The OES program provides occupational employment and wage estimates for wage and salary workers for all states and metropolitan statistical areas. The OES Survey is comprised of a mail sample of nonfarm establishments covering all industries with employment estimates currently developed for over 800 occupations. OES solicits data nationally from approximately 400,000 establishments per year and takes three years to fully collect the sample of 1.2 million establishments. In Iowa, approximately 6,000 establishments are annually surveyed with a
required response rate of 75 percent.
OES data collection serves many purposes. Employment data support the evaluation of occupational trends by industry and identification of emerging and declining occupations.
Wage information facilitates comparison between states and metropolitan areas for occupations. It also is used in alien labor certification. Data collected also help to determine educational planning, funding, and where training programs are needed.
The OES Program also provides data used to create the Iowa Wage
Survey. This survey is comprised of data that are aged to
a more recent reference period (using the Employment Cost Index)
to produce statewide, IWD region, county, and industry
estimates.
Links to
Iowa Data:
OES Wage Survey
Iowa Wage Survey
