Construction Management and Engineering Compensation: North Dakota
A public-source statewide wage profile of North Dakota, May 2025
What construction managers, cost estimators, construction supervisors, and civil engineers earn across North Dakota — BLS OEWS percentiles benchmarked against national levels, with QCEW construction-industry wage context.
Overview
This profile reports what four core construction management and engineering occupations are paid across North Dakota, using the most recent federal occupational wage statistics. All figures are statewide annual wages in US dollars from the OEWS May 2025 reference period; statewide figures average across the state's metro and non-metro labor markets. The profile is produced under the Lab's public-source compensation benchmarking method (WIL-CBM-1.0): it is a public-data profile, not a peer survey, and it describes pay positioning only — it makes no claim about labor availability or hiring conditions.
| Occupation (SOC) | 10th pctile | Median | Mean | 90th pctile | Employment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Construction Managers (11-9021) | $63,470 | $102,070 | $110,550 | $168,570 | 1,450 |
| Civil Engineers (17-2051) | $63,290 | $98,190 | $98,780 | $143,740 | 1,380 |
| First-Line Supervisors, Construction Trades (47-1011) | $60,320 | $81,370 | $94,560 | $146,860 | 4,350 |
| Cost Estimators (13-1051) | $52,730 | $73,280 | $77,540 | $104,050 | 730 |
Annual wages, US dollars. Employment is OEWS-estimated statewide occupational employment. — Sources: BLS
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 — North Dakota; United States · Methodology WIL-CBM-1.0 · Public-source federal statistics. Annual wages in US dollars; OEWS estimates are modeled from employer surveys and carry published relative standard errors.
| Occupation | North Dakota | United States | vs. US | Rank (of 49) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Construction Managers | $102,070 | $114,990 | −11.2% | 38th |
| Civil Engineers | $98,190 | $100,840 | −2.6% | 29th |
| First-Line Supervisors | $81,370 | $79,920 | +1.8% | 18th |
| Cost Estimators | $73,280 | $78,740 | −6.9% | 43rd |
Percentages computed from OEWS medians as shown. Rank is the state's position among the 48 continental states and the District of Columbia (1 = highest median). — Sources: BLS
What the figures show
Among the 48 continental states and the District of Columbia, North Dakota ranks 38th of 49 for construction-manager median pay ($102,070), 29th for civil engineers ($98,190), 18th for construction supervisors ($81,370), and 43rd for cost estimators ($73,280). 1 of the four occupational medians stand at or above the national median. construction managers ($102,070) price below the national median; civil engineers ($98,190) price below the national median; cost estimators ($73,280) price below the national median. Industry-wide, North Dakota's private construction average weekly wage moved from $1,559 to $1,618 between Q3 2024 and Q3 2025 (+3.8%), with employment at 33,238 (+1.5% year over year). These are observed pay comparisons only; nothing here measures how hard these roles are to fill.
| Quarter | Avg weekly wage | Employment | Establishments |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 Q3 | $1,559 | 32,744 | 3,992 |
| 2025 Q3 | $1,618 | 33,238 | 3,955 |
Statewide, all occupations within private NAICS 23 — broader than the four profiled occupations. Year over year: average weekly wage +3.8%; employment +1.5%. Quarterly wages are not seasonally adjusted. — Sources: BLS
Method and limitations
Prepared under WIL-CBM-1.0 (Public-Source Compensation Benchmarking: A Method Note, WIL-RB-2026.3-COMP-METHOD). Wage figures are BLS OEWS May 2025 estimates for North Dakota and the United States, read from the Lab's governed warehouse (BLS_OEWS ingest, June 2026); industry context is BLS QCEW, private ownership, NAICS 23 (BLS_QCEW ingest, June 2026). Limitations: this is a public-data profile, not a peer survey — no employer-specific comparators were collected, so it does not substitute for a WIL-CBM-1.0 peer study where employer-level matching is required. Coverage is four occupations at the statewide level; metro- or employer-level variation within the state is not shown here. OEWS wages are modeled estimates with published relative standard errors; QCEW quarterly wages are not seasonally adjusted. Suppressed or unavailable cells are shown as missing — never zero. This profile asserts pay positioning only — not workforce availability, not hiring conditions.
State workforce context — North Dakota
A live public-signal read for North Dakota from the Lab's standing trackers — banded and directional, refreshed independently of this brief.
Source: Workforce Exposure Index and federal-award momentum — public_reports (banded). Directional, banded read — not a forecast. Methodology v2 · last updated 2026-05-26. See Live metrics for the full charts.
Version 1.0 · Published 2026-11-06T13:00:00Z · Permanent ID WIL-RB-2026.4-COMP-ST-ND. This record is versioned; the URL is permanent and stable for citation.
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@techreport{WILRB20264COMPSTND,
title = {Construction Management and Engineering Compensation: North Dakota: A public-source statewide wage profile of North Dakota, May 2025},
author = {Workforce Intelligence Lab},
institution = {Workforce Intelligence Lab},
type = {WIL Compensation Profiles},
number = {WIL-RB-2026.4-COMP-ST-ND},
year = {2026},
note = {Version 1.0; methodology WIL-CBM-1.0},
url = {https://wilinstitute.org/library/p/compensation-profile-construction-management-north-dakota},
}RISTY - RPRT AU - Workforce Intelligence Lab TI - Construction Management and Engineering Compensation: North Dakota: A public-source statewide wage profile of North Dakota, May 2025 PY - 2026 PB - Workforce Intelligence Lab M1 - WIL-RB-2026.4-COMP-ST-ND ET - Version 1.0 UR - https://wilinstitute.org/library/p/compensation-profile-construction-management-north-dakota AB - A public-source compensation profile of four construction management and engineering occupations in North Dakota, using BLS OEWS May 2025 wage percentiles benchmarked against national levels, with BLS QCEW private construction (NAICS 23) industry context. The state ranks 18th of 49 for construction supervisors median pay. Prepared under methodology WIL-CBM-1.0; this is a public-data profile, not a peer survey. ER -