Workers in the Omaha-Council Bluffs, NE-IA Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $29.34 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 ($57.93), legal ($53.62), and healthcare practitioners and technical ($46.91). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($16.03), personal care and service ($16.63), and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($17.59). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Omaha area included office and administrative support (12.1 percent), food preparation and serving related (9.3 percent), and sales and related (9.0 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.7 percent); life, physical, and social science (0.7 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. Omaha had 58,590 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 12.1 percent of local area employment, compared to the 12.2-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $21.81, 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 (9,840), secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (6,480), and first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers (5,050). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were meter readers, utilities and executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants, with mean hourly wages of $36.35 and $31.62, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were library assistants, clerical ($13.97) and hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($14.50). (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_36540.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 Omaha 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 2.2 times the national rate in Omaha, and reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks, at 1.7 times the U.S. average. Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks had a location quotient of 1.0 in Omaha, 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 Nebraska Department of Labor and Iowa Workforce Development.

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 Omaha-Council Bluffs, NE-IA Metropolitan Statistical Area included 4,030 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 Omaha-Council Bluffs, NE-IA Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Harrison County, IA; Mills County, IA; Pottawattamie County, IA; Cass County, NE; Douglas County, NE; Sarpy County, NE; Saunders County, NE; and Washington County, NE.

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, Omaha metropolitan area, May 2023

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages ($)
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	58,590	1.0	21.81	45,370
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	5,050	1.1	29.95	62,290
Switchboard operators, including answering service	110	0.8	18.67	38,830
Bill and account collectors	450	0.7	20.36	42,340
Billing and posting clerks	2,110	1.5	22.05	45,860
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	4,800	1.0	23.71	49,310
Gambling cage workers	40	1.0	17.00	35,350
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	530	1.1	25.74	53,540
Procurement clerks	400	2.0	22.79	47,410
Tellers	1,360	1.3	18.28	38,030
Financial clerks, all other	50	0.4	27.19	56,550
Brokerage clerks	200	1.3	24.72	51,420
Court, municipal, and license clerks	220	0.4	26.12	54,330
Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks	100	2.2	24.69	51,360
Customer service representatives	9,840	1.1	20.02	41,630
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	140	0.3	25.52	53,080
File clerks	340	1.3	19.09	39,700
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	820	1.0	14.50	30,170
Interviewers, except eligibility and loan	1,100	2.2	17.65	36,710
Library assistants, clerical	140	0.5	13.97	29,050
Loan interviewers and clerks	440	0.7	22.46	46,710
New accounts clerks	390	3.0	22.44	46,670
Order clerks	330	1.1	19.29	40,130
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	290	0.9	22.47	46,740
Receptionists and information clerks	2,830	0.9	17.21	35,800
Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks	650	1.7	17.52	36,450
Information and record clerks, all other	370	0.8	22.06	45,880
Cargo and freight agents	410	1.2	27.30	56,790
Couriers and messengers	170	0.8	16.67	34,660
Public safety telecommunicators	170	0.5	25.98	54,040
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	660	1.0	24.73	51,450
Meter readers, utilities	70	1.1	36.35	75,600
Postal service clerks	210	0.9	27.96	58,160
Postal service mail carriers	960	0.9	29.25	60,830
Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators	590	1.6	27.26	56,690
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	890	0.7	24.31	50,570
Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks	2,570	1.0	19.91	41,420
Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping	120	0.7	22.40	46,590
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	1,200	0.8	31.62	65,780
Legal secretaries and administrative assistants	770	1.6	23.50	48,880
Medical secretaries and administrative assistants	2,380	1.0	20.41	42,450
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	6,480	1.1	20.97	43,610
Data entry keyers	370	0.8	19.03	39,570
Word processors and typists	80	0.7	21.56	44,840
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks	1,190	1.5	23.40	48,660
Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service	380	1.8	18.22	37,900
Office clerks, general	4,430	0.6	18.62	38,720
Office machine operators, except computer	60	0.7	17.24	35,860
Statistical assistants	110	4.8	24.22	50,380
Office and administrative support workers, all other	1,180	2.2	15.54	32,320
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Omaha-Council Bluffs, NE-IA Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_36540.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.