Features
Everything a Trade Contractor Needs to Benchmark Wages
BLS-powered data. O*NET-enriched profiles. Offer-ready salary bands. All in one place.
Trade Occupation Search & Taxonomy Browser
Stop searching for SOC codes. SkilledMarkets organizes every trade-relevant occupation into 10 pre-built categories — Electrical, Plumbing, HVAC, Welding, Carpentry, Masonry, Pipefitting, Sheet Metal, Ironworking, and Heavy Equipment Operation. Search by plain-language term ("pipe welder"), browse the taxonomy, or enter a 6-digit SOC code directly. Every result is joined to its O*NET-SOC code at ingest, so the occupational profile is always one click away.
BLS OEWS Wage Percentile Table
The same authoritative data enterprise compensation teams pay $27,000+/year to access — displayed in a purpose-built employer interface. Five percentile columns (10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, 90th) in both hourly and annual formats. The BLS vintage (e.g., "May 2024 OES") and reference geography are shown on every table. Suppressed data cells (BLS suppresses estimates where employment is below threshold) display an informational message — never a cryptic error. Year-over-year change indicators show whether wages in your metro area are rising or holding steady.
Geographic Drill-Down — National to County
Start with the national median. Drill to your state. Drill to your MSA — Dallas, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, whatever market you hire in. Business and Enterprise tier customers can drill to the county level. The geographic selector gracefully handles all BLS suppression scenarios. The Essentials tier includes national and state benchmarks; Professional and above unlock MSA drill-down.
Full O*NET Occupational Profile
Every occupation detail page surfaces the complete O*NET profile alongside the BLS wage data: skills, tasks, knowledge areas, abilities, work activities, work context, and Job Zone (the 1–5 scale measuring required preparation — from "Little Preparation" to "Extensive Preparation"). This is the same data the U.S. Department of Labor publishes under O*NET OnLine, joined to BLS wage percentiles by SOC code. O*NET CC BY 4.0 attribution is displayed on every page. Available on all tiers as a core product feature.
Salary Band Generator
Select your percentile anchor (default: 50th) and spread buffer (default: ±15%). Click Generate. Get a structured min/midpoint/max band with the BLS vintage label and your selected methodology. The generator requires explicit confirmation of your methodology — no auto-generated bands applied to job offers without your intent. Switch to Multi-Level Band Builder to generate entry, journey, and senior bands simultaneously from a single occupation lookup.
PDF & CSV Export
Essentials tier: branded PDF with SkilledMarkets watermark, BLS citation, and O*NET CC BY 4.0 attribution. Professional and above: full company branding (your logo, your company name) with watermark removed. Professional and above also unlock CSV export for import into BambooHR, Excel, or any HR tool. Every PDF includes the mandatory O*NET attribution text.
Offer Letter Templates (Professional+)
Pre-formatted offer letter scaffolds with salary range placeholder fields populated from your most recent band output card. Give your hiring manager a document they can use the same day — not a spreadsheet they need to translate.
Saved Searches & Multi-Trade Comparison (Professional+)
Save any occupation + geography combination for recurring use. Return to your most-used benchmarks in one click. Business tier customers access the Multi-Trade Comparison Dashboard — a side-by-side median wage table for all tracked occupations in a selected geography, sortable by percentile.
Before / After
| Without SkilledMarkets | With SkilledMarkets |
|---|---|
| 2–3 hours downloading BLS CSV files and building a spreadsheet | Under 8 minutes to a BLS-cited, offer-ready salary band |
| Guess-and-check offers leading to 56-day vacancies | Confident, market-anchored offers informed by current BLS data |
| Generic HR platform benchmarks with no trade SOC taxonomy | Purpose-built taxonomy across 10 trade categories and 47/49-xxxx SOC codes |
| $27,000+/year enterprise platform or nothing | $199–$1,199/month SMB-accessible tiers |
| O*NET data siloed on a government portal | O*NET profiles joined to BLS wages on every occupation page |
Use Case Scenarios
Marcus — Owner-Operator, 30-Person Electrical Contractor
Marcus needs to make an offer to a journeyman electrician in Dallas before the candidate accepts elsewhere. He searches "journeyman electrician," selects the Dallas-Fort Worth MSA, reviews the 25th–75th percentile range, generates a salary band anchored at the 50th percentile, and exports a watermarked PDF to share with his partner. Eight minutes, start to finish.
Priya — HR Manager, 90-Person HVAC Contractor
Priya manages 4–6 active requisitions across Chicago and three other metros simultaneously. On Monday mornings she checks her saved searches for the 8 HVAC SOC codes she tracks, reviews year-over-year change indicators, and generates offer letter templates for each active opening. She exports branded PDFs for hiring manager reviews and CSVs for import into BambooHR.
Dex — Workforce Development Manager, 160-Person Multi-Trade Contractor
Dex opens the Multi-Trade Comparison Dashboard at the start of each week to scan for any trade where his company's pay schedule is falling below the 50th percentile. He exports a CSV for the VP of Operations quarterly compensation review, identifying three trades where a compensation adjustment is overdue before any turnover occurs.