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News Release Information

22-974-CHI
Monday, August 29, 2022

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

Occupational Employment and Wages in Lansing-East Lansing — May 2021

Workers in the Lansing-East Lansing, MI Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $27.20 in May 2021, 3 percent below 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 architecture and engineering. Four groups had significantly higher wages than their respective national averages, including educational instruction and library, construction and extraction, and production.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Lansing area employment was more highly concentrated in 8 of the 22 occupational groups, including office and administrative support, business and financial operations, and production. Twelve groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including sales and related, healthcare support, and food preparation and serving related. (See table A.)

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

Total, all occupations

100.0100.0$28.01$27.20*-3

Management

6.36.7*59.3153.35*-10

Business and financial operations

6.48.0*39.7235.31*-11

Computer and mathematical

3.34.0*48.0137.18*-23

Architecture and engineering

1.71.6*44.1039.18*-11

Life, physical, and social science

0.91.4*38.8134.39*-11

Community and social service

1.62.1*25.9425.10*-3

Legal

0.80.8*54.3850.59*-7

Educational instruction and library

5.85.929.8833.40*12

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.31.4*31.7829.10*-8

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.25.6*43.8042.23*-4

Healthcare support

4.73.5*16.0215.53*-3

Protective service

2.41.5*25.6825.07*-2

Food preparation and serving related

8.06.9*14.1614.180

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.92.4*16.2315.83*-2

Personal care and service

1.81.4*16.1716.653

Sales and related

9.47.6*22.1520.17*-9

Office and administrative support

13.015.3*20.8821.28*2

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.30.2*16.7017.384

Construction and extraction

4.23.7*26.8727.86*4

Installation, maintenance, and repair

4.04.025.6623.57*-8

Production

6.07.2*20.7121.68*5

Transportation and material moving

9.08.6*19.8818.88*-5

Footnotes:
(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in the Lansing-East Lansing, MI 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—office and administrative support—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Lansing had 30,180 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 15.3 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 13.0-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $21.28, significantly above the national wage of $20.88.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included office clerks, general (6,810); customer service representatives (4,990); and secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (2,320). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers and executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants, with mean hourly wages of $31.96 and $29.79, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($13.23) and library assistants, clerical ($13.38). (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_29620.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 Lansing area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, insurance claims and policy processing clerks were employed at 2.6 times the national rate in Lansing, and data entry keyers, at 2.3 times the U.S. average. Loan interviewers and clerks had a location quotient of 1.0 in Lansing, 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.

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 Lansing-East Lansing, MI Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,815 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 Lansing-East Lansing, MI Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Clinton County, Eaton County, and Ingham 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, Lansing metropolitan area, May 2021
Occupation (1)EmploymentMean wages
Level (2)Location quotient (3)HourlyAnnual (4)

Office and administrative support occupations

30,1801.2$21.28$44,260

First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers

1,9401.031.9666,480

Switchboard operators, including answering service

400.716.7634,850

Bill and account collectors

2400.818.9639,430

Billing and posting clerks

5600.920.0641,730

Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks

1,9300.921.3844,480

Payroll and timekeeping clerks

1600.823.2148,270

Procurement clerks

400.522.8247,470

Tellers

7001.417.2635,900

Court, municipal, and license clerks

4302.118.4438,360

Customer service representatives

4,9901.318.6538,800

Eligibility interviewers, government programs

4702.226.9856,120

File clerks

1501.217.9137,260

Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks

1200.413.2327,510

Interviewers, except eligibility and loan

500.219.8441,270

Library assistants, clerical

1701.513.3827,830

Loan interviewers and clerks

3401.020.8143,270

New accounts clerks

1302.422.1146,000

Order clerks

1100.619.3140,170

Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping

1501.120.7143,070

Receptionists and information clerks

1,1800.915.6232,480

Information and record clerks, all other

1000.518.1237,680

Cargo and freight agents

500.421.1744,030

Couriers and messengers

600.615.9533,170

Public safety telecommunicators

1000.723.0948,040

Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance

2300.920.8943,440

Postal service clerks

1101.024.9351,850

Postal service mail carriers

5401.226.0554,190

Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators

1400.925.3952,800

Production, planning, and expediting clerks

2900.623.2148,280

Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks

6900.619.2340,000

Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping

300.419.7141,010

Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants

8601.329.7961,960

Legal secretaries and administrative assistants

3101.422.6547,120

Medical secretaries and administrative assistants

7900.918.4738,410

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

2,3200.921.9345,610

Data entry keyers

4702.316.0133,290

Word processors and typists

801.419.9641,520

Insurance claims and policy processing clerks

7902.622.5846,970

Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service

800.916.2733,840

Office clerks, general

6,8101.919.9441,460

Office machine operators, except computer

501.019.2239,980

Office and administrative support workers, all other

1,2706.226.3854,860

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Lansing-East Lansing, MI Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_29620.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.

 

Last Modified Date: Monday, August 29, 2022