BLS OEWS Data for SOC 13-1031 (Claims Adjusters, Examiners, Investigators)

Status

⚠️ MANUAL COMPLETION REQUIRED — Direct access to BLS.gov is currently blocked. Data files have been initialized with correct column structure. Complete by downloading from BLS manually or via alternative sources.

Files

Latest Data (2024)

• soc-13-1031-by-state-LATEST.csv — State-level wage/employment estimates, SOC 13-1031 (May 2024)

  • Expected rows: 51 (50 states + DC)
  • Columns: state, year, employment, mean_hourly, median_hourly, mean_annual, median_annual, p10, p25, p75, p90
  • Source: https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes131031.htm

• bls-comparable-occupations-by-state-LATEST.csv — Comparison occupations (2024)

  • SOC 13-1041: Compliance Officers
  • SOC 21-1093: Social and Human Service Assistants
  • Expected rows: 102 (51 states/DC × 2 occupations)

Time Series (2014–Latest)

• soc-13-1031-by-state-2014-LATEST.csv — Annual state-level data, 10+ years
  • Expected rows: ~510 (51 jurisdictions × 10 years)

Definitions

• soc-13-1031-definition.md — Official BLS SOC definition and duty description

How to Download

Option 1: BLS Website (Direct)

1. Go to https://www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm
2. Under "All data," download all_data_M_2024.zip (May 2024 OEWS estimates)
3. Extract and find state-level files (e.g., oesm24.txt or similar state breakouts)
4. Filter for SOC 13-1031 rows and save to soc-13-1031-by-state-LATEST.csv

Option 2: BLS Archives (By Year)

• https://www.bls.gov/oes/archives/
• For each year 2014–2024:
  • Download the May OEWS state-level data
  • Extract SOC 13-1031 rows and append to soc-13-1031-by-state-2014-LATEST.csv

Option 3: Alternative Data Sources

• Data.World: https://data.world/ (search "BLS OEWS")
• Kaggle: https://www.kaggle.com/ (search "BLS occupation wage")
• FRED (St. Louis Fed): https://fred.stlouisfed.org/ (limited series, not all state-level)

Column Definitions

Column	Definition
state	Two-letter state code or "US" for national
year	Year of estimate (May survey data published in following yr)
employment	Total employment (rounded to nearest 10)
mean_hourly	Mean hourly wage (dollars)
median_hourly	Median hourly wage (dollars)
mean_annual	Mean annual wage (calculated from hourly)
median_annual	Median annual wage (calculated from hourly)
p10	10th percentile wage (hourly or annual, depending on source)
p25	25th percentile wage
p75	75th percentile wage
p90	90th percentile wage

Key Notes

SOC 13-1031 does NOT distinguish:

• Insurance adjusters/examiners (private sector)
• Government claims examiners (state DDS, workers' comp boards)

The BLS aggregate includes both. Massachusetts VDE (Vocational Disability Examiners) classification in state payroll may differ from BLS national coding.

Missing State Sub-classification:

BLS does not publish a separate "government claims examiners" subcategory. If arguing reclassification, you'll need to:

1. Compare to SOC 13-1031 private-sector benchmarks
2. Cross-reference Mass. Civil Service occupational codes (HR/CMS)
3. Potentially request custom BLS tabulation for government-only subset (if available)

Source Metadata

Each CSV file has a corresponding .source.txt file with:

• Source URL
• Fetch date (2026-05-05)
• Latest year of data
• Row count

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Last Updated: 2026-05-05
For: 509 DDS data research repository