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News Release Information

24-1280-CHI
Thursday, July 25, 2024

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

Occupational Employment and Wages in Springfield, IL — May 2023

Workers in the Springfield, IL Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $31.05 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 ($55.98), healthcare practitioners and technical ($52.73), and legal ($49.75). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($15.96), personal care and service ($17.37), and healthcare support ($18.91). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Springfield area included office and administrative support (13.8 percent), healthcare practitioners and technical (9.9 percent), and food preparation and serving related (8.9 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included life, physical, and social science (0.8 percent); legal (1.1 percent); and architecture and engineering (1.3 percent). (See table A.)

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

Total, all occupations

100.0100.031.4831.05

Management

6.97.766.2355.98

Business and financial operations

6.68.843.5539.74

Computer and mathematical

3.43.254.3945.26

Architecture and engineering

1.71.347.6443.68

Life, physical, and social science

0.90.842.2438.03

Community and social service

1.62.228.3628.06

Legal

0.81.164.3449.75

Educational instruction and library

5.85.931.9227.14

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.42.236.3125.92

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.19.949.0752.73

Healthcare support

4.74.118.3718.91

Protective service

2.32.227.7431.06

Food preparation and serving related

8.78.916.5815.96

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.93.118.4319.12

Personal care and service

2.01.718.4817.37

Sales and related

8.87.925.6221.63

Office and administrative support

12.213.823.0522.24

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.30.219.2224.55

Construction and extraction

4.13.029.5734.03

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.93.028.1327.71

Production

5.83.222.9022.51

Transportation and material moving

9.15.822.4520.69

One occupational group—office and administrative support—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Springfield had 14,330 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 13.8 percent of local area employment, compared to the 12.2-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $22.24, 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 (2,760), customer service representatives (1,500), and secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (1,400). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants and first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers, with mean hourly wages of $34.38 and $30.33, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were library assistants, clerical ($14.16) and mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service ($15.37). (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_44100.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 Springfield area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants were employed at 2.9 times the national rate in Springfield, and medical secretaries and administrative assistants, at 2.1 times the U.S. average. Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks had a location quotient of 1.0 in Springfield, 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 Illinois Department of Employment Security.


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 Springfield, IL Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,173 establishments with a response rate of 53 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 Springfield, IL Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Menard County and Sangamon 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, Springfield metropolitan area, May 2023
Occupation (1)EmploymentMean wages ($)
Level (2)Location quotient (3)HourlyAnnual (4)

Office and administrative support occupations

14,3301.122.2446,260

First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers

7300.730.3363,080

Switchboard operators, including answering service

501.817.6836,780

Bill and account collectors

600.520.3342,290

Billing and posting clerks

3401.221.6044,920

Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks

1,0401.024.0149,940

Payroll and timekeeping clerks

1101.026.2854,660

Procurement clerks

401.023.2448,330

Tellers

4301.817.4236,230

Court, municipal, and license clerks

900.922.9647,770

Customer service representatives

1,5000.819.7140,990

File clerks

1102.018.8439,180

Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks

1801.015.4432,120

Interviewers, except eligibility and loan

600.520.6342,910

Library assistants, clerical

801.414.1629,460

Loan interviewers and clerks

1301.022.2346,250

New accounts clerks

602.019.1439,800

Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping

901.321.5144,730

Receptionists and information clerks

7501.116.7934,910

Couriers and messengers

701.418.3938,250

Public safety telecommunicators

901.329.4261,180

Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance

900.722.5246,830

Postal service clerks

500.927.8657,940

Postal service mail carriers

3001.328.5259,330

Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators

1702.127.0456,230

Production, planning, and expediting clerks

1100.429.1360,600

Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks

3200.620.1041,810

Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping

401.019.1139,760

Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants

9502.934.3871,500

Legal secretaries and administrative assistants

1201.126.0354,150

Medical secretaries and administrative assistants

1,0802.119.8141,200

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

1,4001.221.9145,560

Data entry keyers

2202.119.1439,810

Insurance claims and policy processing clerks

1200.722.8147,450

Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service

1002.215.3731,980

Office clerks, general

2,7601.619.6640,880

Office machine operators, except computer

703.922.9547,730

Office and administrative support workers, all other

1201.022.2346,230

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Springfield, IL Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_44100.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: Thursday, July 25, 2024