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News Release Information

22-951-CHI
Tuesday, August 23, 2022

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

Occupational Employment and Wages in Champaign-Urbana — May 2021

Workers in the Champaign-Urbana, IL Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $27.88 in May 2021, compared to 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 lower than their respective national averages in 15 of the 22 major occupational groups, including computer and mathematical, management, and business and financial operations. Six groups had significantly higher wages than their respective national averages, including healthcare practitioners and technical, construction and extraction, and educational instruction and library.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Champaign area employment was more highly concentrated in 9 of the 22 occupational groups, including educational instruction and library, healthcare practitioners and technical, and food preparation and serving related. Ten groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including business and financial operations, transportation and material moving, and sales and related. (See table A.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Champaign metropolitan area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2021
Major occupational groupPercent of total employmentMean hourly wage
United StatesChampaignUnited StatesChampaignPercent difference (1)

Total, all occupations

100.0100.0$28.01$27.880

Management

6.36.9*59.3149.78*-16

Business and financial operations

6.44.2*39.7233.58*-15

Computer and mathematical

3.32.4*48.0136.77*-23

Architecture and engineering

1.71.2*44.1038.59*-12

Life, physical, and social science

0.91.5*38.8132.75*-16

Community and social service

1.61.9*25.9424.59*-5

Legal

0.80.3*54.3849.22*-9

Educational instruction and library

5.810.4*29.8833.98*14

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.31.331.7827.72*-13

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.29.2*43.8053.68*23

Healthcare support

4.73.5*16.0216.23*1

Protective service

2.41.6*25.6828.42*11

Food preparation and serving related

8.08.7*14.1613.31*-6

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.93.2*16.2315.63*-4

Personal care and service

1.81.7*16.1716.522

Sales and related

9.47.6*22.1518.22*-18

Office and administrative support

13.013.6*20.8820.57*-1

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.30.316.7021.65*30

Construction and extraction

4.23.3*26.8732.53*21

Installation, maintenance, and repair

4.04.1*25.6623.98*-7

Production

6.06.020.7118.36*-11

Transportation and material moving

9.07.1*19.8819.06*-4

Footnotes:
(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in the Champaign-Urbana, IL Metropolitan Statistical Area is above the national mean wage, while a negative difference reflects a lower wage.
* The mean hourly wage or percent share of employment is significantly different from the national average of all areas at the 90-percent confidence level.

One occupational group—healthcare practitioners and technical—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Champaign had 9,070 jobs in healthcare practitioners and technical, accounting for 9.2 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 6.2-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $53.68, significantly above the national wage of $43.80.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the healthcare practitioners and technical group included registered nurses (3,340), nurse practitioners (410), and pharmacy technicians (370). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were obstetricians and gynecologists and family medicine physicians, with mean hourly wages of $171.81 and $145.39, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were emergency medical technicians ($15.22) and pharmacy technicians ($16.99). (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_16580.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 Champaign area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the healthcare practitioners and technical group. For instance, both nurse practitioners and veterinary technologists and technicians were employed at 2.5 times the national rate in Champaign. Pharmacists had a location quotient of 1.0 in Champaign, 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 Illinois Department of Employment Security.

Changes to the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) Data

With the May 2021 estimates release, the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program has implemented a new model-based (MB3) estimation method. For more information, see the May 2021 Survey Methods and Reliability Statement at www.bls.gov/oes/methods_21.pdf and the Monthly Labor Review article at www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2019/article/model-based-estimates-for-the-occupational-employment-statistics-program.htm. OEWS estimates for the years 2015-19 were recalculated using the new estimation method and are available as research estimates at www.bls.gov/oes/oes-mb3-methods.htm.

The May 2021 OEWS estimates are also the first estimates based entirely on survey data collected using the 2018 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system. To improve data quality, the OEWS program aggregates some occupations to the SOC broad occupation level or as OEWS-specific combinations of 2018 SOC detailed occupations.


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 Champaign-Urbana, IL Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,175 establishments with a response rate of 60 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 Champaign-Urbana, IL Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Champaign County, Ford County, and Piatt 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, Champaign metropolitan area, May 2021
Occupation (1)EmploymentMean wages
Level (2)Location quotient (3)HourlyAnnual (4)

Healthcare practitioners and technical occupations

9,0701.5$53.68$111,650

Dietitians and nutritionists

501.030.0362,460

Optometrists

301.258.65122,000

Pharmacists

2201.055.98116,440

Physician assistants

1501.657.34119,270

Occupational therapists

800.940.4684,150

Physical therapists

1300.942.4088,200

Respiratory therapists

1601.829.2960,920

Speech-language pathologists

1401.336.8076,540

Veterinarians

601.145.5194,660

Registered nurses

3,3401.635.9674,800

Nurse practitioners

4102.557.11118,780

Cardiologists

503.7(5)(5)

Family medicine physicians

1101.5145.39302,410

Neurologists

306.4(5)(5)

Obstetricians and gynecologists

604.0171.81357,370

Pediatricians, general

803.6117.31243,990

Psychiatrists

301.8143.14297,720

Radiologists

401.7(5)(5)

Physicians, all other

6503.7146.44304,600

Surgeons, all other

502.4(5)(5)

Dental hygienists

1200.933.7670,210

Clinical laboratory technologists and technicians

1800.827.3356,840

Diagnostic medical sonographers

1102.137.1577,280

Radiologic technologists and technicians

3102.130.2362,880

Magnetic resonance imaging technologists

702.736.0274,920

Emergency medical technicians

1301.215.2231,650

Pharmacy technicians

3701.216.9935,330

Veterinary technologists and technicians

2102.521.1443,980

Licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses

2500.624.4650,880

Medical records specialists

900.723.1248,090

Opticians, dispensing

801.617.7336,870

Health technologists and technicians, all other

1101.130.3063,030

Health information technologists and medical registrars

401.620.5642,760

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Champaign-Urbana, IL Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_16580.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) This wage is equal to or greater than $100.00 per hour or $208,000 per year.

 

Last Modified Date: Tuesday, August 23, 2022