The OES survey covers all full- and part-time wage and salary workers in non-farm industries. The survey does not include the self-employed owners and partners in unincorporated firms, household workers, or unpaid family workers.

The OES survey includes establishments in NAICS sectors listed below. Data for the U.S. Postal Service and the federal government are universe counts obtained from the Postal Service and the Office of Personnel Management, respectively. 

Section III: Method of Collection

In 1999, the OES Wage Survey began using the Office of Management and Budget’s occupational classification system--the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system. The SOC classification system allows government statistical agencies and others to produce data using a common classification system. Prior to the SOC system, Federal agencies collecting occupational data used a variety of systems that were not necessarily compatible with one another.

In the SOC system, all workers are classified in one of over 820 occupations according to their occupational definition. To facilitate classification, occupations are combined to form 23 major, 96 minor, and 449 broad groups of occupations requiring similar job duties, skills, education, or experience. Classification Principles of the SOC Coding System

In order to ensure that all users of occupational data classify workers in the same way, the following classification principles should be followed:

1.  The classification covers all occupations in which work is performed for pay or profit, including work performed in family-operated enterprises by family members who are not directly compensated. It excludes occupations unique to volunteers. Each occupation is assigned to only one occupational category at the lowest level of the classification.

2.  Occupations are classified based on work performed and on required skills, education, training, and credentials.

3.  Supervisors of professional and technical workers usually have a background similar to those of the workers they supervise and therefore are classified with the workers they supervise. Likewise, team leaders, lead workers, and supervisors of production, sales, and service workers who spend at least twenty percent of their time performing work similar to the workers they supervise are classified with the workers they supervise.

4.  First-line managers and supervisors of production, service, and sales workers who spend more than eighty percent of their time performing supervisory activities are classified separately in the appropriate supervisor category because their work activities are distinct from those of the workers they supervise. First-line managers are generally found in smaller establishments where they perform both supervisory and management functions, such as accounting, marketing, and personnel work.

5.  Apprentices and trainees are classified with the occupations for which they are being trained, while helpers and aides are classified separately.

6.  If an occupation is not included as a distinct detailed occupation in the structure, it is classified in the appropriate residual occupation. Residual occupations contain all occupations within a major, minor, or broad group that are not classified separately.

7.  When workers can be classified in more than one occupation, they should be classified in the occupation that requires the higher skill level. When there is no perceptible difference in skill level, the worker should be classified in the occupation that describes their primary activity.

8.  Data collection and reporting agencies should classify workers at the most detailed level possible. Different agencies may use different levels of aggregation, depending on their ability to collect data and on the requirements of users.
 

Section IV: Geographic Coverage of Estimates

The data for Wyoming are collected for four regions and the two Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs), Casper and Cheyenne, shown in the map below. An MSA is a county or group of adjoining counties that contain at least one urbanized area of 50,000 inhabitants or more. The sample is stratified for each of these geographic areas. The estimates are prepared using samples specifically drawn for these geographic areas. Sample stratification provides greater assurance that no employer segment is left out of the sample.

Occupational Employment Statistics Area Map

Section V: Estimation Technique