Workers in the South Bend-Mishawaka, IN-MI Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $26.89 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 ($55.23), legal ($52.17), and healthcare practitioners and technical ($47.08). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($14.74), building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($17.11), and personal care and service ($17.25). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the South Bend area included office and administrative support (11.1 percent), food preparation and serving related (9.9 percent), and transportation and material moving (9.4 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 architecture and engineering (1.3 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. South Bend had 14,450 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 11.1 percent of local area employment, compared to the 12.2-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $21.33, 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 (2,680), customer service representatives (1,870), and bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks (1,200). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers and postal service clerks, with mean hourly wages of $32.73 and $29.02, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($14.85) and library assistants, clerical ($15.03). (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_43780.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 South Bend 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 1.6 times the national rate in South Bend, and tellers at 1.4 times the U.S. average. Receptionists and information clerks had a location quotient of 1.0 in South Bend, 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 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 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 South Bend-Mishawaka, IN-MI Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,771 establishments with a response rate of 75 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 South Bend-Mishawaka, IN-MI Metropolitan Statistical Area includes St. Joseph County IN, and Cass County, MI.

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, South Bend metropolitan area, May 2023

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages ($)
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	14,450	0.9	21.33	44,360
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	890	0.7	32.73	68,080
Switchboard operators, including answering service	40	1.0	15.58	32,400
Bill and account collectors	110	0.7	20.26	42,130
Billing and posting clerks	410	1.1	21.43	44,560
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	1,200	0.9	21.52	44,760
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	140	1.1	22.24	46,260
Procurement clerks	30	0.6	21.28	44,270
Tellers	410	1.4	17.77	36,970
Brokerage clerks	60	1.4	23.55	48,980
Court, municipal, and license clerks	100	0.8	21.73	45,200
Customer service representatives	1,870	0.8	19.97	41,540
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	90	0.7	22.57	46,940
File clerks	80	1.1	17.65	36,710
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	310	1.4	14.85	30,880
Interviewers, except eligibility and loan	220	1.6	19.92	41,440
Library assistants, clerical	60	0.9	15.03	31,250
Loan interviewers and clerks	220	1.2	21.40	44,520
Order clerks	50	0.7	19.13	39,790
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	50	0.6	20.52	42,680
Receptionists and information clerks	880	1.0	16.82	34,980
Cargo and freight agents	60	0.7	27.07	56,310
Couriers and messengers	30	0.5	17.20	35,770
Public safety telecommunicators	70	0.9	24.15	50,220
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	110	0.6	22.94	47,710
Postal service clerks	60	0.9	29.02	60,370
Postal service mail carriers	320	1.1	28.95	60,210
Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators	90	0.9	26.97	56,100
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	180	0.5	27.86	57,960
Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks	850	1.2	20.04	41,680
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	250	0.6	26.57	55,260
Legal secretaries and administrative assistants	80	0.6	22.12	46,010
Medical secretaries and administrative assistants	670	1.0	19.32	40,190
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	1,200	0.8	20.46	42,550
Data entry keyers	130	1.0	17.84	37,110
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks	170	0.8	22.23	46,240
Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service	60	1.1	17.41	36,210
Office clerks, general	2,680	1.3	20.57	42,790
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the South Bend-Mishawaka, IN-MI Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_43780.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.