Workers in the Ann Arbor, MI Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $29.33 in May 2021, 5 percent above the nationwide average of $28.01, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Jason Palmer noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were higher than their respective national averages in 5 of the 22 major occupational groups, including healthcare support, construction and extraction, and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance. Eleven groups had significantly lower wages than their respective national averages, including legal; computer and mathematical; and life, physical, and social science.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Ann Arbor area employment was more highly concentrated in 9 of the 22 occupational groups, including educational instruction and library, healthcare practitioners and technical, and architecture and engineering. Twelve groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including transportation and material moving, sales and related, and construction and extraction. (See table A.)

One occupational group—healthcare practitioners and technical—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Ann Arbor had 24,050 jobs in healthcare practitioners and technical, accounting for 11.9 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 6.2-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $44.45, compared to the national wage of $43.80.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the healthcare practitioners and technical group included registered nurses (9,600), pharmacy technicians (930), and clinical laboratory technologists and technicians (870). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were nurse anesthetists and family medicine physicians, with mean hourly wages of $133.08 and $105.30, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were dietetic technicians ($17.53), veterinary technologists and technicians ($18.32), and pharmacy technicians ($18.99). (Detailed data for the healthcare practitioners and technical occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_11460.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 Ann Arbor area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the healthcare practitioners and technical group. For instance, psychiatric technicians were employed at 4.7 times the national rate in Ann Arbor, and nurse anesthetists, at 4.0 times the U.S. average. Speech-language pathologists had a location quotient of 1.1 in Ann Arbor, 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 Michigan Department of Technology, Management & Budget.

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 Ann Arbor, MI Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,663 establishments with a response rate of 68 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 Ann Arbor, MI Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Washtenaw 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 healthcare practitioners and technical occupations, Ann Arbor metropolitan area, May 2021

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Healthcare practitioners and technical occupations	24,050	1.9	$44.45	$92,450
Dentists, general	250	1.6	72.84	151,500
Dietitians and nutritionists	200	2.1	30.91	64,290
Optometrists	40	0.8	62.51	130,020
Pharmacists	610	1.4	62.04	129,030
Physician assistants	600	3.2	55.14	114,700
Occupational therapists	340	1.9	38.97	81,060
Physical therapists	510	1.6	42.74	88,900
Radiation therapists	50	2.0	38.50	80,070
Recreational therapists	130	5.4	25.54	53,120
Respiratory therapists	380	2.0	32.01	66,590
Speech-language pathologists	230	1.1	40.76	84,780
Exercise physiologists	60	5.8	25.13	52,260
Veterinarians	110	1.0	48.53	100,950
Registered nurses	9,600	2.2	40.79	84,830
Nurse anesthetists	250	4.0	133.08	276,810
Nurse practitioners	620	1.9	55.54	115,520
Audiologists	50	2.7	43.07	89,580
Family medicine physicians	160	1.1	105.30	219,030
General internal medicine physicians	300	3.6	55.36	115,140
Obstetricians and gynecologists	60	1.8	81.74	170,010
Pediatricians, general	210	4.3	47.03	97,810
Psychiatrists	90	2.4	81.08	168,650
Physicians, all other	830	2.3	117.95	245,340
Surgeons, all other	130	3.2	45.70	95,050
Dental hygienists	330	1.1	34.68	72,140
Healthcare diagnosing or treating practitioners, all other	220	5.9	44.73	93,040
Clinical laboratory technologists and technicians	870	1.9	28.07	58,390
Cardiovascular technologists and technicians	260	3.2	31.09	64,670
Diagnostic medical sonographers	250	2.3	34.10	70,920
Nuclear medicine technologists	50	2.0	38.03	79,090
Radiologic technologists and technicians	600	2.0	31.01	64,500
Magnetic resonance imaging technologists	130	2.5	34.37	71,500
Paramedics	220	1.6	21.95	45,650
Dietetic technicians	50	1.5	17.53	36,460
Pharmacy technicians	930	1.5	18.99	39,510
Psychiatric technicians	630	4.7	27.01	56,170
Surgical technologists	350	2.2	24.05	50,020
Veterinary technologists and technicians	160	0.9	18.32	38,100
Ophthalmic medical technicians	150	1.6	22.47	46,730
Licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses	590	0.6	26.62	55,380
Medical records specialists	310	1.2	25.47	52,980
Opticians, dispensing	110	1.1	19.79	41,170
Orthotists and prosthetists	40	3.0	35.12	73,050
Health technologists and technicians, all other	490	2.4	25.02	52,040
Health information technologists and medical registrars	60	1.2	27.12	56,400
Athletic trainers	120	3.1	(5)	59,540
Healthcare practitioners and technical workers, all other	80	1.3	30.78	64,030
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Ann Arbor, MI Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_11460.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) Wages for some occupations that do not generally work year-round, full time, are reported either as hourly wages or annual salaries depending on how they are typically paid.