What does a contractor earn in your state? (Real BLS wage data)
Pick a trade and a U.S. state to see the real average annual and weekly wage, the covered-employment level, and how that state compares to the national figure — every number computed live from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics QCEW data. This is what the trade EARNS as employees, not what you pay to hire one.
Last reviewed Next data refresh: Q3 2026- Average weekly wage
- $1,503
- Covered workers
- 20,252
- Establishments
- 1,600
- vs. national
- −$6,573 (−7.8%)
Based on the average BLS industry wage for electrician work in Texas.
This is the WAGE workers in the trade's industry are paid (total covered payroll ÷ covered workers), from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics QCEW data — NOT the price you pay to hire that contractor. A job price adds materials, overhead, permits, insurance, and profit on top of labor. For real project prices from building-permit valuations, use the Cost lookup tool. We keep the two strictly separate so neither number is misread as the other.
Wage vs. what you pay — they're not the same
The big figure is the average wage workers in the trade's industry are paid — total covered payroll divided by covered workers, from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics QCEW. It is not the price you pay to hire that contractor. A job price adds materials, overhead, permits, insurance, and profit on top of labor, so it's typically far higher than any one worker's wage. When BLS doesn't publish a figure for your state (its employment is too small to disclose without identifying an employer), the tool shows the national wage and labels it, rather than invent a local number. To price an actual project, use the Cost lookup — it's built from building-permit valuations, a completely separate dataset.
Hand the question to your preferred assistant — it will use ProFix Directory's open MCP server and llms.txt as context.