Workers in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $34.42 in May 2024, compared to the nationwide average of $32.66, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Acting Regional Commissioner Julie Wilson noted that higher paying major occupational groups included legal ($71.42), management ($70.19), and computer and mathematical ($52.08). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($17.53), personal care and service ($20.10), and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($20.30). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Chicago area included office and administrative support (11.3 percent), transportation and material moving (10.7 percent), and management (8.9 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included life, physical, and social science (0.7 percent); legal (1.0 percent); and architecture and engineering (1.2 percent).

One occupational group—office and administrative support—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Chicago had 504,260 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 11.3 percent of local area employment, compared to the 11.8-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $25.21, compared to the national wage of $24.12.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included customer service representatives (81,630), office clerks, general (74,130), and secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (52,700). Among the higher paying jobs in this group were meter readers, utilities and executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants, with mean hourly wages of $40.88 and $38.97, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were library assistants, clerical ($17.41) and hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($17.94). (Detailed data for the office and administrative support occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0016980.)

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 2.00 indicates that an occupation accounts for twice the share of employment in the area than it does nationally. In the Chicago area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, cargo and freight agents were employed at 2.22 times the national rate in Chicago, and dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance, at 1.76 times the U.S. average. Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks had a location quotient of 1.00 in Chicago, 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, and the Indiana Department of Workforce Development.

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 530 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 is 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 65.7 percent based on establishments and 65.9 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN Metropolitan Statistical Area included 14,003 establishments with a response rate of 58 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 Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Cook County, IL; DeKalb County, IL; DuPage County, IL; Grundy County, IL; Kane County, IL; Kendall County, IL; Lake County, IL; McHenry County, IL; Will County, IL; Jasper County, IN; Lake County, IN; Newton County, IN; and Porter County, IN.

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, Chicago metropolitan area, May 2024

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages ($)
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	504,260	0.95	25.21	52,440
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	33,220	0.77	35.22	73,250
Switchboard operators, including answering service	1,140	1.09	21.10	43,880
Bill and account collectors	3,280	0.68	24.38	50,710
Billing and posting clerks	12,550	1.04	25.01	52,020
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	36,080	0.85	25.75	53,560
Gambling cage workers	580	1.49	18.43	38,330
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	4,710	1.03	30.25	62,930
Procurement clerks	1,610	0.93	23.61	49,100
Tellers	9,970	1.01	20.83	43,320
Financial clerks, all other	1,780	1.66	28.83	59,970
Brokerage clerks	1,400	1.20	30.29	63,000
Court, municipal, and license clerks	3,790	0.77	25.03	52,050
Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks	120	0.34	30.68	63,810
Customer service representatives	81,630	1.03	23.30	48,450
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	1,360	0.30	28.45	59,180
File clerks	2,580	1.12	24.54	51,050
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	4,420	0.58	17.94	37,320
Interviewers, except eligibility and loan	2,260	0.49	22.47	46,730
Library assistants, clerical	2,950	1.27	17.41	36,210
Loan interviewers and clerks	4,410	0.88	26.71	55,550
New accounts clerks	1,480	1.34	23.00	47,850
Order clerks	3,460	1.43	22.10	45,960
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	2,270	0.85	25.08	52,170
Receptionists and information clerks	29,720	1.06	19.10	39,720
Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks	6,280	1.70	23.16	48,170
Information and record clerks, all other	1,080	0.26	26.35	54,810
Cargo and freight agents	6,300	2.22	26.25	54,590
Couriers and messengers	930	0.44	20.16	41,920
Public safety telecommunicators	2,130	0.73	32.78	68,180
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	10,800	1.76	30.50	63,430
Meter readers, utilities	420	0.74	40.88	85,020
Postal service clerks	1,530	0.68	30.50	63,440
Postal service mail carriers	10,650	1.09	29.11	60,540
Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators	5,450	1.68	27.87	57,970
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	7,130	0.64	31.93	66,410
Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks	24,870	1.00	22.96	47,750
Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping	910	0.63	24.21	50,370
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	9,510	0.69	38.97	81,060
Legal secretaries and administrative assistants	7,020	1.57	30.56	63,570
Medical secretaries and administrative assistants	17,950	0.74	22.35	46,480
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	52,700	1.05	25.84	53,750
Data entry keyers	4,870	1.24	20.60	42,840
Word processors and typists	350	0.34	29.33	61,010
Desktop publishers	110	0.90	(5)	(5)
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks	5,660	0.85	25.90	53,870
Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service	2,600	1.43	18.88	39,280
Office clerks, general	74,130	1.02	23.22	48,290
Office machine operators, except computer	690	0.96	22.64	47,080
Proofreaders and copy markers	190	1.27	24.16	50,260
Statistical assistants	30	0.20	30.76	63,980
Office and administrative support workers, all other	3,170	0.56	(5)	(5)
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN Metropolitan Statistical Area, see https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0016980. (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.