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OEWS Survey Respondents
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OEWS OEWS Program Links

Instructions

What data is being requested?

Which employees should I report?

  • Report employees who worked during the pay period that included November 12, 2023.
  • Report employees working at, or reporting to, the location specified after “Report for” in the mailing address in your letter or email.
  • Report employees who are on paid leave or assigned temporarily to other work locations, including employees who are working remotely or off-site.
  • Report paid owners and officers of incorporated firms.

What information should I report?

For each of these employees, please report the following information:

  • Job title
  • Brief description of duties (if not clear from the job title)
  • Hourly wage rate (for part-time or full-time employees) or annual salary (for full-time employees only)
  • Department (optional)
  • Worksite location (optional)

What information should not be reported?

Do not report any of the following employees or information:

  • Do not report contract workers.
  • Do not report owners or partners of unincorporated firms.
  • Do not report employee names or Social Security numbers.
  • Do not report annual wages for part-time employees.

How should I report job titles?

  • Report employee job titles according to the work they are doing, not their training.
    Example: Report an employee working as a drafter, but trained as an engineer, as a drafter.
  • Report an employee as a supervisor if they spend at least 80 percent of their time supervising other employees.
    Example: Report a head cashier as a supervisor of cashiers if they spend more than 80 percent of their time supervising other cashiers. Report them as a cashier if they spend less than 80 percent of their time supervising other cashiers.
  • Report apprentices separately from helpers.
    Example: Report an apprentice carpenter as a carpenter but report an employee who helps them as a carpenter’s helper.

How should I report wage rates?

  • Report hourly wage rates or annual salaries for full-time employees. Report hourly wage rates for part-time employees. If wage rates are recorded differently, such as by the month, convert them to an hourly wage rate.
  • Report each employee’s actual wage rate, not an approximation.
  • For employees who earn tips, commissions, or piece-rate payments, calculate their hourly wage rate or annual salary including their base pay plus tips, commissions, or piece rates.
  • If you are reporting for a school, please see the additional reporting instructions.

How to Submit Your Data Electronically

There are several ways to submit your response to the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) Report electronically.

Recommended submission methods

  • If you are reporting for an establishment with fewer than 20 employees, fill out our online data entry spreadsheet.
  • If you are reporting for an establishment with 20 or more employees, upload or email a spreadsheet or other data file.

Submission instructions by method

For establishments with fewer than 20 employees:

For establishments with 20 or more employees:

Enter your data into our online spreadsheet

Note: To ensure the security of your data, your session will time out after 30 minutes. This includes time spent entering occupations and wages. If you are entering data into our online form, make sure you have collected your employee occupation and wage information before logging in. If you are uploading a file, make sure it is ready before logging in.

  1. Go to our secure data collection site. Log in with your unique IDCF number, located above the mailing address on your OEWS data request.
  2. Follow the instructions to enter your contact information and answer questions about the location specified after “Report for” in the mailing address on your data request.
  3. Read the reporting and data entry instructions, then enter your occupation and wage data into the OEWS data entry spreadsheet. You can type your information in manually or copy and paste from a spreadsheet. There is a comment field at the bottom of the page in case you have anything to add about your data.
  4. Click “Continue” at the bottom of the page. Our system will flag potential errors in yellow or red. Correcting errors now may prevent a follow up phone call in the future, but you can proceed without changing errors highlighted in yellow by clicking “Continue” a second time. Errors in red must be corrected before you can proceed.
  5. Review the data you entered and use the “Edit” button to return to the previous page and make changes. You can download a copy of your data as an Excel file on this page.
  6. Click “Submit Data to BLS” to complete the submission. You will receive a confirmation email; please save this email in case there are questions about your submission.

Create or generate a spreadsheet

If your establishment has 20 or more employees, we recommend uploading or emailing a spreadsheet or report from your payroll system. We prefer Excel files (.xlsx) but can accept almost any file format except executable (.exe) files. Many payroll systems will produce an electronic report with the information we need, but please remove information like employee names and Social Security numbers. You can also download our Excel template or create your own spreadsheet.

For the pay period that included the reference date specified in the data request, please provide the specific job title, a brief description of duties, and the wage rate for each employee at the location specified after “Report for” in the mailing address on your OEWS data request. Report hourly wage rates for part-time employees, and hourly wage rates or annual salaries for full-time employees.

Note: If you are reporting for a school, please see the additional reporting instructions.

Here is an example of the type of spreadsheet we are requesting:

Submit your file

Once your file is ready, you can upload it or email it to your state office.

Upload a data file

Note: To ensure the security of your data, your session will time out after 30 minutes. This includes time spent entering occupations and wages. If you are entering data into our online form, make sure you have collected your employee occupation and wage information before logging in. If you are uploading a file, make sure it is ready before logging in.

  1. Go to our secure data collection site. Log in with your unique IDCF number, located above the mailing address on your OEWS data request.
  2. Follow the instructions to enter your contact information and answer questions about the location specified after “Report for” in the mailing address on your data request.
  3. On the file upload page, scroll down and use the “Browse” button to select your data file. Multiple files can be attached, but the total size cannot exceed 30 MB.
  4. Click “Send” to submit your file. Click “Continue” on the next page to send yourself a confirmation email.

Email a data file

  1. Open a new email to the secure email address on your OEWS data request. This is the address that begins with "OEWS" and ends with "@idcfmail.bls.gov".
  2. Attach the completed spreadsheet with your IDCF number in the subject line. BLS encourages respondents to encrypt email attachments and send the password in a separate email. Please do not include sensitive information in the body of the email.
  3. You will receive an email confirming your submission; please retain this for your records. Your state office will contact you if they have questions or need more information.

    Extra Instructions for Schools

    If your establishment is a school, please upload or email a file. Many payroll and personnel systems will produce a report with the information we need, or you can download one of our education templates.  

    These instructions apply to educators who are paid on a different basis than hourly or annual wage rates. We also need some extra information on educators to classify them correctly. Providing this information now can reduce the need for follow-up phone calls asking for clarification. Schools may also use the regular OEWS template.

    Primary and secondary schools (kindergarten through 12th grade)

    • For teachers and paraprofessionals (primary or secondary educators), specify the grade level and indicate if they teach special education or career, technical, or vocational education.
    • For educators paid on a daily basis, such as substitute teachers, calculate their hourly wage rate by dividing the daily wage by the number of hours in their workday.
    • For educators who work less than full-time but receive an annual salary, report the salary and the fraction of full time they work are employed (half, three-quarters, one-third, two-thirds, etc.).
    • For employees who are not educators, report their hourly wage rates. You can report annual salaries for full-time employees who are not educators.
    • If wage rates are recorded differently, such as by the month, convert them to an hourly wage rate.

    Post-secondary schools

    • For professors and other instructors (post-secondary educators), include the subject taught or department.
    • For educators who work less than full-time but receive an annual salary, report the salary and whether they are employed half-time, three-quarters time, one-third time, two-thirds time, etc.
    • For adjunct professors, report their per-credit rate.
    • For employees who are not educators, report their hourly wage rates. You can report annual salaries for full-time employees who are not educators.
    • If wage rates are recorded differently, such as by the month, convert them to an hourly wage rate.

    Once you have created your file, you can submit it by following the instructions on how to upload or email a file.

     

    Last Modified Date: November 15, 2023