Workers in the Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $29.21 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 management ($58.97), legal ($47.95), and architecture and engineering ($47.06). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($15.39), personal care and service ($17.21), and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($18.19). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Davenport area included office and administrative support (10.6 percent), transportation and material moving (9.7 percent), and production (9.5 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.4 percent); life, physical, and social science (0.6 percent); and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (1.1 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. Davenport had 19,120 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 10.6 percent of local area employment, compared to the 11.8-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $22.17, 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 (3,090), office clerks, general (2,700), and secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (1,840). 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 $30.67 and $30.21, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($15.71) and gambling cage workers ($16.12). (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/0019340.)

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 Davenport area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, tellers were employed at 1.80 times the national rate in Davenport, and library assistants, clerical, at 1.68 times the U.S. average. Medical secretaries and administrative assistants had a location quotient of 1.00 in Davenport, 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, Iowa Workforce Development, and 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 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 Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL Metropolitan Statistical Area included 2,397 establishments with a response rate of 69 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 Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Henry County, IL; Mercer County, IL; Rock Island County, IL; and Scott County, IA.

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, Davenport metropolitan area, May 2024

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages ($)
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	19,120	0.9	22.17	46,110
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	1,110	0.64	30.67	63,790
Switchboard operators, including answering service	30	0.73	16.98	35,310
Bill and account collectors	90	0.47	20.42	42,470
Billing and posting clerks	540	1.11	22.50	46,800
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	1,580	0.93	23.07	47,990
Gambling cage workers	30	2.08	16.12	33,540
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	180	0.98	26.21	54,510
Procurement clerks	120	1.79	25.80	53,660
Tellers	710	1.80	18.41	38,280
Brokerage clerks	30	0.67	27.16	56,500
Court, municipal, and license clerks	200	0.99	24.14	50,210
Customer service representatives	3,090	0.97	20.62	42,890
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	90	0.52	29.67	61,710
File clerks	60	0.63	22.07	45,900
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	290	0.95	15.71	32,680
Interviewers, except eligibility and loan	180	0.99	18.86	39,240
Library assistants, clerical	160	1.68	17.21	35,790
Loan interviewers and clerks	270	1.35	23.34	48,540
New accounts clerks	100	2.26	20.99	43,660
Order clerks	120	1.22	20.09	41,790
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	150	1.39	22.81	47,440
Receptionists and information clerks	860	0.76	16.87	35,100
Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks	50	0.33	17.57	36,540
Information and record clerks, all other	50	0.30	25.45	52,940
Cargo and freight agents	30	0.29	25.97	54,010
Couriers and messengers	80	0.98	16.34	33,980
Public safety telecommunicators	70	0.58	25.38	52,790
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	180	0.75	25.00	52,000
Postal service clerks	100	1.13	28.17	58,600
Postal service mail carriers	450	1.15	28.67	59,620
Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators	110	0.84	29.19	60,710
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	490	1.09	30.13	62,660
Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks	870	0.87	22.16	46,080
Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping	40	0.76	22.97	47,780
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	350	0.63	30.21	62,840
Legal secretaries and administrative assistants	120	0.65	20.43	42,500
Medical secretaries and administrative assistants	970	1.00	19.41	40,370
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	1,840	0.91	21.95	45,660
Data entry keyers	130	0.85	19.53	40,630
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks	130	0.49	23.50	48,880
Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service	70	0.97	17.94	37,310
Office clerks, general	2,700	0.92	20.19	41,990
Office and administrative support workers, all other	150	0.66	19.52	40,590
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL Metropolitan Statistical Area, see https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0019340. (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.