Workers in the Flint, MI Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $27.46 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 ($53.70), healthcare practitioners and technical ($48.62), and architecture and engineering ($44.71). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($16.05) and personal care and service ($16.64). (See table A.)

Office and administrative support occupations accounted for 11.4 percent of Flint area employment, followed by food preparation and serving related occupations (10.3 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included life, physical, and social science (0.3 percent) and legal (0.5 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. Flint had 15,310 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 11.4 percent of local area employment, compared to the 11.8-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $21.90, compared to the national wage of $24.12.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included general office clerks (2,910); customer service representatives (1,820); and secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (1,420). Among the higher paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers ($30.79) and government programs eligibility interviewers ($30.70). At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($15.22), couriers and messengers ($16.34), and receptionists and information clerks ($16.94). (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/0022420.)

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 Flint area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, billing and posting clerks were employed at 2.41 times the national rate in Flint, and postal service mail carriers, at 1.67 times the U.S. average. Receptionists and information clerks had a location quotient of 1.04 in Flint, 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 Michigan Department of Technology, Management & Budget.

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 Flint, MI Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,467 establishments with a response rate of 62 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 Flint, MI Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Genesee County.

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, Flint metropolitan area, May 2024

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages ($)
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	15,310	0.97	21.90	45,540
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	950	0.73	30.79	64,040
Bill and account collectors	90	0.64	20.11	41,830
Billing and posting clerks	870	2.41	22.07	45,900
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	1,040	0.82	22.37	46,530
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	120	0.91	24.31	50,560
Tellers	470	1.61	18.96	39,440
Court, municipal, and license clerks	220	1.51	25.95	53,980
Customer service representatives	1,820	0.77	19.88	41,360
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	170	1.26	30.70	63,860
File clerks	50	0.74	20.21	42,030
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	100	0.46	15.22	31,660
Interviewers, except eligibility and loan	80	0.60	20.93	43,530
Library assistants, clerical	70	0.94	17.14	35,650
Loan interviewers and clerks	240	1.60	23.24	48,340
New accounts clerks	90	2.86	23.67	49,230
Order clerks	90	1.21	20.65	42,950
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	80	0.95	21.78	45,290
Receptionists and information clerks	870	1.04	16.94	35,230
Information and record clerks, all other	50	0.37	21.41	44,540
Couriers and messengers	110	1.75	16.34	33,990
Public safety telecommunicators	110	1.21	23.39	48,650
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	150	0.80	22.44	46,680
Postal service clerks	80	1.12	30.63	63,720
Postal service mail carriers	490	1.67	28.66	59,620
Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators	40	0.39	26.32	54,740
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	150	0.45	25.61	53,260
Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks	620	0.83	20.14	41,890
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	220	0.53	30.65	63,760
Legal secretaries and administrative assistants	70	0.53	24.95	51,890
Medical secretaries and administrative assistants	990	1.38	20.17	41,960
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	1,420	0.94	20.94	43,560
Data entry keyers	70	0.59	18.29	38,050
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks	160	0.79	23.40	48,670
Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service	40	0.76	18.58	38,640
Office clerks, general	2,910	1.33	20.63	42,920
Office and administrative support workers, all other	30	0.20	21.50	44,710
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Flint, MI Metropolitan Statistical Area, see https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0022420. (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.