Rockford, IL Salaries

Highest published occupation medians in Rockford, IL - BLS OEWS May 2025

Observed metro pay change

What changed, BLS OEWS 2024–2025

May 2024 → May 2025
  • BLS's published All Occupations median in Rockford, IL moved from $45,970 in May 2024 to $47,120 in May 2025 (+2.5%).
  • Across the 393 metros priced in both releases, the median place changed +3.1%.
  • Rockford, IL sits -0.6 pp behind that median, nominal dollars, no price deflator applied.

Registered Nurses shows the widest metro-area vs national median gap in Rockford, IL

Registered Nurses publishes $80,930 here versus $97,550 nationally (-17.0%; 4,620metro-area jobs). Next is Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand at $44,200 locally versus $40,240 nationally (+9.8%).

  1. Registered Nurses$80,930 in Rockford, IL sits 17.0% below the national Registered Nurses median of $97,550 (4,620 published local jobs).
  2. Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand$44,200 in Rockford, IL sits 9.8% above the national Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand median of $40,240 (5,940 published local jobs).
  3. General and Operations Managers$98,390 in Rockford, IL sits 7.0% below the national General and Operations Managers median of $105,770 (3,340 published local jobs).
  4. Retail Salespersons$33,540 in Rockford, IL sits 5.3% below the national Retail Salespersons median of $35,410 (2,970 published local jobs).

Registered Nurses and the other occupations above are descriptive OEWS endpoints for Rockford, IL; they are not findings about taxes, employers, or worker experience.

BLS OEWS metro wage desk

MSA 40420 · Rockford, IL $61K mean

MEAN-MID · RPP-LOW · OCC-MID · TOP-LEAD · EMP-MIX · TREND-INLINE · PHOTO-FINISH · BOOK-FULL

  • MEAN-MID #187/528
  • RPP-LOW 92.2
  • OCC-MID 328 occs
  • TOP-LEAD Physicians, Al… · $324K
  • EMP-MIX Financial Ma…
  • TREND-INLINE -0.6 pp
  • PHOTO-FINISH Morgantown, WV
  • BOOK-FULL 326 rows · May 2025

Read with Morgantown, WV (+$5 on published-row mean) · Highest-paying careers

Instrument codes from this MSA’s OEWS published-row mean, BEA RPP, occupation book, employment lead, All Occupations pay change, and nearest peer — not a moving recommendation.

Published-row mean neighbourhood around Rockford, IL

Guayama, PR · lowest mean: $32KGuayama, PR · lowest mean$32KMerced, CA · near: $60KMerced, CA · near$60KRockford, IL · this MSA: $61KRockford, IL · this MSA$61KMorgantown, WV · near: $61KMorgantown, WV · near$61KColumbus, IN · near: $61KColumbus, IN · near$61KCapital/Northern New… · near: $61KCapital/Northern New… · near$61KSan Jose-Sunnyvale-S… · highest mean: $119KSan Jose-Sunnyvale-S… · high…$119K
Read the chart as text
Label Value
Guayama, PR · lowest mean $32K
Merced, CA · near $60K
Rockford, IL · this MSA $61K
Morgantown, WV · near $61K
Columbus, IN · near $61K
Capital/Northern New… · near $61K
San Jose-Sunnyvale-S… · highest mean $119K

Employment scale inside Rockford, IL's top-pay list

Financial Managers and Medical and Health Services Managers lead published employment inside Rockford, IL's top-pay sample — order follows OEWS job counts, not median wage.

  1. 1. Financial Managers 590 jobs · $135,650
  2. 2. Medical and Health Services Managers 540 jobs · $121,920
  3. 3. Sales Managers 510 jobs · $133,560
  4. 4. Industrial Production Managers 460 jobs · $120,800
  5. 5. Physicians, All Other 410 jobs · $323,660
  6. 6. Software Developers 380 jobs · $107,640
  7. 7. Managers, All Other 320 jobs · $127,870
  8. 8. Construction Managers 320 jobs · $106,870
  9. 9. Pharmacists 300 jobs · $134,190
  10. 10. Architectural and Engineering Managers 250 jobs · $146,930
  11. 11. Computer and Information Systems Managers 250 jobs · $146,600
  12. 12. Nurse Practitioners 240 jobs · $127,720
  13. 13. Transportation, Storage, and Distribution Managers 210 jobs · $109,710
  14. 14. Human Resources Managers 200 jobs · $123,090
  15. 15. Electrical Engineers 180 jobs · $112,350
  16. 16. Marketing Managers 170 jobs · $124,440
  17. 17. Dentists, General 130 jobs · $214,670
  18. 18. Chief Executives 90 jobs · $323,030

Occupations Tracked

328

with wage data

Published-Row Mean

$60,520

employment-weighted, 326 complete rows

Top Salary

$323,660

Physicians, All Other

Cost of Living

92.2

8% below US avg

Price-level adjustment: Dividing the derived published-row mean of $60,520 by the metro RPP gives $65,673 on a national-price basis. This is not an after-tax income or a personal cost-of-living result.

Highest Paying Jobs in Rockford, IL

# Occupation Median Salary
1 Physicians, All Other $323,660
2 Chief Executives $323,030
3 Dentists, General $214,670
4 Family Medicine Physicians $168,210
5 Pediatricians, General $161,330
6 Architectural and Engineering Managers $146,930
7 Computer and Information Systems Managers $146,600
8 Financial Managers $135,650
9 Pharmacists $134,190
10 Sales Managers $133,560
11 Veterinarians $132,720
12 Managers, All Other $127,870
13 Physician Assistants $127,800
14 Nurse Practitioners $127,720
15 Purchasing Managers $126,970
16 Marketing Managers $124,440
17 Human Resources Managers $123,090
18 Medical and Health Services Managers $121,920
19 Industrial Production Managers $120,800
20 Information Security Analysts $119,400
21 Electrical Engineers $112,350
22 Personal Financial Advisors $110,850
23 Transportation, Storage, and Distribution Managers $109,710
24 Software Developers $107,640
25 Construction Managers $106,870

Lowest Paying Jobs in Rockford, IL

Other BLS Wage Areas in IL

Other metropolitan or nonmetropolitan OEWS areas assigned to the same state. Cross-state pay and employment peers live in Nationwide similar metros below.

Nationwide metros with similar published-row mean pay or employment scale

Two OEWS peer sets outside IL. Same-state wage areas above stay geographic; these neighborhoods are cross-state nearest neighbors on employment-weighted published-row mean wage ($60,520 here) and summed published employment.

Peers are nearest-neighbor matches on BLS OEWS employment-weighted published-row mean wage and summed occupation employment. Employment peers exclude metros already listed in the mean-wage column so the two link sets stay distinct. Mean wage here is not a worker-level median.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the average salary in Rockford, IL?
Across the 326 occupation rows for Rockford, IL with both a published mean wage and employment estimate, weighting each mean by employment gives $60,520/year (BLS OEWS May 2025). The page has 328 occupations with a published median, a different denominator. This WageDex-derived benchmark is not a BLS-published All Occupations metro mean or median and does not state what a typical local worker earns. For contrast, averaging the medians of only the 25 highest-paying occupations gives $147,519, which describes the displayed top tier only.
Which published medians lead Rockford, IL?
Physicians, All Other holds the highest published median in Rockford, IL at $323,660/year (BLS OEWS May 2025). Next is Chief Executives at $323,030/year. These are occupation medians for this metropolitan statistical area, not employer offers.
What is the cost of living in Rockford, IL?
Rockford, IL has a Regional Price Parity of 92.2, meaning prices are 8% below the national average. Dividing the derived published-row mean of $60,520 by the RPP gives a national-price-equivalent benchmark of $65,673.
Where does BLS salary data for Rockford, IL come from?
All salary figures are Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS May 2025 estimates for this metropolitan statistical area. OEWS surveys approximately 1.1 million business establishments. Medians and means on this page are the published occupation-level estimates for the area — not job-board scrapes or modeled employer offers.

Last updated: May 2025 (BLS OEWS annual release). Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS May 2025. Cost-of-living index: BEA Regional Price Parities, 2024.

Source data and WageDex calculations are identified in context on this page. Occupation rows use BLS OEWS May 2025. The metro benchmark is WageDex's employment-weighted mean of published occupation means; where BEA RPP is available, the price-level figure divides that benchmark by the published area parity. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.

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