the sample estimate and the population value will vary depending on the particular sample selected. This variability is measured by the sampling error (SE). If we were to repeat the sampling and estimation process using the same survey design, 90 percent of the intervals from the sample estimate minus 1.6 SE to the sample estimate plus 1.6 SE would include the population value. This interval is called a 90 percent confidence interval. The OEWS survey produces estimates of the relative standard error (RSE). The RSE is defined as the SE divided by the estimated value as computed from the sample. This statistic provides the user with a measure of the relative precision of the sample estimates. Employment RSE: the Relative Standard Error of the employment estimate, a measure of the reliability or precision of the employment estimate. The relative standard error is defined as the ratio of the standard error to the survey estimate. For example, a relative standard error of 10 percent implies that the standard error is one-tenth as large as the survey estimate. Mean Wage RSE: the relative standard error of the mean wage estimates, a measure of the reliability or precision of the mean wage estimates. The relative standard error is defined as the ratio of the standard error to the survey estimate. For example, a relative standard error of 10 percent implies that the standard error is one-tenth as large as the survey estimate.
Percentile Wage Estimates: A percentile wage estimate shows what percentage of workers in an occupation earn less than a given wage and what percentage earn more. For example, a 25th percentile wage of $15.00 indicates that 25 percent of workers (in a given occupation in a given area) earn less than $15.00; therefore 75 percent of workers earn more than $15.00.
10th Pct: Hourly/annual wages of the 10th percentile.
25th Pct: Hourly/annual wages of the 25th percentile.
50th Pct: (Median wage): Known as the “middle” number, the median is the boundary between the highest 50% and lowest 50% paid in that occupation.
75th Pct: Hourly/annual wages of the 75th percentile.
90th Pct: Hourly/annual wages of the 90th percentile.
Area Profile
The area profile is an additional page that the user can reference by clicking on the occupation of interest. This page contains comparison information for that occupation in the area in which they are located as well as comparison with other areas across the state.
The page is divided into three components: the navigation component, the area component, and the state component.
Navigation component: this part is at the very top of the page and allows the user to move from area to area and/or from occupation to occupation. Please note, this function only works by areas of similar definition so that someone can move from MSA to MSA or BOS to BOS but not from an MSA to a BOS.
Area component: On the left side of the screen, the wage and employment data is for the area in which the wage search is being conducted.
On the right side of the screen, you will see these items for the area:
- Standard Occupational Classification definition and code,
- The median wage history for the occupation as compared to occupations within its group. For example, this would compare Administrative Service Managers against all occupations within the Management Occupations group (11-0000).
- This data will be available only if there is historical data available for that wage at the time the estimates were generated.
State component: On the lower right side of the screen, the user will see a chart that compares that area’s occupation to the top employing areas for that occupation and the top best paying areas for that occupation in the state. This will allow the user to see other areas at a glance.
Additional Notes:
Occupational employment is the estimate of total wage and salary employment in an occupation. The OEWS survey defines employment as the number of workers who can be classified as full- or part-time employees, including workers on paid vacations or other types of paid leave; workers on unpaid short-term absences; salaried officers, executives, and staff members of incorporated firms; employees temporarily assigned to other units; and employees for whom the reporting unit is their permanent duty station, regardless of whether that unit prepares their paycheck. The survey does not include the self-employed, owners and partners in unincorporated firms, household workers, or unpaid family workers.
Wages for the OEWS survey are straight-time, gross pay, exclusive of premium pay. Base rate; cost-of-living allowances; guaranteed pay; hazardous-duty pay; incentive pay, including commissions and production bonuses; and tips are included. Excluded are overtime pay, severance pay, shift differentials, nonproduction bonuses, employer cost for supplementary benefits, and tuition reimbursements.
OEWS receives wage rate data for the federal government, the U.S. Postal Service, and most state governments. For the remaining establishments, the OEWS survey data are placed into 12 intervals. The intervals are defined both as hourly rates and the corresponding annual rates, where the annual rate for an occupation is calculated by multiplying the hourly wage rate by a typical work year of 2,080 hours. The responding establishments are instructed to report the hourly rate for part-time workers, and to report annual rates for occupations that are typically paid at an annual rate but do not work 2,080 hours per year, such as teachers, pilots, and flight attendants. Other workers, such as some entertainment workers, are paid hourly rates, but generally do not work 40 hours per week, year round. For these workers, only an hourly wage is reported.
Oklahoma Wage Data in Excel Format
Employment and Wage estimates in the Excel file for the State, the Balance of State (BOS), and Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA) are from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program. The May 2021 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2021, November 2020, May 2020, November 2019, May 2019, and November 2018. The unweighted sampled employment of 82 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 62 percent of total national employment. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 67.2 percent based on establishments and 64.5 percent based on weighted sampled employment.
