---
title: "Cost Estimator"
description: "Prepare cost estimates for product manufacturing, construction projects, or services to aid management in bidding on or determining price of product or…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/cost-estimator"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Cost Estimator

**Category:** Business and Financial Operations · **SOC code:** 13-1051 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 13-1051.00

Prepare cost estimates for product manufacturing, construction projects, or services to aid management in bidding on or determining price of product or service. May specialize according to particular service performed or type of product manufactured.

Also advertised as: Acquisition Cost Estimator; Analyst; Construction Estimator; Cost Analyst; Cost Consultant; Cost Engineer; Cost Estimating Analyst; Cost Estimator.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $78,740 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $37.86/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $48,530 to $130,820, with the middle half between $61,150 and $101,850
- **Total US employment:** 224,220
- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's
- **Preparation required:** Medium preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** -4.2% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 16,900 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 12/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 224,220 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $48,530 |
| 25th | $61,150 |
| 50th (median) | $78,740 |
| 75th | $101,850 |
| 90th | $130,820 |
| Mean (average) | $85,390 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| MA | $100,840 | $95,351 | 4,520 |
| AK | $97,020 | $94,784 | 220 |
| WY | $90,790 | $97,949 | 440 |
| CO | $86,940 | $84,365 | 6,100 |
| WA | $86,070 | $80,429 | 7,470 |
| CA | $85,460 | $77,186 | 26,020 |
| IL | $82,750 | $82,785 | 5,990 |
| DC | $82,730 | $75,277 | 270 |
| NV | $82,200 | $82,217 | 2,240 |
| RI | $81,990 | $80,162 | 590 |
| VT | $81,390 | $83,087 | 320 |
| MD | $81,190 | $77,354 | 4,580 |
| CT | $81,030 | $78,207 | 2,350 |
| MN | $80,810 | $81,940 | 4,310 |
| NJ | $80,570 | $74,050 | 5,240 |

38 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 53 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/cost-estimator/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/cost-estimator.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 221,400 in the 2024–2034 base year to 212,100 by the end of the cycle — a loss of 9,300 jobs, or -4.2%. Declining: -4.2% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 16,900 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2024–2034.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Medium preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Moderate-term on-the-job training.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| Bachelor's Degree | 81.8% |
| Associate's Degree (or other 2-year degree) | 9.1% |
| High School Diploma | 4.6% |
| Master's Degree | 4.6% |

## What the work involves

- Analyze blueprints and other documentation to prepare time, cost, materials, and labor estimates.
- Confer with engineers, architects, owners, contractors, and subcontractors on changes and adjustments to cost estimates.
- Collect historical cost data to estimate costs for current or future products.
- Consult with clients, vendors, personnel in other departments, or construction foremen to discuss and formulate estimates and resolve issues.
- Prepare estimates for use in selecting vendors or subcontractors.
- Conduct special studies to develop and establish standard hour and related cost data or to reduce cost.
- Assess cost effectiveness of products, projects or services, tracking actual costs relative to bids as the project develops.
- Prepare estimates used by management for purposes such as planning, organizing, and scheduling work.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Reading Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Management of Financial Resources — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Negotiation — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Analysis — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Mathematics — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Economics and Accounting — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Engineering and Technology — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Building and Construction — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Inductive Reasoning — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematical Reasoning — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Number Facility — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Conventional (C), Enterprising (E), Investigative (I).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| C — Conventional | 6.44 |
| E — Enterprising | 4.65 |
| I — Investigative | 3.18 |
| R — Realistic | 3.01 |
| S — Social | 1.66 |
| A — Artistic | 1.12 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ESTJ | 86.8 |
| ISTJ | 84.6 |
| ISFJ | 72.1 |
| ESFJ | 69.4 |
| ENTJ | 64.9 |

Best-fitting types: ESTJ, ISTJ. The bank also flags this occupation as introvert-friendly, meaning O\*NET work-context ratings put it low on public contact and performing for the public.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Logistics Engineer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/logistics-engineer) — median $82,320
- [Civil Engineering Technologist and Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/civil-engineering-technologist-and-technician) — median $64,950
- [Construction Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/construction-manager) — median $114,990
- [Industrial Engineer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/industrial-engineer) — median $102,440
- [Architectural and Engineering Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/architectural-and-engineering-manager) — median $171,270
- [Production, Planning, and Expediting Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/production-planning-and-expediting-clerk) — median $59,650
- [Architectural and Civil Drafter](https://nuecareer.com/careers/architectural-and-civil-drafter) — median $66,150
- [Civil Engineer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/civil-engineer) — median $100,840
- [Project Management Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/project-management-specialist) — median $102,320
- [Purchasing Agent, Except Wholesale, Retail, and Farm Products](https://nuecareer.com/careers/purchasing-agent) — median $77,710

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 30.3 Database, May 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2024–2034. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2024–2034 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/cost-estimator