Department of Labor Logo United States Department of Labor
Dot gov

The .gov means it's official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you're on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

News Release Information

17-491-CHI
Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Contacts Technical information: Media contact:
  • (312) 353-1138

Occupational Employment and Wages in Chicago-Naperville-Arlington Heights — May 2016

Workers in the Chicago-Naperville-Arlington Heights Metropolitan Division had an average (mean) hourly wage of $26.12 in May 2016, about 9 percent above the nationwide average of $23.86, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 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 7 of the 22 major occupational groups, including construction and extraction; education, training, and library; and sales and related. Wages were not significantly different from the national averages in 13 major occupational groups.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 6 of the 22 occupational groups, including management; transportation and material moving; and business and financial operations. Conversely, 12 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including construction and extraction; food preparation and serving related; and installation, maintenance, and repair. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Chicago-Naperville-Arlington Heights Metropolitan Division, and measures of statistical significance, May 2016
Major occupational groupPercent of total employmentMean hourly wage
United StatesChicagoUnited StatesChicagoPercent difference (1)

Total, all occupations

100.0100.0$23.86$26.12*9

Management

5.17.6*56.7456.40-1

Business and financial operations

5.26.1*36.0936.481

Computer and mathematical

3.03.5*42.2541.77-1

Architecture and engineering

1.81.5*40.5339.23*-3

Life, physical, and social science

0.80.6*35.0635.742

Community and social service

1.41.2*22.6924.36*7

Legal

0.80.9*50.9552.754

Education, training, and library

6.26.0*26.2129.47*12

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.41.328.0726.88*-4

Healthcare practitioners and technical

5.95.6*38.0638.561

Healthcare support

2.92.814.6514.851

Protective service

2.42.8*22.0324.8313

Food preparation and serving related

9.28.3*11.4711.420

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

3.22.7*13.4715.25*13

Personal care and service

3.23.0*12.7413.143

Sales and related

10.49.9*19.5021.82*12

Office and administrative support

15.715.617.9118.84*5

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.30.1*13.3714.216

Construction and extraction

4.02.7*23.5133.47*42

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.93.1*22.4524.52*9

Production

6.56.617.8817.70-1

Transportation and material moving

6.98.0*17.3418.245

Footnotes:
(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in the Chicago-Naperville-Arlington Heights Metropolitan Division is above the national mean wage, while a negative difference reflects a lower wage.
* The percent share of employment or mean hourly wage for this area is significantly different from the national average of all areas at the 90-percent confidence level.
 

One occupational group—management—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Chicago-Naperville-Arlington Heights had 276,520 jobs in management, accounting for 7.6 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 5.1-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $56.40, compared to the national wage of $56.74.

Some of the largest detailed occupations within the management group included general and operations managers (76,760), financial managers (24,060), and sales managers (16,770). Among the higher paying jobs were chief executives with mean hourly wages of $99.33 and computer and information systems managers, $67.33. At the lower end of the wage scale were lodging managers ($27.68) and food service managers ($28.59). (Detailed occupational data for management are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/2016/may/oes_16974.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-Naperville-Arlington Heights Metropolitan Division, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the management group. For instance, chief executives in Chicago were employed at 2.0 times the national rate, and human resources managers, at 1.8 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, medical and health services managers in Chicago had a location quotient of 0.9, 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.

Note

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.


Technical Note

The Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey is a semiannual mail 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 650 areas, including states and the District of Columbia, metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), metropolitan divisions, nonmetropolitan areas, and territories; national industry-specific estimates at the NAICS sector, 3-, 4-, 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.

OES estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.2 million establishments. Each year, two semiannual panels of approximately 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 2016 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2016, November 2015, May 2015, November 2014, May 2014, and November 2013. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 73 percent based on establishments and 69 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The unweighted employment of sampled establishments across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 58 percent of total national employment. The sample in the Chicago-Naperville-Arlington Heights Metropolitan Division included 11,371 establishments with a response rate of 61 percent. For more information about OES concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.tn.htm.

The May 2016 OES estimates are based on the 2010 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system and the 2012 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). Information about the 2010 SOC is available on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/soc and information about the 2012 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-Arlington Heights, Ill. Metropolitan Division includes Cook, DuPage, Grundy, Kendall, McHenry, and Will Counties.

Additional information

OES data are available on our regional web page at www.bls.gov/regions/midwest. Answers to frequently asked questions about the OES data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_ques.htm. Detailed technical information about the OES survey is available in our Survey Methods and Reliability Statement on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/oes/current/methods_statement.pdf.

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 from the Occupational Employment Statistics survey, by occupation, Chicago-Naperville-Arlington Heights Metropolitan Division, May 2016
Occupation (1)EmploymentMean wages
Level (2)Location quotient (3)HourlyAnnual (4)

Management occupations

276,5201.5$56.40$117,320

Chief executives

11,4302.099.33206,600

General and operations managers

76,7601.461.50127,930

Legislators

1,2200.9(5)50,110

Advertising and promotions managers

3,0004.044.2992,130

Marketing managers

9,5801.859.72124,220

Sales managers

16,7701.863.66132,410

Public relations and fundraising managers

2,7801.756.62117,780

Administrative services managers

9,2401.344.8493,260

Computer and information systems managers

11,4101.367.33140,050

Financial managers

24,0601.765.05135,300

Industrial production managers

3,9900.947.7199,240

Purchasing managers

2,3401.354.15112,640

Transportation, storage, and distribution managers

(5)(5)42.2487,870

Compensation and benefits managers

7001.857.49119,580

Human resources managers

6,1101.853.53111,340

Training and development managers

1,3701.648.91101,730

Farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural managers

300.330.8964,250

Construction managers

5,8100.950.17104,350

Education administrators, preschool and childcare center/program

1,7601.431.1264,730

Education administrators, elementary and secondary school

6,8101.1(5)109,390

Education administrators, postsecondary

5,3101.549.85103,690

Education administrators, all other

1,2601.441.7086,740

Architectural and engineering managers

(5)(5)63.07131,190

Food service managers

(5)(5)28.5959,470

Lodging managers

4400.527.6857,580

Medical and health services managers

8,0300.951.55107,210

Natural sciences managers

8900.650.48104,990

Postmasters and mail superintendents

1300.338.4379,940

Property, real estate, and community association managers

6,5701.432.6767,960

Social and community service managers

2,1200.732.3567,290

Emergency management directors

1900.835.7574,360

Managers, all other

(5)(5)45.3294,260

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Chicago-Naperville-Arlington Heights, IL Metropolitan Division, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_16974.htm.
(2) Estimates for detailed occupations do not sum to the totals because the totals include occupations 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.
 

 

Last Modified Date: Wednesday, June 21, 2017