Department of Labor Logo United States Department of Labor
Dot gov

The .gov means it's official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you're on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

News Release Information

23-1141-CHI
Tuesday, June 20, 2023

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

Occupational Employment and Wages in Detroit-Warren-Dearborn — May 2022

Workers in the Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $29.81 in May 2022, compared to the nationwide average of $29.76, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Jason Palmer noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were lower than their respective national averages in 12 of the 22 major occupational groups, including legal; arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media; and computer and mathematical. Six groups had significantly higher wages than their respective national averages, including production, transportation and material moving, and construction and extraction.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Detroit area employment was more highly concentrated in 4 of the 22 occupational groups, including production, architecture and engineering, and healthcare practitioners and technical. Fifteen groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including educational instruction and library, food preparation and serving related, and protective service. (See table A.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Detroit metropolitan area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2022
Major occupational group Percent of total employment Mean hourly wage
United States Detroit United States Detroit Percent difference (1)

Total, all occupations

100.0 100.0 $29.76 $29.81 0

Management

6.7 6.6 63.08 61.60* -2

Business and financial operations

6.5 6.7 41.39 41.99 1

Computer and mathematical

3.4 3.4 51.99 46.47* -11

Architecture and engineering

1.7 4.1* 45.52 43.99* -3

Life, physical, and social science

0.9 0.5* 40.21 38.51* -4

Community and social service

1.6 1.3* 26.81 24.93* -7

Legal

0.8 0.9* 59.87 49.04* -18

Educational instruction and library

5.7 3.8* 30.41 28.60* -6

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.4 1.3* 36.78 30.74* -16

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.1 6.5* 46.52 44.04* -5

Healthcare support

4.6 4.3* 17.10 16.47* -4

Protective service

2.3 1.8* 25.97 25.04* -4

Food preparation and serving related

8.5 7.6* 15.45 15.75* 2

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.9 2.5* 17.26 16.81* -3

Personal care and service

1.9 1.7* 17.41 17.26 -1

Sales and related

8.9 8.5* 24.22 25.01* 3

Office and administrative support

12.6 12.1* 21.90 21.95 0

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.3 0.1* 18.21 19.32* 6

Construction and extraction

4.1 3.6* 28.08 28.91* 3

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.9 3.8* 26.77 26.83 0

Production

5.9 9.9* 21.81 23.10* 6

Transportation and material moving

9.2 8.9* 21.12 22.29* 6

Footnotes:
(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in the Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI Metropolitan Statistical Area is above the national mean wage, while a negative difference reflects a lower wage.
* The mean hourly wage or percent share of employment is significantly different from the national average of all areas at the 90-percent confidence level.

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Detroit had 185,220 jobs in production, accounting for 9.9 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 5.9-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $23.10, significantly above the national wage of $21.81.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators (58,830); cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic (13,370); and inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers (12,140). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were power distributors and dispatchers and power plant operators, with mean hourly wages of $48.06 and $45.75, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($14.58) and pressers, textile, garment, and related materials ($14.72). (Detailed data for the production occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_19820.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 Detroit area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the production group. For instance, model makers, metal and plastic were employed at 15.4 times the national rate in Detroit, and engine and other machine assemblers, at 10.6 times the U.S. average. Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers had a location quotient of 1.0 in Detroit, indicating that this particular occupation’s local and national employment shares were similar.

These statistics are from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, a federal-state cooperative program between BLS and State Workforce Agencies, in this case, the Michigan Department of Technology, Management & Budget.

Changes to the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) Data

The May 2022 OEWS estimates use the model-based (MB3) estimation method implemented with the May 2021 estimates release. Additional updates were made to the MB3 wage processing methodology for May 2022. For more information, see the May 2022 Survey Methods and Reliability Statement.

The May 2022 estimates are the first OEWS estimates to be produced using the 2022 NAICS, which replaces the 2017 NAICS used for the May 2017-May 2021 estimates. See North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) at BLS for details.


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. OEWS data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm.

The OEWS survey is a cooperative effort between BLS and the State Workforce Agencies (SWAs). BLS funds the survey and provides the procedures and technical support, while the State Workforce Agencies collect most of the data. OEWS estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.1 million establishments. Each year, two semiannual panels of approximately 179,000 to 187,000 sampled establishments are contacted, one panel in May and the other in November. Responses are obtained by Internet or other electronic means, mail, email, telephone, or personal visit. The May 2022 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2022, November 2021, May 2021, November 2020, May 2020, and November 2019. The unweighted sampled employment of 80 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 57 percent of total national employment. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 65.4 percent based on establishments and 62.5 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI Metropolitan Statistical Area included 6,934 establishments with a response rate of 69 percent. For more information about OEWS concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_tec.htm.

A value that is statistically different from another does not necessarily mean that the difference has economic or practical significance. Statistical significance is concerned with the ability to make confident statements about a universe based on a sample. It is entirely possible that a large difference between two values is not significantly different statistically, while a small difference is, since both the size and heterogeneity of the sample affect the relative error of the data being tested.

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 Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Lapeer County, Livingston County, Macomb County, Oakland County, St. Clair County, and Wayne County.

For more information

Answers to frequently asked questions about the OEWS data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_ques.htm. Detailed information about the OEWS program is available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_doc.htm.

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 production occupations, Detroit metropolitan area, May 2022
Occupation (1) Employment Mean wages
Level (2) Location quotient (3) Hourly Annual (4)

Production occupations

185,220 1.7 $23.10 $48,050

First-line supervisors of production and operating workers

11,480 1.4 34.53 71,820

Coil winders, tapers, and finishers

50 0.3 26.82 55,790

Electrical, electronic, and electromechanical assemblers, except coil winders, tapers, and finishers

2,920 0.8 20.14 41,890

Engine and other machine assemblers

6,680 10.6 27.59 57,380

Structural metal fabricators and fitters

860 1.2 25.67 53,400

Fiberglass laminators and fabricators

110 0.4 20.81 43,290

Timing device assemblers and adjusters

70 15.5 20.18 41,980

Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators

58,830 3.2 21.97 45,710

Bakers

2,860 1.1 16.03 33,340

Butchers and meat cutters

1,560 1.0 17.93 37,290

Meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers

100 0.1 17.16 35,690

Slaughterers and meat packers

90 0.1 20.41 42,440

Food and tobacco roasting, baking, and drying machine operators and tenders

110 0.4 18.94 39,400

Food batchmakers

770 0.4 18.42 38,310

Food cooking machine operators and tenders

80 0.2 17.67 36,750

Food processing workers, all other

240 0.4 17.57 36,550

Extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

450 0.6 21.84 45,440

Forging machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

900 6.7 23.36 48,590

Rolling machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

710 2.0 23.18 48,220

Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

13,370 5.8 24.71 51,390

Drilling and boring machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

170 2.1 25.48 52,990

Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

1,680 1.8 21.49 44,690

Lathe and turning machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

990 4.1 22.28 46,330

Milling and planing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

610 3.2 21.80 45,330

Machinists

9,930 2.5 23.92 49,760

Metal-refining furnace operators and tenders

290 1.2 20.97 43,620

Model makers, metal and plastic

650 15.4 33.67 70,040

Patternmakers, metal and plastic

260 9.1 30.42 63,270

Foundry mold and coremakers

240 1.7 23.65 49,200

Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

4,840 2.3 18.88 39,280

Multiple machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

2,400 1.4 22.93 47,700

Tool and die makers

4,890 6.3 31.49 65,510

Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers

5,200 1.0 22.97 47,770

Welding, soldering, and brazing machine setters, operators, and tenders

670 1.7 22.32 46,420

Heat treating equipment setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

500 2.5 21.49 44,710

Layout workers, metal and plastic

90 1.1 28.28 58,810

Plating machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

1,120 2.8 18.42 38,310

Tool grinders, filers, and sharpeners

130 1.9 21.75 45,240

Metal workers and plastic workers, all other

330 1.3 21.46 44,630

Prepress technicians and workers

170 0.5 21.91 45,570

Printing press operators

1,900 1.0 19.94 41,480

Print binding and finishing workers

370 0.8 18.59 38,660

Laundry and dry-cleaning workers

2,440 1.1 14.58 30,320

Pressers, textile, garment, and related materials

250 0.7 14.72 30,610

Sewing machine operators

940 0.6 17.37 36,140

Shoe and leather workers and repairers

110 0.9 16.39 34,100

Tailors, dressmakers, and custom sewers

330 1.5 16.18 33,650

Textile knitting and weaving machine setters, operators, and tenders

130 0.6 17.01 35,370

Fabric and apparel patternmakers

(5) (5) 22.41 46,610

Upholsterers

650 1.9 20.09 41,790

Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters

490 0.4 21.54 44,810

Model makers, wood

50 5.4 37.05 77,070

Sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood

170 0.3 18.24 37,940

Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing

390 0.5 18.21 37,880

Power distributors and dispatchers

90 0.8 48.06 99,970

Power plant operators

640 1.6 45.75 95,160

Stationary engineers and boiler operators

280 0.7 34.94 72,680

Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators

1,190 0.8 26.71 55,550

Chemical plant and system operators

90 0.4 37.24 77,460

Gas plant operators

130 0.7 44.40 92,360

Petroleum pump system operators, refinery operators, and gaugers

70 0.2 40.91 85,100

Plant and system operators, all other

90 0.4 (5) (5)

Chemical equipment operators and tenders

1,500 1.0 23.82 49,540

Separating, filtering, clarifying, precipitating, and still machine setters, operators, and tenders

280 0.4 22.02 45,800

Crushing, grinding, and polishing machine setters, operators, and tenders

140 0.4 20.68 43,010

Grinding and polishing workers, hand

120 0.7 18.71 38,910

Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders

1,110 0.8 21.30 44,310

Cutters and trimmers, hand

90 0.9 19.16 39,850

Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders

470 0.7 19.19 39,920

Extruding, forming, pressing, and compacting machine setters, operators, and tenders

790 1.1 18.70 38,900

Furnace, kiln, oven, drier, and kettle operators and tenders

230 1.2 27.34 56,870

Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers

12,140 1.7 21.06 43,810

Jewelers and precious stone and metal workers

(5) (5) 22.87 47,580

Dental laboratory technicians

470 1.1 23.32 48,510

Medical appliance technicians

420 2.1 22.76 47,330

Ophthalmic laboratory technicians

120 0.5 18.73 38,970

Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders

2,900 0.6 18.16 37,760

Painting, coating, and decorating workers

90 0.6 18.90 39,310

Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders

2,260 1.2 20.05 41,700

Photographic process workers and processing machine operators

70 1.0 15.74 32,750

Computer numerically controlled tool operators

3,840 1.7 22.89 47,600

Computer numerically controlled tool programmers

1,060 3.0 29.22 60,780

Adhesive bonding machine operators and tenders

70 0.5 19.84 41,280

Cleaning, washing, and metal pickling equipment operators and tenders

180 1.1 19.07 39,670

Etchers and engravers

40 0.4 17.64 36,680

Molders, shapers, and casters, except metal and plastic

400 0.8 20.53 42,710

Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders

810 0.7 19.74 41,050

Tire builders

30 0.2 19.91 41,410

Helpers--production workers

2,480 1.0 17.90 37,240

Production workers, all other

3,580 1.1 17.46 36,310

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_19820.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: Tuesday, June 20, 2023