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News Release Information

24-1308-CHI
Wednesday, July 10, 2024

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

Occupational Employment and Wages in Bismarck — May 2023

Workers in the Bismarck, ND Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $28.22 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 ($53.62), legal ($43.73), and computer and mathematical ($41.96). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($15.91), personal care and service ($16.43), and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($18.31). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Bismarck area included office and administrative support (11.4 percent), food preparation and serving related (9.0 percent), and sales and related (8.5 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.8 percent); life, physical, and social science (1.2 percent); and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (1.6 percent). (See table A.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Bismarck metropolitan area, May 2023
Major occupational groupPercent of total employmentMean hourly wage ($)
United StatesBismarckUnited StatesBismarck

Total, all occupations

100.0100.031.4828.22

Management

6.96.166.2353.62

Business and financial operations

6.65.543.5536.84

Computer and mathematical

3.42.554.3941.96

Architecture and engineering

1.72.047.6440.44

Life, physical, and social science

0.91.242.2435.26

Community and social service

1.61.928.3628.70

Legal

0.80.864.3443.73

Educational instruction and library

5.85.331.9227.18

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.41.636.3125.69

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.18.349.0741.06

Healthcare support

4.75.718.3719.56

Protective service

2.32.627.7426.36

Food preparation and serving related

8.79.016.5815.91

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.93.318.4318.31

Personal care and service

2.03.518.4816.43

Sales and related

8.88.525.6222.46

Office and administrative support

12.211.423.0523.21

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.30.319.2222.84

Construction and extraction

4.15.229.5728.55

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.94.528.1328.65

Production

5.83.622.9027.53

Transportation and material moving

9.17.222.4523.32

One occupational group—office and administrative support—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Bismarck had 8,140 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 11.4 percent of local area employment, compared to the 12.2-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $23.21, compared to the national wage of $23.05.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included office clerks, general (1,750), secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (1,090), and customer service representatives (1,000). 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 $31.65 and $31.35, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were receptionists and information clerks ($17.74) and couriers and messengers ($18.07). (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_13900.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 Bismarck area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, court, municipal, and license clerks were employed at 1.9 times the national rate in Bismarck, and eligibility interviewers, government programs, at 1.8 times the U.S. average. Receptionists and information clerks had a location quotient of 1.0 in Bismarck, 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, Job Service North Dakota.


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 Bismarck, ND Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,147 establishments with a response rate of 62 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 Bismarck, ND Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Burleigh County, Morton County, Oliver County, and Sioux 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, Bismarck metropolitan area, May 2023
Occupation (1)EmploymentMean wages ($)
Level (2)Location quotient (3)HourlyAnnual (4)

Office and administrative support occupations

8,1400.923.2148,270

First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers

3200.531.6565,830

Bill and account collectors

800.922.7747,360

Billing and posting clerks

1200.623.9249,750

Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks

6300.922.8947,610

Payroll and timekeeping clerks

600.827.7757,760

Tellers

2701.719.0639,650

Court, municipal, and license clerks

1401.923.3148,480

Customer service representatives

1,0000.721.9645,680

Eligibility interviewers, government programs

1301.823.8949,690

Loan interviewers and clerks

1201.324.5351,020

New accounts clerks

401.9(5)(5)

Receptionists and information clerks

4701.017.7436,890

Information and record clerks, all other

400.625.6753,400

Couriers and messengers

301.018.0737,590

Public safety telecommunicators

601.324.4250,790

Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance

1001.126.0254,120

Postal service mail carriers

1200.830.2562,920

Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators

1001.826.9956,140

Production, planning, and expediting clerks

400.230.4063,230

Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks

2000.520.4542,540

Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants

1100.531.3565,220

Legal secretaries and administrative assistants

400.622.0945,940

Medical secretaries and administrative assistants

1300.420.6142,860

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

1,0901.321.3944,480

Insurance claims and policy processing clerks

1301.123.4548,780

Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service

301.119.0639,640

Office clerks, general

1,7501.524.7151,400

Office and administrative support workers, all other

3304.027.9458,120

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Bismarck, ND Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_13900.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: Wednesday, July 10, 2024