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News Release Information

24-905-CHI
Tuesday, July 30, 2024

Contacts Technical information: Media contact:
  • (312) 353-1138

Occupational Employment and Wages in Sioux Falls — May 2023

Workers in the Sioux Falls, SD Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $27.02 in May 2023, compared to the nationwide average of $31.48, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Jason Palmer noted that higher paying major occupational groups included management ($65.51), legal ($55.09), and computer and mathematical ($41.60). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($14.91), personal care and service ($16.43), and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($17.12). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Sioux Falls area included office and administrative support (13.2 percent), healthcare practitioners and technical (10.1 percent), and sales and related (9.8 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.5 percent); life, physical, and social science (0.6 percent); and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (1.2 percent). (See table A.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Sioux Falls metropolitan area, May 2023
Major occupational group Percent of total employment Mean hourly wage ($)
United States Sioux Falls United States Sioux Falls

Total, all occupations

100.0 100.0 31.48 27.02

Management

6.9 3.6 66.23 65.51

Business and financial operations

6.6 6.7 43.55 37.98

Computer and mathematical

3.4 2.9 54.39 41.60

Architecture and engineering

1.7 1.3 47.64 39.90

Life, physical, and social science

0.9 0.6 42.24 32.59

Community and social service

1.6 1.7 28.36 23.77

Legal

0.8 0.5 64.34 55.09

Educational instruction and library

5.8 4.4 31.92 22.16

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.4 1.2 36.31 23.93

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.1 10.1 49.07 40.59

Healthcare support

4.7 3.5 18.37 18.21

Protective service

2.3 1.3 27.74 26.57

Food preparation and serving related

8.7 8.7 16.58 14.91

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.9 3.2 18.43 17.12

Personal care and service

2.0 2.5 18.48 16.43

Sales and related

8.8 9.8 25.62 26.22

Office and administrative support

12.2 13.2 23.05 20.21

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.3 0.2 19.22 18.81

Construction and extraction

4.1 5.5 29.57 24.71

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.9 4.4 28.13 27.53

Production

5.8 6.4 22.90 21.20

Transportation and material moving

9.1 8.5 22.45 20.59

One occupational group—office and administrative support—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Sioux Falls had 21,940 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 13.2 percent of local area employment, compared to the 12.2-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $20.21, compared to the national wage of $23.05.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included customer service representatives (4,200); bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks (3,100); and receptionists and information clerks (2,430). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were cargo and freight agents with mean hourly wages of $30.64, first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers ($29.62), and postal service mail carriers ($28.76). At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($14.18). (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_43620.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 Sioux Falls 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 4.6 times the national rate in Sioux Falls, and loan interviewers and clerks, at 3.5 times the U.S. average. Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks had a location quotient of 1.1 in Sioux Falls, indicating that this particular occupation’s local and national employment shares were similar.

The statistics in this release are from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, a cooperative effort between BLS and the State Workforce Agencies (SWAs). BLS funds the survey and provides the procedures and technical support. State Workforce Agencies collect most of the data: in this case, the South Dakota Department of Labor and Regulation.


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. Full OEWS data tables are available online.

Additional information about the OEWS estimates and methodology are available in the national Technical Notes. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 65.8 percent based on establishments and 64.3 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Sioux Falls, SD Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,887 establishments with a response rate of 81 percent.

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 Sioux Falls, SD Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Lincoln County, McCook County, Minnehaha County, and Turner County.

For more information

Answers to frequently asked questions about the OEWS data, as well as general program documentation, are available on the OEWS website.

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, Sioux Falls metropolitan area, May 2023
Occupation (1) Employment Mean wages ($)
Level (2) Location quotient (3) Hourly Annual (4)

Office and administrative support occupations

21,940 1.1 20.21 42,040

First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers

840 0.5 29.62 61,610

Bill and account collectors

960 4.6 20.91 43,480

Billing and posting clerks

530 1.1 18.98 39,470

Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks

3,100 1.9 20.56 42,760

Payroll and timekeeping clerks

160 0.9 23.29 48,450

Procurement clerks

70 1.0 19.06 39,650

Tellers

570 1.5 17.10 35,560

Brokerage clerks

(5) (5) 23.95 49,810

Court, municipal, and license clerks

150 0.9 21.03 43,740

Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks

130 8.6 21.28 44,250

Customer service representatives

4,200 1.3 19.52 40,600

Eligibility interviewers, government programs

110 0.7 22.41 46,610

Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks

370 1.3 14.18 29,480

Interviewers, except eligibility and loan

180 1.0 18.93 39,380

Loan interviewers and clerks

780 3.5 20.74 43,140

Order clerks

110 1.1 20.36 42,340

Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping

110 1.0 20.24 42,100

Receptionists and information clerks

2,430 2.2 16.64 34,610

Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks

100 0.8 16.81 34,960

Information and record clerks, all other

70 0.5 21.85 45,440

Cargo and freight agents

160 1.4 30.64 63,720

Couriers and messengers

30 0.4 17.83 37,080

Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance

350 1.6 20.83 43,330

Postal service clerks

60 0.7 26.87 55,890

Postal service mail carriers

280 0.8 28.76 59,830

Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators

180 1.4 27.33 56,840

Production, planning, and expediting clerks

230 0.5 23.81 49,520

Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks

1,060 1.1 19.60 40,760

Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping

90 1.7 19.93 41,450

Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants

950 1.8 24.05 50,020

Legal secretaries and administrative assistants

190 1.1 22.87 47,570

Medical secretaries and administrative assistants

70 0.1 19.97 41,540

Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive

1,490 0.8 18.57 38,620

Insurance claims and policy processing clerks

550 2.1 20.49 42,620

Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service

130 1.8 17.35 36,100

Office clerks, general

780 0.3 16.91 35,170

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Sioux Falls, SD Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_43620.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.

 

Last Modified Date: Tuesday, July 30, 2024