Workers in the St. Louis, MO-IL Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $26.06 in May 2020, compared to the nationwide average of $27.07, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Michael Hirniak noted that, after testing for statistical significance, 3 of the 22 major occupational groups had average wages in the local area that were significantly higher than their respective national averages—construction and extraction, production, and sales and related. Fourteen groups had significantly lower wages than their respective national averages, including legal; arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media; and healthcare practitioners and technical.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, St. Louis area employment was more highly concentrated in 6 of the 22 occupational groups including office and administrative support, healthcare practitioners and technical, and computer and mathematical. Eight groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including educational instruction and library, transportation and material moving, and sales and related. (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. St. Louis had 190,880 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 14.7 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 13.3-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $20.20, significantly below the national wage of $20.38.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included general office clerks (29,450), customer service representatives (27,060), and secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (20,010). 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 $31.00 and $27.40, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($11.62) and clerical library assistants ($13.32). (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 area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, new accounts clerks were employed at 4.2 times the national rate in St. Louis, and brokerage clerks, at 3.5 times the U.S. average. Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks 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 and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, a federal-state cooperative program between BLS and State Workforce Agencies, in this case, the Missouri Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development and the Illinois Department of Economic Security.

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. OEWS data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm.

The OEWS 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. OEWS estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.1 million establishments. Each year, two semiannual panels of approximately 180,000 to 185,000 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 2020 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2020, November 2019, May 2019, November 2018, May 2018, and November 2017. The unweighted sample employment of 83 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 56 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 69 percent based on establishments and 66 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the St. Louis, MO-IL Metropolitan Statistical Area included 7,575 establishments with a response rate of 52 percent. For more information about OEWS 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.

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 in Missouri and Bond, Calhoun, Clinton, Jersey, Macoupin, Madison, Monroe, and St. Clair Counties in Illinois.

For more information

Answers to frequently asked questions about the OEWS data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_ques.htm. Detailed information about the OEWS program is available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_doc.htm.

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

Table 1. Employment and wage data for office and administrative support occupations, St. Louis metropolitan area, May 2020

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	190,880	1.1	$20.20	$42,020
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	11,960	0.9	31.00	64,490
Switchboard operators, including answering service	630	1.1	14.33	29,800
Bill and account collectors	2,910	1.4	20.78	43,220
Billing and posting clerks	5,410	1.3	19.46	40,470
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	13,610	1.0	21.00	43,690
Gambling cage workers	100	1.0	14.91	31,010
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	1,080	0.9	21.77	45,270
Procurement clerks	620	1.1	23.19	48,230
Tellers	3,740	0.9	15.26	31,730
Financial clerks, all other	360	1.3	20.83	43,340
Brokerage clerks	1,440	3.5	23.56	49,010
Court, municipal, and license clerks	1,760	1.2	20.85	43,370
Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks	210	0.9	19.02	39,550
Customer service representatives	27,060	1.0	18.39	38,250
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	1,010	0.8	21.81	45,370
File clerks	890	1.0	18.84	39,190
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	1,580	0.8	11.62	24,160
Interviewers, except eligibility and loan	2,460	1.5	16.83	35,000
Library assistants, clerical	340	0.4	13.32	27,690
Loan interviewers and clerks	3,940	2.1	19.22	39,970
New accounts clerks	1,770	4.2	18.33	38,130
Order clerks	1,200	1.1	18.75	38,990
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	820	0.8	21.65	45,040
Receptionists and information clerks	6,990	0.8	15.20	31,610
Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks	540	0.5	22.62	47,050
Information and record clerks, all other	1,370	1.0	21.32	44,350
Cargo and freight agents	1,300	1.4	22.30	46,380
Couriers and messengers	420	0.6	14.24	29,620
Public safety telecommunicators	1,060	1.2	21.32	44,350
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	1,750	1.0	21.83	45,410
Meter readers, utilities	(5)	(5)	19.14	39,820
Postal service clerks	790	1.0	23.93	49,770
Postal service mail carriers	3,650	1.2	25.40	52,830
Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators	1,220	1.2	24.36	50,660
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	3,460	1.0	25.23	52,490
Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks	10,140	1.5	17.84	37,100
Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping	300	0.6	19.23	39,990
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	6,760	1.4	27.40	56,990
Legal secretaries and administrative assistants	1,540	1.0	25.33	52,680
Medical secretaries and administrative assistants	7,350	1.3	18.33	38,130
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	20,010	1.2	19.07	39,660
Data entry keyers	1,360	1.0	16.79	34,920
Word processors and typists	80	0.2	19.64	40,850
Desktop publishers	(5)	(5)	26.73	55,590
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks	4,010	1.8	21.01	43,700
Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service	720	1.0	16.21	33,720
Office clerks, general	29,450	1.1	18.48	38,430
Office machine operators, except computer	420	1.1	17.37	36,120
Proofreaders and copy markers	(5)	(5)	24.44	50,840
Office and administrative support workers, all other	580	0.4	18.40	38,280
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 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.