Workers in the St. Louis Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $24.16 in May 2018, about 3 percent below the nationwide average of $24.98, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Assistant Commissioner for Regional Operations Stanley W. Suchman noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were lower than their respective national averages in 11 of the 22 major occupational groups , including legal; life, physical, and social science; and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media. Three groups had significantly higher wages than their respective national averages, including production and construction and extraction.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 6 of the 22 occupational groups, including healthcare practitioners and technical; office and administrative support; and computer and mathematical. Conversely, 10 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including education, training, and library; transportation and material moving; and management. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

One occupational group—office and administrative support—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. St. Louis had 216,500 jobs in office and administrative support occupations, accounting for 15.9 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 15.1-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $18.67, compared to the national wage of $18.75.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (29,400), customer service representatives (25,410), and office clerks, general (24,280). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants and first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers, with mean hourly wages of $29.50 and $29.34, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($11.68) and library assistants, clerical ($12.40). (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_41180.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. Louis Metropolitan Statistical Area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, brokerage clerks were employed at 3.1 times the national rate in St. Louis, and insurance claims and policy processing clerks, at 2.0 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, tellers had a location quotient of 1.0 in St. Louis, indicating that this particular occupation’s local and national employment shares were similar.

These statistics are from the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey, a federal-state cooperative program between BLS and State Workforce Agencies, in this case, the Missouri Department of Economic Development.

Technical Note

The Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey is a semiannual survey measuring occupational employment and wage rates for wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments in the United States. The OES 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. OES data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm.

The OES survey is a cooperative effort between BLS and the State Workforce Agencies (SWAs). BLS funds the survey and provides the procedures and technical support, while the State Workforce Agencies collect most of the data. OES estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.2 million establishments. Each year, two semiannual panels of approximately 180,000 to 200,000 sampled establishments are contacted, one panel in May and the other in November. Responses are obtained by mail, Internet or other electronic means, email, telephone, or personal visit. The May 2018 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2018, November 2017, May 2017, November 2016, May 2016, and November 2015. The unweighted sample employment of 83 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 58 percent of total national employment. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 71 percent based on establishments and 68 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the St. Louis Metropolitan Statistical Area included 7,939 establishments with a response rate of 59 percent. For more information about OES concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_tec.htm.

A value that is statistically different from another does not necessarily mean that the difference has economic or practical significance. Statistical significance is concerned with the ability to make confident statements about a universe based on a sample. It is entirely possible that a large difference between two values is not significantly different statistically, while a small difference is, since both the size and heterogeneity of the sample affect the relative error of the data being tested.

The May 2018 OES estimates are based on the 2010 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system and the 2017 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). Information about the 2010 SOC is available on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/soc and information about the 2017 NAICS is available at www.bls.gov/bls/naics.htm.

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. Louis, MO-IL Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Franklin, Jefferson, Lincoln, St. Charles, St. Louis, St. Louis city, Warren, and Washington Counties of Missouri and Bond, Calhoun, Clinton, Jersey, Macoupin, Madison, Monroe, and St. Clair Counties of Illinois.

Additional information

OES data are available on our regional web page at www.bls.gov/regions/mountain-plains. Answers to frequently asked questions about the OES data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_ques.htm. Detailed technical information about the OES survey is available in our Survey Methods and Reliability Statement on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/oes/current/methods_statement.pdf.

Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request . Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; Federal Relay Service: (800) 877-8339.

Table 1. Employment and wage data from the Occupational Employment Statistics survey, by occupation, St. Louis Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2018

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	216,500	1.1	$18.67	$38,840
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	11,250	0.8	29.34	61,040
Switchboard operators, including answering service	900	1.3	15.01	31,230
Bill and account collectors	4,120	1.7	17.72	36,870
Billing and posting clerks	4,860	1.1	18.11	37,680
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	14,820	1.0	19.33	40,210
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	1,220	0.9	20.52	42,680
Procurement clerks	720	1.1	21.47	44,670
Tellers	4,380	1.0	14.00	29,120
Financial clerks, all other	500	1.7	19.17	39,870
Brokerage clerks	1,580	3.1	22.02	45,800
Correspondence clerks	160	3.1	17.86	37,150
Court, municipal, and license clerks	2,380	1.8	17.80	37,020
Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks	450	1.6	17.82	37,070
Customer service representatives	25,410	0.9	17.70	36,820
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	1,200	0.9	19.87	41,320
File clerks	1,170	1.1	18.32	38,110
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	1,830	0.7	11.68	24,290
Interviewers, except eligibility and loan	3,230	1.8	16.99	35,340
Library assistants, clerical	430	0.5	12.40	25,790
Loan interviewers and clerks	3,890	1.9	19.49	40,540
New accounts clerks	980	2.5	17.25	35,890
Order clerks	1,560	1.0	17.73	36,880
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	1,120	1.0	20.72	43,110
Receptionists and information clerks	7,650	0.8	13.58	28,250
Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks	750	0.6	21.13	43,960
Information and record clerks, all other	950	0.7	20.68	43,010
Cargo and freight agents	1,150	1.3	23.09	48,030
Couriers and messengers	360	0.5	14.06	29,240
Police, fire, and ambulance dispatchers	930	1.0	20.66	42,980
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	2,240	1.2	21.28	44,260
Meter readers, utilities	(5)	(5)	20.74	43,140
Postal service clerks	590	0.8	23.76	49,420
Postal service mail carriers	3,770	1.2	24.75	51,480
Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators	1,210	1.2	24.40	50,740
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	2,580	0.8	25.32	52,660
Shipping, receiving, and traffic clerks	6,120	1.0	18.05	37,550
Stock clerks and order fillers	17,400	0.9	13.99	29,090
Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping	580	0.9	14.21	29,560
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	5,610	1.0	29.50	61,360
Legal secretaries	2,250	1.4	24.15	50,230
Medical secretaries	8,350	1.5	17.26	35,890
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	29,400	1.4	18.22	37,910
Computer operators	360	1.1	18.80	39,110
Data entry keyers	2,060	1.3	16.00	33,270
Word processors and typists	400	0.8	17.20	35,780
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks	5,030	2.0	20.50	42,630
Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service	1,040	1.3	15.91	33,090
Office clerks, general	24,280	0.9	16.47	34,260
Office machine operators, except computer	520	1.1	17.65	36,710
Proofreaders and copy markers	40	0.5	20.06	41,720
Statistical assistants	180	1.7	20.95	43,570
Office and administrative support workers, all other	1,780	1.0	19.40	40,340
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the St. Louis, MO-IL Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_41180.htm. (2) Estimates for detailed occupations do not sum to the totals because the totals include occupations 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.