Question 1

Is this what a homeowner actually pays?

Accepted Answer

No. These are the average wages of employees covered by Illinois unemployment insurance — what the worker is paid before taxes, deductions, and everything the employer adds on. A billed rate covers overhead, insurance, equipment, vehicles and profit, and it varies widely by contractor and region. Use this page as a labour-cost baseline, never as a quote.

Question 2

Why are specialty-trade wages higher than remodeler wages?

Accepted Answer

Residential building construction (236118) is mostly general remodeling and renovation work. Specialty trade contractors (238) include the electrical, plumbing, HVAC, roofing, carpentry and masonry crews, and that group also carries higher-paid commercial and industrial work into the average, which raises it. Neither average describes any single contractor.

Question 3

Why are some counties missing from the table?

Accepted Answer

BLS suppresses a county's figures when disclosure would identify a single employer or when there are too few employees. The small Illinois counties without specialty-trade figures are omitted to protect confidentiality, not because no construction work happens there.

Question 4

How current is this, and how often does it update?

Accepted Answer

Annual averages are final when BLS closes out each year, normally each spring. This page is rebuilt twice a year on a schedule, so it carries the most recent final year (the latest) once a new release lands. It does not track the current quarter.

Question 5

Does this include union and non-union work?

Accepted Answer

Both, in the aggregate. QCEW is built from payroll records for the whole industry, so it reflects the mix of union and non-union employers in each county. That mix is one reason pay differs between counties beyond the cost of living.