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Salary data

What employers post, against what BLS reports.

For 25 of the most searched US occupations, the pay employers put on live job listings now, beside the official BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics. Every figure carries its sample size and date.

Posted pay as of November 4, 2026, from 807,564 live postings that state pay. BLS figures: OEWS May 2025(opens in new tab).

The gap

Posted pay runs above BLS in 20 of 25 occupations.

It runs below BLS in 4. The gap ranges from +29% for physician assistant to -8% for physical therapist. The two sources measure different things, so read the method before comparing them.

Each bar is the posted median divided by the BLS OEWS median, minus one. Bars right of the line: employers post more than BLS reports.
Posted median pay against the BLS median, by occupation
OccupationPosted against BLS
Physician assistant+29%
Software developer+23%
Project manager+22%
Data scientist+21%
HVAC technician+19%
Mechanical engineer+15%
Electrician+15%
Licensed practical nurse+15%
Lawyer+14%
Registered nurse+14%
Electrical engineer+14%
Information security analyst+13%
Nurse practitioner+6%
Nursing assistant (CNA)+6%
Financial analyst+5%
Truck driver+3%
Automotive technician+2%
Medical assistant+2%
Civil engineer+2%
Accountant+2%
Marketing manager0%
HR specialist-1%
Administrative assistant-2%
Customer service representative-7%
Physical therapist-8%

All occupations

Median annual pay, posted and official.

OccupationBLS medianPosted medianGapPostings with pay
Physician assistant$135,880$175,000+29% (29% above BLS)8,277
Software developer$135,980$167,500+23% (23% above BLS)45,977
Project manager$102,320$125,000+22% (22% above BLS)31,412
Data scientist$120,230$145,000+21% (21% above BLS)6,232
HVAC technician$61,010$72,800+19% (19% above BLS)5,790
Mechanical engineer$104,110$120,000+15% (15% above BLS)9,247
Electrician$63,190$72,800+15% (15% above BLS)10,382
Licensed practical nurse$64,400$73,944+15% (15% above BLS)40,870
Lawyer$159,670$182,500+14% (14% above BLS)15,702
Registered nurse$97,550$111,384+14% (14% above BLS)270,129
Electrical engineer$120,630$137,000+14% (14% above BLS)21,711
Information security analyst$129,180$145,600+13% (13% above BLS)10,280
Nurse practitioner$132,300$140,300+6% (6% above BLS)16,121
Nursing assistant (CNA)$42,260$44,720+6% (6% above BLS)25,384
Financial analyst$102,740$107,500+5% (5% above BLS)20,216
Truck driver$58,640$60,320+3% (3% above BLS)36,397
Automotive technician$50,620$51,854+2% (2% above BLS)30,730
Medical assistant$45,690$46,800+2% (2% above BLS)33,280
Civil engineer$100,840$102,950+2% (2% above BLS)17,889
Accountant$83,680$85,000+2% (2% above BLS)26,829
Marketing manager$166,790$167,5000% (Level with BLS)27,700
HR specialist$75,940$75,000-1% (1% below BLS)12,541
Administrative assistant$47,540$46,488-2% (2% below BLS)23,178
Customer service representative$44,770$41,600-7% (7% below BLS)39,367
Physical therapist$102,760$94,900-8% (8% below BLS)21,923

Annual pay in US dollars. Posted pay is the annualized midpoint of each listing's range; how it is measured.

Further reading

Guides to pay and offers.

Method

How the two numbers are made.

Posted pay comes from live US job postings in Metaintro's index, read from employer career sites and applicant tracking systems and coded to the 2018 SOC. A posting counts when it states pay in US dollars; we annualize the midpoint of its range and keep values between $15,000 and $1,000,000 a year. These figures are from the November 4, 2026 edition of the Direct Hiring Demand Monitor, covering postings live through November 3, 2026.

We publish an occupation only when at least 300 live postings state pay and at least 10 employers post them. A metro is listed only with at least 50 postings with pay from 10 or more employers. Anything below those floors is left out, not estimated.

BLS pay is the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS May 2025: annual wages of people already employed in the occupation. See the BLS figures for this occupation(opens in new tab) or the full OEWS tables(opens in new tab).

The gap is the posted median divided by the BLS median, minus one. The two measure different things: posted pay is what employers offer new hires today, the BLS figure is what everyone in the job earned at the survey date. Wage growth since then, which jobs are being advertised, and pay that a range leaves out all move the gap. Read it as a market signal, not a correction to BLS.

How to cite

Free to reuse with attribution.

Quote, chart or republish these figures with a credit and a link. Please name the edition date, since posted pay moves with the market.

Metaintro, "Metaintro Salary Data: posted pay against BLS OEWS", edition of November 4, 2026. https://www.metaintro.com/data/salaries

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