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News Release Information

24-938-CHI
Tuesday, July 23, 2024

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

Occupational Employment and Wages in Rochester, MN — May 2023

Workers in the Rochester, MN Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $34.91 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 ($62.91), healthcare practitioners and technical ($59.71), and computer and mathematical ($52.28). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($15.65), personal care and service ($18.71), and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($19.28). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Rochester area included healthcare practitioners and technical (19.9 percent), office and administrative support (11.7 percent), and food preparation and serving related (7.9 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.3 percent); arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (0.7 percent); and architecture and engineering (1.1 percent). (See table A.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Rochester metropolitan area, May 2023
Major occupational group Percent of total employment Mean hourly wage ($)
United States Rochester United States Rochester

Total, all occupations

100.0 100.0 31.48 34.91

Management

6.9 5.7 66.23 62.91

Business and financial operations

6.6 4.0 43.55 41.44

Computer and mathematical

3.4 2.8 54.39 52.28

Architecture and engineering

1.7 1.1 47.64 41.59

Life, physical, and social science

0.9 1.2 42.24 41.67

Community and social service

1.6 2.1 28.36 31.57

Legal

0.8 0.3 64.34 50.69

Educational instruction and library

5.8 4.8 31.92 27.20

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.4 0.7 36.31 30.06

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.1 19.9 49.07 59.71

Healthcare support

4.7 7.3 18.37 20.14

Protective service

2.3 1.5 27.74 29.80

Food preparation and serving related

8.7 7.9 16.58 15.65

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.9 2.5 18.43 19.28

Personal care and service

2.0 2.0 18.48 18.71

Sales and related

8.8 6.8 25.62 21.76

Office and administrative support

12.2 11.7 23.05 24.48

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.3 0.1 19.22 20.85

Construction and extraction

4.1 3.5 29.57 33.98

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.9 3.0 28.13 28.70

Production

5.8 4.9 22.90 24.44

Transportation and material moving

9.1 6.0 22.45 21.99

One occupational group—office and administrative support—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Rochester had 13,960 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 $24.48, 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 (1,930), medical secretaries and administrative assistants (1,720), and customer service representatives (1,710). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers and executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants, with mean hourly wages of $34.50 and $32.40, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($16.26) and tellers ($19.42). (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_40340.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 Rochester area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, medical secretaries and administrative assistants were employed at 2.9 times the national rate in Rochester, and receptionists and information clerks, at 2.0 times the U.S. average. Office clerks, general had a location quotient of 1.0 in Rochester, 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 Minnesota Department of Employment & Economic 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 Rochester, MN Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,174 establishments with a response rate of 67.0 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 Rochester, MN Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Dodge County, Fillmore County, Olmsted County, and Wabasha 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, Rochester metropolitan area, May 2023
Occupation (1) Employment Mean wages ($)
Level (2) Location quotient (3) Hourly Annual (4)

Office and administrative support occupations

13,960 1.0 24.48 50,920

First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers

1,020 0.9 34.50 71,760

Bill and account collectors

70 0.5 24.95 51,900

Billing and posting clerks

530 1.6 27.04 56,230

Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks

880 0.8 25.94 53,950

Payroll and timekeeping clerks

70 0.6 26.87 55,880

Procurement clerks

40 0.7 24.15 50,230

Tellers

220 0.8 19.42 40,400

Court, municipal, and license clerks

220 1.8 26.99 56,130

Customer service representatives

1,710 0.8 22.77 47,370

Eligibility interviewers, government programs

100 0.8 30.50 63,430

Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks

310 1.5 16.26 33,830

Interviewers, except eligibility and loan

240 1.9 24.72 51,420

Loan interviewers and clerks

90 0.5 24.53 51,010

New accounts clerks

60 1.8 22.63 47,080

Order clerks

30 0.5 25.34 52,700

Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping

(5) (5) 27.87 57,970

Receptionists and information clerks

1,570 2.0 20.21 42,030

Information and record clerks, all other

30 0.3 23.17 48,190

Public safety telecommunicators

110 1.5 31.28 65,050

Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance

110 0.7 24.42 50,790

Postal service clerks

60 1.0 28.37 59,020

Postal service mail carriers

220 0.9 30.14 62,680

Production, planning, and expediting clerks

190 0.6 29.12 60,580

Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks

340 0.5 21.57 44,860

Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants

210 0.6 32.40 67,390

Legal secretaries and administrative assistants

50 0.4 25.68 53,420

Medical secretaries and administrative assistants

1,720 2.9 23.89 49,700

Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive

1,030 0.7 23.64 49,160

Data entry keyers

40 0.4 21.41 44,530

Insurance claims and policy processing clerks

90 0.5 25.66 53,370

Office clerks, general

1,930 1.0 22.96 47,750

Office and administrative support workers, all other

90 0.6 21.12 43,930

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Rochester, MN Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_40340.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, July 23, 2024