Workers in the Evansville, IN-KY Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $25.22 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 ($53.26), legal ($46.71), and healthcare practitioners and technical ($41.54). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($13.61), personal care and service ($15.98), and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($16.05). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Evansville area included office and administrative support (11.7 percent), transportation and material moving (11.1 percent), and production (9.7 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.5 percent); life, physical, and social science (0.6 percent); and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (1.2 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. Evansville had 17,860 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 11.7 percent of local area employment, compared to the 12.2-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $20.44, 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 (3,470), customer service representatives (2,320), and bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks (1,430). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were production, planning, and expediting clerks and first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers, with mean hourly wages of $32.15 and $30.73, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were library assistants, clerical ($13.36) and hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($13.47). (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_21780.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 Evansville area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, interviewers, except eligibility and loan were employed at 2.3 times the national rate in Evansville, and tellers, at 1.6 times the U.S. average. Receptionists and information clerks had a location quotient of 1.0 in Evansville, 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 Indiana Department of Workforce Development and the Kentucky Center for Statistics.

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 Evansville, IN-KY Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,986 establishments with a response rate of 73 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 Evansville, IN-KY Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Posey County, IN; Vanderburgh County, IN; Warrick County, IN; and Henderson County, KY.

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, Evansville metropolitan area, May 2023

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages ($)
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	17,860	1.0	20.44	42,520
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	1,110	0.7	30.73	63,910
Switchboard operators, including answering service	60	1.4	14.18	29,480
Bill and account collectors	200	1.1	18.85	39,210
Billing and posting clerks	460	1.1	19.90	41,390
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	1,430	1.0	21.30	44,310
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	170	1.1	24.62	51,210
Procurement clerks	60	0.9	21.72	45,180
Tellers	560	1.6	17.00	35,370
Brokerage clerks	60	1.2	22.72	47,250
Court, municipal, and license clerks	70	0.4	18.44	38,360
Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks	80	5.4	21.62	44,960
Customer service representatives	2,320	0.8	19.41	40,370
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	80	0.5	21.02	43,720
File clerks	80	1.0	18.19	37,820
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	230	0.9	13.47	28,010
Interviewers, except eligibility and loan	370	2.3	16.82	34,980
Library assistants, clerical	130	1.6	13.36	27,790
Loan interviewers and clerks	280	1.4	20.25	42,120
New accounts clerks	40	1.1	18.90	39,300
Order clerks	80	0.9	17.99	37,410
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	80	0.8	21.02	43,720
Receptionists and information clerks	1,010	1.0	15.39	32,020
Information and record clerks, all other	50	0.3	22.47	46,730
Couriers and messengers	40	0.6	16.25	33,800
Public safety telecommunicators	70	0.7	21.76	45,250
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	160	0.8	23.49	48,860
Postal service clerks	60	0.8	28.81	59,930
Postal service mail carriers	340	1.0	28.76	59,820
Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators	170	1.5	26.14	54,360
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	390	1.0	32.15	66,870
Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks	1,180	1.4	18.93	39,370
Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping	30	0.6	20.46	42,550
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	190	0.4	27.31	56,800
Legal secretaries and administrative assistants	80	0.5	20.27	42,160
Medical secretaries and administrative assistants	800	1.1	18.22	37,900
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	1,190	0.7	18.67	38,830
Data entry keyers	150	1.0	17.32	36,030
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks	280	1.1	18.51	38,490
Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service	40	0.7	16.11	33,510
Office clerks, general	3,470	1.4	19.60	40,760
Office machine operators, except computer	40	1.3	17.57	36,550
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Evansville, IN-KY Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_21780.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.