Workers in the St. Cloud, MN Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $28.56 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 ($54.66), healthcare practitioners and technical ($54.08), and legal ($47.98). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($15.13), personal care and service ($18.06), and healthcare support ($18.39). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the St. Cloud area included office and administrative support (12.5 percent), production (10.3 percent), and transportation and material moving (9.3 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.4 percent); life, physical, and social science (0.6 percent); and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (0.9 percent). (See table A.)

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. St. Cloud had 10,520 jobs in production, accounting for 10.3 percent of local area employment, compared to the 5.8-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $22.03, compared to the national wage of $22.90.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators (1,660); welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers (710); and first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (580). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers and computer numerically controlled tool programmers, with mean hourly wages of $32.74 and $32.42, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($16.29) and ophthalmic laboratory technicians ($17.66). (Detailed data for the production occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_41060.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 St. Cloud area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, cabinetmakers and bench carpenters were employed at 6.4 times the national rate in St. Cloud, and food batchmakers, at 2.7 times the U.S. average. Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers had a location quotient of 1.0 in St. Cloud, 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 St. Cloud, MN Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,322 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 St. Cloud, MN Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Benton County and Stearns 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 production occupations, St. Cloud metropolitan area, May 2023

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages ($)
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Production occupations	10,520	1.8	22.03	45,820
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers	580	1.3	32.74	68,100
Structural metal fabricators and fitters	140	3.6	25.90	53,870
Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators	1,660	1.7	21.38	44,460
Bakers	220	1.5	17.89	37,220
Butchers and meat cutters	110	1.2	21.20	44,100
Food and tobacco roasting, baking, and drying machine operators and tenders	50	3.8	24.03	49,990
Food batchmakers	300	2.7	18.83	39,170
Food processing workers, all other	50	1.1	19.70	40,980
Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	70	1.5	23.97	49,860
Machinists	460	2.4	27.73	57,680
Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	90	0.9	22.15	46,080
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers	710	2.5	27.49	57,180
Prepress technicians and workers	60	3.6	19.75	41,080
Printing press operators	210	2.1	23.03	47,890
Print binding and finishing workers	80	3.2	22.17	46,110
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers	180	1.5	16.29	33,880
Sewing machine operators	160	2.0	18.31	38,080
Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters	380	6.4	21.15	44,000
Sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood	50	1.7	23.75	49,400
Stationary engineers and boiler operators	70	2.9	31.72	65,990
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators	70	0.8	31.36	65,220
Crushing, grinding, and polishing machine setters, operators, and tenders	100	5.9	25.11	52,220
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders	130	1.8	22.83	47,480
Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders	40	1.3	23.51	48,910
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	370	1.0	23.55	48,970
Ophthalmic laboratory technicians	590	48.1	17.66	36,730
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders	290	1.2	18.35	38,170
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders	130	1.2	23.31	48,470
Computer numerically controlled tool operators	180	1.5	25.97	54,010
Computer numerically controlled tool programmers	30	1.9	32.42	67,430
Helpers--production workers	140	1.1	17.91	37,260
Production workers, all other	110	0.7	22.63	47,070
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the St. Cloud, MN Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_41060.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.