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News Release Information

23-1217-CHI
Friday, August 25, 2023

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

Occupational Employment and Wages in Madison — May 2022

Workers in the Madison, WI Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $29.90 in May 2022, compared to the nationwide average of $29.76, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Jason Palmer noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were lower than their respective national averages in 8 of the 22 major occupational groups, including computer and mathematical; legal; and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media. Six groups had significantly higher wages than their respective national averages, including healthcare practitioners and technical, construction and extraction, and protective service.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Madison area employment was more highly concentrated in 8 of the 22 occupational groups, including computer and mathematical, business and financial operations, and educational instruction and library. Eleven groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including transportation and material moving, management, and food preparation and serving related. (See table A.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Madison metropolitan area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2022
Major occupational groupPercent of total employmentMean hourly wage
United StatesMadisonUnited StatesMadisonPercent difference (1)

Total, all occupations

100.0100.0$29.76$29.900

Management

6.75.1*63.0862.860

Business and financial operations

6.57.9*41.3937.94*-8

Computer and mathematical

3.45.4*51.9943.21*-17

Architecture and engineering

1.72.1*45.5239.57*-13

Life, physical, and social science

0.91.9*40.2135.84*-11

Community and social service

1.61.5*26.8126.760

Legal

0.80.7*59.8751.30*-14

Educational instruction and library

5.76.9*30.4130.581

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.41.6*36.7829.44*-20

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.17.2*46.5250.97*10

Healthcare support

4.64.0*17.1017.54*3

Protective service

2.31.4*25.9727.33*5

Food preparation and serving related

8.57.4*15.4514.92*-3

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.92.917.2617.14-1

Personal care and service

1.91.6*17.4117.29-1

Sales and related

8.98.924.2224.712

Office and administrative support

12.612.621.9022.041

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.30.2*18.2118.994

Construction and extraction

4.13.7*28.0829.81*6

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.93.3*26.7727.53*3

Production

5.96.4*21.8122.01*1

Transportation and material moving

9.27.1*21.1219.87*-6

Footnotes:
(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in the Madison, WI Metropolitan Statistical Area is above the national mean wage, while a negative difference reflects a lower wage.
* The mean hourly wage or percent share of employment is significantly different from the national average of all areas at the 90-percent confidence level.

One occupational group—computer and mathematical—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Madison had 20,760 jobs in computer and mathematical, accounting for 5.4 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 3.4-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $43.21, significantly below the national wage of $51.99.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the computer and mathematical group included software developers (4,960), computer user support specialists (2,940), and computer systems analysts (2,830). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were computer and information research scientists and database architects, with mean hourly wages of $63.18 and $58.25, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were computer user support specialists ($29.94) and web developers ($31.49). (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_31540.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 Madison area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the computer and mathematical group. For instance, web developers were employed at 4.5 times the national rate in Madison, and computer programmers and operations research analysts, at 3.0 times the U.S. average. Software developers had a location quotient of 1.2 in Madison, 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 Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development.

Changes to the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) Data

The May 2022 OEWS estimates use the model-based (MB3) estimation method implemented with the May 2021 estimates release. Additional updates were made to the MB3 wage processing methodology for May 2022. For more information, see the May 2022 Survey Methods and Reliability Statement.

The May 2022 estimates are the first OEWS estimates to be produced using the 2022 NAICS, which replaces the 2017 NAICS used for the May 2017-May 2021 estimates. See North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) at BLS for details.


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 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 2022 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2022, November 2021, May 2021, November 2020, May 2020, and November 2019. The unweighted sampled employment of 80 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 65.4 percent based on establishments and 62.5 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Madison, WI Metropolitan Statistical Area included 2,931 establishments with a response rate of 65 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 Madison, WI Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Columbia County, Dane County, Green County, and Iowa County.

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; Telecommunications Relay Service: 7-1-1.

Table 1. Employment and wage data for computer and mathematical occupations, Madison metropolitan area, May 2022
Occupation (1)EmploymentMean wages
Level (2)Location quotient (3)HourlyAnnual (4)

Computer and mathematical occupations

20,7601.6$43.21$89,870

Computer systems analysts

2,8302.144.7493,060

Information security analysts

5101.250.00103,990

Computer and information research scientists

500.563.18131,410

Computer network support specialists

8802.036.7276,370

Computer user support specialists

2,9401.629.9462,270

Computer network architects

6101.348.64101,160

Database administrators

3301.640.9085,070

Database architects

2801.758.25121,160

Network and computer systems administrators

1,5501.843.1989,820

Computer programmers

1,0403.056.02116,510

Software developers

4,9601.249.21102,350

Software quality assurance analysts and testers

7201.439.4882,130

Web developers

1,0404.531.4965,500

Web and digital interface designers

3101.241.1485,560

Computer occupations, all other

7700.742.2887,940

Actuaries

1402.255.30115,020

Operations research analysts

8303.047.0197,780

Statisticians

600.742.6388,670

Data scientists

9002.240.3883,990

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Madison, WI Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_31540.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.

 

Last Modified Date: Friday, August 25, 2023