Workers in the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $37.12 in May 2020, about 37 percent above the nationwide average of $27.07, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. After testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were higher than their respective national averages in 21 of the 22 major occupational groups, including life, physical, and social science; legal; and management. No group had an hourly wage significantly lower than its respective national average.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Washington area employment was more highly concentrated in 10 of the 22 occupational groups, including business and financial operations, computer and mathematical, and management. Eleven groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including production, transportation and material moving, and office and administrative support. (See table A.)

One occupational group—computer and mathematical—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Washington had 242,350 jobs in computer and mathematical, accounting for 8.0 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 3.3-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $53.98, significantly above the national wage of $46.53.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the computer and mathematical group included software developers and software quality assurance analysts and testers (75,910), computer systems analysts (22,930), and network and computer systems administrators (18,890). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were computer and information research scientists and computer network architects, with mean hourly wages of $70.40 and $65.57, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were computer user support specialists ($32.03) and computer network support specialists ($37.58). (Detailed data for the computer and mathematical occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_47900.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 Washington area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the computer and mathematical group. For instance, information security analysts were employed at 5.3 times the national rate in Washington, and computer network architects, at 2.7 times the U.S. average. Computer user support specialists had a location quotient of 1.4 in Washington, indicating that this particular occupation’s local and national employment shares were similar.

These statistics are from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, a federal-state cooperative program between BLS and State Workforce Agencies, in this case, the District of Columbia Department of Employment Services, the Virginia Employment Commission, the Maryland Department of Labor, and Workforce West Virginia.

Technical Note

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. OEWS data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm.

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 State Workforce Agencies 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 180,000 to 185,000 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 2020 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2020, November 2019, May 2019, November 2018, May 2018, and November 2017. The unweighted sample employment of 83 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 56 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 69 percent based on establishments and 66 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area included 14,051 establishments with a response rate of 63 percent. For more information about OEWS 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.

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 Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area includes the District in Columbia; Calvert, Charles, and Prince George's Counties in Maryland; Arlington, Clarke, Culpeper, Fairfax, Fauquier, Loudoun, Prince William, Rappahannock, Spotsylvania, Stafford, and Warren Counties, and Alexandria, Fairfax, Falls Church, Fredericksburg, Manssas, and Manssas Park cities in Virginia; and Jefferson County in West Virginia.

For more information

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

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

Table 1. Employment and wage data for computer and mathematical occupations, Washington area, May 2020

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Computer and mathematical occupations	242,350	2.4	$53.98	$112,280
Computer systems analysts	22,930	1.8	56.09	116,670
Information security analysts	15,750	5.3	56.69	117,920
Computer and information research scientists	3,470	5.3	70.40	146,440
Computer network support specialists	7,400	1.9	37.58	78,170
Computer user support specialists	18,830	1.4	32.03	66,620
Computer network architects	9,270	2.7	65.57	136,390
Network and computer systems administrators	18,890	2.6	49.25	102,450
Database administrators and architects	7,000	2.4	55.84	116,150
Computer programmers	6,920	1.8	50.51	105,060
Software developers and software quality assurance analysts and testers	75,910	2.4	57.65	119,920
Web developers and digital interface designers	6,450	1.9	43.41	90,280
Computer occupations, all other	34,730	4.4	58.53	121,730
Actuaries	430	0.9	(5)	(5)
Mathematicians	230	4.3	66.43	138,160
Operations research analysts	6,910	3.3	54.67	113,710
Statisticians	4,820	5.7	54.59	113,540
Data scientists and mathematical science occupations, all other	2,410	1.9	51.95	108,060
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_47900.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. (5) Estimate not released.