Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2018

13-1051 Cost Estimators

Prepare cost estimates for product manufacturing, construction projects, or services to aid management in bidding on or determining price of product or service. May specialize according to particular service performed or type of product manufactured.

National estimates for this occupation
Industry profile for this occupation
Geographic profile for this occupation

National estimates for this occupation: Top

Employment estimate and mean wage estimates for this occupation:

Employment (1)	Employment RSE (3)	Mean hourly wage	Mean annual wage (2)	Wage RSE (3)
211,600	0.8 %	$33.52	$69,710	0.3 %

Percentile wage estimates for this occupation:

Percentile	10%	25%	50% (Median)	75%	90%
Hourly Wage	$18.30	$23.97	$30.79	$40.38	$51.90
Annual Wage (2)	$38,060	$49,850	$64,040	$84,000	$107,940

Industry profile for this occupation: Top

Industries with the highest published employment and wages for this occupation are provided. For a list of all industries with employment in this occupation, see the Create Customized Tables function.

Industries with the highest levels of employment in this occupation:

Industry	Employment (1)	Percent of industry employment	Hourly mean wage	Annual mean wage (2)
Building Equipment Contractors	29,870	1.40	$34.94	$72,680
Nonresidential Building Construction	21,660	2.68	$38.06	$79,170
Foundation, Structure, and Building Exterior Contractors	17,780	1.95	$32.77	$68,170
Building Finishing Contractors	16,540	2.03	$33.27	$69,200
Residential Building Construction	15,750	2.02	$32.23	$67,040

Industries with the highest concentration of employment in this occupation:

Industry	Employment (1)	Percent of industry employment	Hourly mean wage	Annual mean wage (2)
Nonresidential Building Construction	21,660	2.68	$38.06	$79,170
Building Finishing Contractors	16,540	2.03	$33.27	$69,200
Residential Building Construction	15,750	2.02	$32.23	$67,040
Foundation, Structure, and Building Exterior Contractors	17,780	1.95	$32.77	$68,170
Other Specialty Trade Contractors	11,810	1.72	$32.81	$68,240

Top paying industries for this occupation:

Industry	Employment (1)	Percent of industry employment	Hourly mean wage	Annual mean wage (2)
Oil and Gas Extraction	40	0.03	$50.02	$104,040
Telecommunications	410	0.05	$42.51	$88,430
Aerospace Product and Parts Manufacturing	1,720	0.35	$42.22	$87,820
Electric Power Generation, Transmission and Distribution	580	0.15	$40.50	$84,240
Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services	90	0.03	$40.46	$84,150

Geographic profile for this occupation: Top

States and areas with the highest published employment, location quotients, and wages for this occupation are provided. For a list of all areas with employment in this occupation, see the Create Customized Tables function.

States with the highest employment level in this occupation:

State	Employment (1)	Employment per thousand jobs	Location quotient (9)	Hourly mean wage	Annual mean wage (2)
California	28,660	1.69	1.15	$37.59	$78,190
Texas	17,240	1.42	0.97	$35.55	$73,950
Florida	13,220	1.54	1.05	$29.99	$62,370
Ohio	10,200	1.88	1.29	$31.11	$64,700
New York	10,150	1.08	0.74	$36.41	$75,730

States with the highest concentration of jobs and location quotients in this occupation:

State	Employment (1)	Employment per thousand jobs	Location quotient (9)	Hourly mean wage	Annual mean wage (2)
Virginia	9,220	2.41	1.65	$35.66	$74,160
Montana	1,070	2.31	1.58	$28.35	$58,960
Delaware	970	2.16	1.48	$33.03	$68,690
Colorado	5,520	2.10	1.44	$35.15	$73,110
South Dakota	850	2.02	1.38	$26.38	$54,860

Top paying States for this occupation:

State	Employment (1)	Employment per thousand jobs	Location quotient (9)	Hourly mean wage	Annual mean wage (2)
District of Columbia	400	0.56	0.38	$45.14	$93,880
Alaska	260	0.82	0.56	$40.12	$83,450
Hawaii	940	1.47	1.00	$39.61	$82,390
California	28,660	1.69	1.15	$37.59	$78,190
Massachusetts	6,030	1.69	1.15	$37.34	$77,670

Metropolitan areas with the highest employment level in this occupation:

Metropolitan area	Employment (1)	Employment per thousand jobs	Location quotient (9)	Hourly mean wage	Annual mean wage (2)
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA	10,410	1.10	0.75	$38.28	$79,620
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA	8,870	1.45	0.99	$35.79	$74,450
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX	5,340	1.50	1.02	$35.44	$73,710
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV	5,180	1.65	1.13	$38.49	$80,060
Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX	5,050	1.69	1.16	$38.09	$79,230
San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA	4,720	1.95	1.33	$46.28	$96,260
Boston-Cambridge-Nashua, MA-NH	4,650	1.69	1.15	$37.90	$78,840
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI	4,560	0.98	0.67	$33.34	$69,350
Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD	4,100	1.44	0.99	$36.16	$75,200
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA	3,570	1.80	1.23	$39.46	$82,090