How to Read BLS Estimates for Market Research Jobs by Metro

A market research career decision often starts with a city number. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) publishes employment and wage estimates by state and metropolitan area, but it does not publish a city forecast. This article shows how to find the right occupation, pull a metro row and read each figure, using real May 2023 OEWS pages for three metro areas.

Two occupations, not one

Market research analysts and marketing specialists sit at SOC 13-1161. Survey researchers, a narrower occupation, sit at SOC 19-3022. The two codes carry different pay and employment, so one figure cannot describe both. Put the occupation title, code and release year beside every figure you quote.

The May 2023 OEWS table for survey researchers gives a mean annual wage of $69,600. That figure belongs to code 19-3022, not 13-1161, and it needs its own area label. The market research code covers a broad group of analysts and specialists, so do not use the survey researcher wage as a stand-in.

For the day-to-day difference between the two codes, market research careers describes the work as practitioners see it. It keeps the job titles from collapsing into one label. Read it before you compare a survey researcher posting with a market research analyst posting.

What BLS publishes for a city

BLS does not publish a forecast for a city. It publishes estimates of current employment and wages through the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program, refreshed each year with a lag. The May 2023 metro estimates were published in April 2024. That is the release used below.

Industry mix explains much of the gap. Employers in different industries cluster in different metros, and each buys different research. Small metros produce unstable estimates; some fail BLS publication criteria and appear blank. A blank is information, not an error.

How to find a metro row

BLS publishes a specific table: the May 2023 Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan Area Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates. Open that table on the BLS OEWS site, choose the May reference year, then pick the state and metro area. The metro page title names the area and the BLS area code.

Use the occupation code, not the title. Find 13-1161 for market research analysts and marketing specialists, or 19-3022 for survey researchers. Read across the row: employment, employment relative standard error, employment per 1,000 jobs, location quotient, median hourly wage, mean hourly wage, annual mean wage and wage relative standard error.

If you need percentiles, open the downloadable XLS file linked on the area page. BLS says that file carries hourly and annual 10th, 25th, 75th and 90th percentile wages and the employment percent relative standard error. For a multi-metro pull, use the OEWS Create Customized Tables tool instead of copying pages by hand.

Where the May 2023 metro tables live

The BLS OEWS tables page publishes metropolitan and nonmetropolitan area tables in HTML and XLSX formats. Prior years’ releases sit alongside the current one, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. OEWS data are published annually with a May reference date and include cross-industry estimates for the nation, states, about 530 metropolitan statistical areas, nonmetropolitan areas, and national industry estimates.

The May 2023 occupation profile page for Survey Researchers (19-3022) is listed on the BLS site. May 2023 area pages use the BLS OEWS area-page form. Those pages list each occupation’s SOC code, employment, employment percent relative standard error, employment per thousand jobs, location quotient, mean wages, and wage percent relative standard error, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Real metro example: one code, three metros

Start with New York-Newark-Jersey City, BLS area 35620. The May 2023 OEWS row for 13-1161 reports 81,100 jobs, a location quotient of 1.53, an employment relative standard error of 1.4% and an annual mean wage of $99,600. The wage relative standard error is 1.4%, so the pay estimate is tight.

Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, BLS area 47900, reports 21,670 jobs, a location quotient of 1.26, an employment relative standard error of 3.2% and an annual mean wage of $91,600. Its wage relative standard error is 2.2%. The lower quotient means the occupation is less concentrated than in New York, not that the work is rare.

Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, BLS area 16740, reports 9,530 jobs, a location quotient of 1.30, an employment relative standard error of 3.4% and an annual mean wage of $82,720. Its wage relative standard error is 1.9%. A location quotient above 1 means the metro has a higher share of 13-1161 employment than the national average.

How to read a state or metro estimate

The Occupational Outlook Handbook gives a national median pay of $76,950 a year for market research analysts in May 2024. Use it as national context only; it is not a metro OEWS estimate. The New York-Newark-Jersey City annual mean of $99,600 is a different measure from a different release.

Research work and analytics work overlap without being the same job. Marketing analytics roles and responsibilities sorts measurement roles from data science roles, which helps when a posting uses both labels. Read it before you map a research title onto an analytics title.

Reading wage percentiles next to the mean

The OEWS mean is only one wage summary. More wage information, including medians and the 10th, 25th, 75th, and 90th percentiles, is available in other OEWS formats, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Percentile data give a wider view of the range of wages in an occupation or area than the mean alone.

For the metro table format, the May 2023 Albuquerque, NM area table lists Survey Researchers (19-3022) with employment of 40, employment percent relative standard error of 36.1%, a location quotient of 1.98, an hourly mean wage of $28.96, an annual mean wage of $60,240, and a wage percent relative standard error of 6.4%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Pull the current release

Use the same OEWS release for every metro you compare, and record its year. The examples here use May 2023, published in April 2024. By October 2026, check the BLS OEWS page for the latest May release and use that year for every row in your comparison.

Projections come from a separate BLS program. Check the current BLS Employment Projections release for its projection window and publication date before quoting growth. A metro OEWS page does not carry a city forecast. If you quote growth, quote the window printed in the release you use.

Comparing releases year over year

OEWS data are published annually with a May reference date, so each release represents one annual snapshot rather than a forecast, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The OEWS tables page archives metro and nonmetropolitan area tables in HTML and XLSX from earlier releases alongside the current one, which makes year-over-year comparison possible.

Methodology changes across releases matter when comparing years. BLS states that the May 2025 OEWS estimates were produced with a model-based estimation method using three years of OEWS data (MB3), according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Check that method note before treating a year-over-year change as a clean measure of labor-market movement.

For Canada as a second market, Job Bank publishes wage and outlook data by occupation. Its groupings differ from the US codes, so do not carry a percentage across the border. Check the Canadian occupation match before you compare a US metro with a Canadian city.

Check the requirements behind the postings you collect, because skill lists change faster than occupation codes. Marketing analytics job requirements shows one adjacent set of requirements to compare against. Use it as a template, then rewrite the duties for research roles.

Common questions