The OES Wage Survey estimates in the Wyoming Wage Survey publications were calculated using three or more previous years of data; this estimation technique reduces sampling error, particularly for small geographic areas and less common occupations. However, this technique also requires the adjustment of prior data to the current reference period. This procedure is referred to as "wage updating." Estimates from the BLS Federal/State Cooperative OES program are produced for the most recent survey reference period that includes the 12th of the month. For wage updating purposes, the BLS uses the national wage changes for the nine occupational divisions for which Employment Cost Index (ECI) estimates are available. This procedure assumes that each occupation's wage, as measured in each year, moves according to the average movement of its occupational division and that there are no major geographic or detailed occupational differences. In the BLS estimates, ECI factors were applied to the prior panels. R&P has used wage updating factors for later time periods to further update the data from all three survey years to a more current time period, subsequent to the most recent OES Survey reference period. As a result, wage-updating factors have been applied to all of the data included in the estimates in the Wyoming Wage Survey publications. The updated data contained in these reports are not official BLS data series, nor have they been validated by the BLS.
