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.)

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.

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)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Management occupations	276,520	1.5	$56.40	$117,320
Chief executives	11,430	2.0	99.33	206,600
General and operations managers	76,760	1.4	61.50	127,930
Legislators	1,220	0.9	(5)	50,110
Advertising and promotions managers	3,000	4.0	44.29	92,130
Marketing managers	9,580	1.8	59.72	124,220
Sales managers	16,770	1.8	63.66	132,410
Public relations and fundraising managers	2,780	1.7	56.62	117,780
Administrative services managers	9,240	1.3	44.84	93,260
Computer and information systems managers	11,410	1.3	67.33	140,050
Financial managers	24,060	1.7	65.05	135,300
Industrial production managers	3,990	0.9	47.71	99,240
Purchasing managers	2,340	1.3	54.15	112,640
Transportation, storage, and distribution managers	(5)	(5)	42.24	87,870
Compensation and benefits managers	700	1.8	57.49	119,580
Human resources managers	6,110	1.8	53.53	111,340
Training and development managers	1,370	1.6	48.91	101,730
Farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural managers	30	0.3	30.89	64,250
Construction managers	5,810	0.9	50.17	104,350
Education administrators, preschool and childcare center/program	1,760	1.4	31.12	64,730
Education administrators, elementary and secondary school	6,810	1.1	(5)	109,390
Education administrators, postsecondary	5,310	1.5	49.85	103,690
Education administrators, all other	1,260	1.4	41.70	86,740
Architectural and engineering managers	(5)	(5)	63.07	131,190
Food service managers	(5)	(5)	28.59	59,470
Lodging managers	440	0.5	27.68	57,580
Medical and health services managers	8,030	0.9	51.55	107,210
Natural sciences managers	890	0.6	50.48	104,990
Postmasters and mail superintendents	130	0.3	38.43	79,940
Property, real estate, and community association managers	6,570	1.4	32.67	67,960
Social and community service managers	2,120	0.7	32.35	67,290
Emergency management directors	190	0.8	35.75	74,360
Managers, all other	(5)	(5)	45.32	94,260
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.