Workers in the Boulder, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $32.29 in May 2019, about 26 percent above the nationwide average of $25.72, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Acting Regional Commissioner Susan Mendez noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were higher than their respective national averages in 17 of the 22 major occupational groups, including personal care and service; sales and related; and life, physical, and social science. No wages were significantly lower than their respective national averages.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Boulder area employment was more highly concentrated in 7 of the 22 occupational groups, including computer and mathematical, business and financial operations, and architecture and engineering. Conversely, 11 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including transportation and material movement, office and administrative support, and construction and extraction. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

One occupational group—computer and mathematical—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Boulder had 15,100 jobs in computer and mathematical, accounting for 8.1 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 3.1-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $49.73, significantly above the national wage of $45.08.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the computer and mathematical group included software developers and software quality assurance analysts and testers (7,080), computer user support specialists (1,850), and network and computer systems administrators (1,040). Among the higher- paying jobs in this group were computer and information research scientists, and software developers and software quality assurance analysts and testers, with mean hourly wages of $71.10 and $56.95, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were computer user support specialists ($29.74) and web developers and digital interface designers ($41.06). (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_14500.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 Boulder area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the computer and mathematical group. For instance, software developers and software quality assurance analysts and testers were employed at 4.0 times the national rate in Boulder, and computer network architects at 3.4 times the U.S. average. Computer systems analysts had a location quotient of 1.0 in Boulder, 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 Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.

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 Boulder, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area included 2,102 establishments with a response rate of 83 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 Boulder, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Boulder County.

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 computer and mathematical occupations, Boulder, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2019

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Computer and mathematical occupations	15,100	2.6	$49.73	$103,430
Computer systems analysts	770	1.0	48.66	101,210
Information security analysts	(5)	(5)	53.42	111,110
Computer and information research scientists	140	3.5	71.10	147,890
Computer network support specialists	420	1.8	(5)	(5)
Computer user support specialists	1,850	2.3	29.74	61,860
Computer network architects	650	3.4	55.96	116,400
Network and computer systems administrators	1,040	2.3	44.04	91,610
Database administrators and architects	340	2.1	42.93	89,290
Computer programmers	370	1.5	41.88	87,110
Software developers and software quality assurance analysts and testers	7,080	4.0	56.95	118,450
Web developers and digital interface designers	460	2.5	41.06	85,400
Computer occupations, all other	1,460	2.9	47.47	98,740
Operations research analysts	40	0.3	53.51	111,300
Statisticians	80	1.6	54.18	112,700
Data scientists and mathematical science occupations, all other	90	2.4	52.59	109,380
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Boulder, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_14500.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.