Workers in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $27.48 in May 2019, about 7 percent above the nationwide average of $25.72, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Assistant Commissioner for Regional Operations Charlene Peiffer noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were higher than their respective national averages in 9 of the 22 major occupational groups, including construction and extraction; legal; and installation, maintenance, and repair. Four groups had significantly lower wages than their respective national averages, including arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media; architecture and engineering; and computer and mathematical.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Chicago area employment was more highly concentrated in 7 of the 22 occupational groups, including management, transportation and material moving, and business and financial operations. Conversely, eleven groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including construction and extraction, healthcare support, and food preparation and serving related. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

One occupational group—management—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Chicago had 362,560 jobs in management, accounting for 7.8 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 5.5-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $60.07, significantly above the national wage of $58.88.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the management group included general and operations managers (101,960), financial managers (34,540), and sales managers (22,400). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were chief executives and financial managers, with mean hourly wages of $107.83 and $73.96, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were food service managers ($24.23) and lodging managers ($28.32). (Detailed data for the management occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_16980.htm.)

Location quotients allow us to explore the occupational make-up of a metropolitan area by comparing the composition of jobs in an area relative to the national average. (See table 1.) For example, a location quotient of 2.0 indicates that an occupation accounts for twice the share of employment in the area than it does nationally. In the Chicago area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the management group. For instance, marketing managers were employed at 2.3 times the national rate in Chicago, and human resources managers, at 1.8 times the U.S. average. Education administrators, kindergarten through secondary had a location quotient of 1.1 in Chicago, indicating that this particular occupation’s local and national employment shares were similar.

These statistics are from the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey, a federal-state cooperative program between BLS and State Workforce Agencies, in this case, the Illinois Department of Employment Security, the Indiana Department of Workforce Development, and the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development.

Technical Note

The Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey is a semiannual survey measuring occupational employment and wage rates for wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments in the United States. The OES 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. OES data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm.

The OES 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 State Workforce Agencies collect most of the data. OES estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.1 million establishments. Each year, two semiannual panels of approximately 180,000 to 200,000 sampled establishments are contacted, one panel in May and the other in November. Responses are obtained by mail, Internet or other electronic means, email, telephone, or personal visit. The May 2019 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2019, November 2018, May 2018, November 2017, May 2017, and November 2016. The unweighted sample employment of 83 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 57 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 71 percent based on establishments and 68 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI Metropolitan Statistical Area included 16,489 establishments with a response rate of 73 percent. For more information about OES concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_tec.htm.

A value that is statistically different from another does not necessarily mean that the difference has economic or practical significance. Statistical significance is concerned with the ability to make confident statements about a universe based on a sample. It is entirely possible that a large difference between two values is not significantly different statistically, while a small difference is, since both the size and heterogeneity of the sample affect the relative error of the data being tested.

The May 2019 OES estimates are the first set of OES estimates to be based in part on survey data collected using the 2018 SOC. These estimates use a hybrid of the 2010 and 2018 SOC systems. More information on the hybrid classification system is available at www.bls.gov/oes/soc_2018.htm.

The May 2019 OES estimates are based on the 2017 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). More information about the 2017 NAICS is available at www.bls.gov/bls/naics.htm.

Metropolitan area definitions

The substate area data published in this release reflect the standards and definitions established by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.

The Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry, and Will Counties of Illinois, Jasper, Lake, Newton, and Porter Counties of Indiana, and Kenosha County of Wisconsin.

For more information

Answers to frequently asked questions about the OES data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_ques.htm. Detailed information about the OES program is available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_doc.htm.

Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; Federal Relay Service: (800) 877-8339.

Table 1. Employment and wage data for management occupations, Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2019

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Management occupations	362,560	1.4	$60.07	$124,950
Chief executives	8,440	1.3	107.83	224,290
General and operations managers	101,960	1.3	63.72	132,530
Advertising and promotions managers	1,650	2.1	60.73	126,320
Marketing managers	19,570	2.3	65.12	135,450
Sales managers	22,400	1.8	66.85	139,040
Public relations and fundraising managers	4,500	1.8	60.84	126,550
Administrative services and facilities managers	16,040	1.6	49.60	103,170
Computer and information systems managers	16,790	1.2	72.94	151,710
Financial managers	34,540	1.7	73.96	153,840
Industrial production managers	8,330	1.4	52.55	109,300
Purchasing managers	3,590	1.6	58.23	121,110
Transportation, storage, and distribution managers	7,250	1.7	50.21	104,440
Compensation and benefits managers	1,070	2.0	66.75	138,830
Human resources managers	9,030	1.8	60.35	125,530
Training and development managers	2,140	1.8	59.46	123,680
Farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural managers	120	0.8	28.67	59,620
Construction managers	11,170	1.2	46.30	96,300
Education and childcare administrators, preschool and daycare	2,040	1.2	29.01	60,330
Education administrators, kindergarten through secondary	9,430	1.1	(6)	110,360
Education administrators, postsecondary	5,840	1.3	48.30	100,460
Education administrators, all other	1,540	1.1	39.41	81,960
Architectural and engineering managers	6,880	1.1	66.66	138,660
Food service managers	13,310	1.8	24.23	50,390
Gambling managers	160	1.1	39.59	82,340
Lodging managers	800	0.7	28.32	58,910
Medical and health services managers	11,270	0.9	62.01	128,980
Natural sciences managers	1,900	0.9	62.55	130,110
Postmasters and mail superintendents	250	0.6	38.25	79,550
Property, real estate, and community association managers	6,210	0.9	36.55	76,020
Social and community service managers	4,290	0.9	37.22	77,420
Emergency management directors	380	1.2	34.87	72,540
Funeral home managers	340	1.2	60.50	125,830
Personal service managers, all other; entertainment and recreation managers, except gambling; and managers, all other	27,030	1.8	51.07	106,230
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_16980.htm. (2) Estimates for detailed occupations may not sum to the totals due to rounding, and because the totals may include occupations that are not shown separately. Estimates do not include self-employed workers. (3) The location quotient is the ratio of the area concentration of occupational employment to the national average concentration. A location quotient greater than one indicates the occupation has a higher share of employment than average, and a location quotient less than one indicates the occupation is less prevalent in the area than average. (4) Annual wages have been calculated by multiplying the hourly mean wage by a "year-round, full-time" hours figure of 2,080 hours; for those occupations where there is not an hourly mean wage published, the annual wage has been directly calculated from the reported survey data. (6) Wages for some occupations that do not generally work year-round, full time, are reported either as hourly wages or annual salaries depending on how they are typically paid.