Workers in the Macon, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $21.98 in May 2021, about 22 percent below the nationwide average of $28.01, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Janet S. Rankin noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were lower than their respective national averages in 20 of the 22 major occupational groups.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Macon area employment was more highly concentrated in 9 of the 22 occupational groups, including office and administrative support, healthcare practitioners and technical, and food preparation and serving related. Eleven groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including computer and mathematical, construction and extraction, and architecture and engineering. (See table A.)

One occupational group—office and administrative support—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Macon had 14,930 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 15.8 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 13.0-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $18.30, significantly below the national wage of $20.88.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included customer service representatives (3,680); general office clerks (1,480); and secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (1,310). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers and also executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants, with mean hourly wages of $27.58 and $26.41, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were couriers and messengers ($13.05) and receptionists and information clerks ($13.98). (Detailed data for the office and administrative support occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available, go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_31420.htm.)

Location quotients allow us to explore the occupational make-up of a metropolitan area by comparing the composition of jobs in an area relative to the national average. (See table 1.) For example, a location quotient of 2.0 indicates that an occupation accounts for twice the share of employment in the area than it does nationally. In the Macon area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, bill and account collectors were employed at 2.7 times the national rate in Macon, and customer service representatives, at 2.0 times the U.S. average. Tellers had a location quotient of 1.0 in Macon, indicating that this particular occupation’s local and national employment shares were similar.

These statistics are from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, a federal-state cooperative program between BLS and State Workforce Agencies, in this case, the Georgia Department of Labor.

Technical Note

The Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey is a semiannual survey measuring occupational employment and wage rates for wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments in the United States. The OEWS data available from BLS include cross-industry occupational employment and wage estimates for the nation; over 580 areas, including states and the District of Columbia, metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), nonmetropolitan areas, and territories; national industry-specific estimates at the NAICS sector, 3-digit, most 4-digit, and selected 5- and 6-digit industry levels, and national estimates by ownership across all industries and for schools and hospitals. OEWS data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm.

The OEWS survey is a cooperative effort between BLS and the State Workforce Agencies (SWAs). BLS funds the survey and provides the procedures and technical support, while the State Workforce Agencies collect most of the data. OEWS estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.1 million establishments. Each year, two semiannual panels of approximately 179,000 to 187,000 sampled establishments are contacted, one panel in May and the other in November. Responses are obtained by Internet or other electronic means, mail, email, telephone, or personal visit. The May 2021 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2021, November 2020, May 2020, November 2019, May 2019, and November 2018. The unweighted sampled employment of 82 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 62 percent of total national employment. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 67.2 percent based on establishments and 64.5 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Macon, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,217 establishments with a response rate of 66 percent. For more information about OEWS concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_tec.htm.

A value that is statistically different from another does not necessarily mean that the difference has economic or practical significance. Statistical significance is concerned with the ability to make confident statements about a universe based on a sample. It is entirely possible that a large difference between two values is not significantly different statistically, while a small difference is, since both the size and heterogeneity of the sample affect the relative error of the data being tested.

Metropolitan area definitions

The substate area data published in this release reflect the standards and definitions established by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.

The Macon, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Bibb County, Crawford County, Jones County, Monroe County, and Twiggs County.

For more information

Answers to frequently asked questions about the OEWS data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_ques.htm. Detailed information about the OEWS program is available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_doc.htm.

Information in this release will be made available to individuals with sensory impairments upon request. Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; Telecommunications Relay Service: 7-1-1.

Table 1. Employment and wage data for office and administrative support occupations, Macon metropolitan area, May 2021

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	14,930	1.2	$18.30	$38,060
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	1,120	1.2	27.58	57,360
Bill and account collectors	380	2.7	18.44	38,340
Billing and posting clerks	400	1.4	18.37	38,210
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	730	0.7	18.17	37,800
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	80	0.8	19.81	41,200
Tellers	250	1.0	15.25	31,720
Court, municipal, and license clerks	110	1.1	16.98	35,320
Customer service representatives	3,680	2.0	18.42	38,300
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	70	0.7	16.06	33,400
File clerks	40	0.6	15.18	31,580
Interviewers, except eligibility and loan	30	0.3	15.70	32,650
Loan interviewers and clerks	70	0.4	18.00	37,440
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	40	0.5	18.67	38,830
Receptionists and information clerks	870	1.3	13.98	29,080
Information and record clerks, all other	80	0.7	16.69	34,720
Couriers and messengers	60	1.3	13.05	27,150
Public safety telecommunicators	90	1.3	15.74	32,730
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	(5)	(5)	16.52	34,350
Postal service clerks	50	1.0	25.97	54,010
Postal service mail carriers	280	1.2	25.10	52,200
Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators	200	2.6	24.16	50,260
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	250	1.0	21.59	44,910
Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks	420	0.8	16.37	34,050
Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping	30	0.8	17.06	35,490
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	160	0.5	26.41	54,930
Legal secretaries and administrative assistants	90	0.8	21.56	44,850
Medical secretaries and administrative assistants	350	0.8	16.39	34,090
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	1,310	1.1	15.61	32,460
Data entry keyers	50	0.5	16.32	33,940
Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service	40	0.8	16.44	34,190
Office clerks, general	1,480	0.9	16.08	33,440
Office and administrative support workers, all other	180	1.9	17.57	36,540
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Macon, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_31420.htm. (2) Estimates for detailed occupations may not sum to the totals due to rounding, and because the totals may include occupations that are not shown separately. Estimates do not include self-employed workers. (3) The location quotient is the ratio of the area concentration of occupational employment to the national average concentration. A location quotient greater than one indicates the occupation has a higher share of employment than average, and a location quotient less than one indicates the occupation is less prevalent in the area than average. (4) Annual wages have been calculated by multiplying the hourly mean wage by a 'year-round, full-time' hours figure of 2,080 hours; for those occupations where there is not an hourly mean wage published, the annual wage has been directly calculated from the reported survey data. (5) Estimate not released.