Workers in the Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $28.07 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 ($55.76), legal ($49.13), and computer and mathematical ($45.94). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($14.93), personal care and service ($16.72), and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($17.51). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Davenport area included office and administrative support (11.0 percent), production (9.8 percent), and transportation and material moving (9.6 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). (See table A.)

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 19,730 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 11.0 percent of local area employment, compared to the 12.2-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $21.42, compared to the national wage of $23.05.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included customer service representatives (3,160), office clerks, general (2,950), and secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (1,690). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were eligibility interviewers, government programs and production, planning, and expediting clerks, with mean hourly wages of $29.80 and $29.24, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($14.72) and library assistants, clerical ($15.59). (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_19340.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 Davenport area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, new accounts clerks were employed at 3.1 times the national rate in Davenport, and tellers, at 2.0 times the U.S. average. Office clerks, general had a location quotient of 1.0 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 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 Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL Metropolitan Statistical Area included 2,410 establishments with a response rate of 68 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 2023

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages ($)
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	19,730	0.9	21.42	44,550
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	1,190	0.7	29.00	60,320
Switchboard operators, including answering service	50	0.9	16.31	33,930
Bill and account collectors	80	0.4	19.63	40,830
Billing and posting clerks	550	1.1	21.39	44,490
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	1,610	0.9	22.69	47,180
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	160	0.9	25.44	52,920
Procurement clerks	130	1.8	23.14	48,140
Tellers	780	2.0	17.18	35,730
Court, municipal, and license clerks	190	1.0	21.76	45,250
Customer service representatives	3,160	0.9	20.32	42,260
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	90	0.5	29.80	61,990
File clerks	80	0.8	19.28	40,100
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	290	0.9	14.72	30,620
Interviewers, except eligibility and loan	140	0.7	18.95	39,420
Library assistants, clerical	130	1.3	15.59	32,430
Loan interviewers and clerks	260	1.1	21.51	44,730
New accounts clerks	150	3.1	19.65	40,880
Order clerks	110	1.0	19.48	40,520
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	160	1.3	22.09	45,950
Receptionists and information clerks	900	0.8	16.20	33,690
Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks	30	0.2	16.99	35,340
Information and record clerks, all other	60	0.3	23.93	49,760
Cargo and freight agents	70	0.5	23.40	48,670
Couriers and messengers	90	1.0	16.04	33,360
Public safety telecommunicators	110	1.0	23.41	48,700
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	210	0.9	25.32	52,660
Meter readers, utilities	50	2.2	27.47	57,130
Postal service clerks	100	1.1	27.05	56,260
Postal service mail carriers	460	1.2	28.06	58,370
Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators	110	0.8	28.13	58,500
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	570	1.2	29.24	60,810
Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks	940	1.0	21.24	44,180
Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping	60	1.0	21.27	44,250
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	430	0.8	28.93	60,170
Legal secretaries and administrative assistants	90	0.5	21.93	45,610
Medical secretaries and administrative assistants	920	1.0	18.60	38,680
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	1,690	0.8	20.63	42,910
Data entry keyers	120	0.7	19.29	40,120
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks	120	0.4	22.86	47,560
Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service	70	0.9	15.65	32,540
Office clerks, general	2,950	1.0	19.53	40,620
Office and administrative support workers, all other	130	0.6	19.23	39,990
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_19340.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.