Workers in the St. Louis, MO-IL Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $26.76 in May 2021, 4 percent below the nationwide average of $28.01, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Michael Hirniak noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were lower than their respective national averages in 17 of the 22 major occupational groups, including life, physical, and social science; arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media; and computer and mathematical. Three groups had significantly higher wages than their respective national averages: construction and extraction; production; and installation, maintenance, and repair.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, St. Louis area employment was more highly concentrated in 7 of the 22 occupational groups, including office and administrative support, healthcare practitioners and technical, and food preparation and serving related. Ten groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including sales and related, educational instruction and library, and construction and extraction. (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 178,750 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 14.0 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 13.0-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $20.64, significantly below the national wage of $20.88.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included general office clerks (25,200); customer service representatives (23,690); and secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (20,770). 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 $31.71 and $28.82, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($13.07) and couriers and messengers ($15.25). (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 3.6 times the national rate in St. Louis, and office machine operators, except computer, at 2.4 times the U.S. average. Billing and posting 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 Economic 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 179,000 to 187,000 sampled establishments are contacted, one panel in May and the other in November. Responses are obtained by Internet or other electronic means, mail, email, telephone, or personal visit. The May 2021 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2021, November 2020, May 2020, November 2019, May 2019, and November 2018. The unweighted sampled employment of 82 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 62 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 67.2 percent based on establishments and 64.5 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the St. Louis, MO-IL Metropolitan Statistical Area included 7,518 establishments with a response rate of 49 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 Bond County, IL; Calhoun County, IL; Clinton County, IL; Jersey County, IL; Macoupin County, IL; Madison County, IL; Monroe County, IL; St. Clair County, IL; Franklin County, MO; Jefferson County, MO; Lincoln County, MO; St. Charles County, MO; St. Louis city, MO; St. Louis County, MO; and Warren County, MO.

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; Telecommunications Relay Service: 7-1-1.

Table 1. Employment and wage data for office and administrative support occupations, St. Louis metropolitan area, May 2021

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	178,750	1.1	$20.64	$42,930
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	14,030	1.1	31.71	65,960
Switchboard operators, including answering service	(5)	(5)	15.07	31,340
Telephone operators	80	2.2	20.41	42,440
Bill and account collectors	2,900	1.5	18.73	38,950
Billing and posting clerks	3,880	1.0	20.28	42,170
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	13,130	1.0	22.36	46,510
Gambling cage workers	130	1.2	16.86	35,060
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	1,110	0.8	23.62	49,140
Procurement clerks	580	1.0	21.87	45,490
Tellers	4,090	1.2	15.79	32,850
Financial clerks, all other	730	2.6	19.02	39,560
Brokerage clerks	840	2.3	23.47	48,820
Correspondence clerks	70	1.1	17.98	37,410
Court, municipal, and license clerks	1,560	1.1	18.10	37,650
Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks	110	0.8	21.41	44,520
Customer service representatives	23,690	0.9	18.60	38,690
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	1,190	0.9	20.09	41,780
File clerks	800	1.0	18.66	38,800
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	1,600	0.8	13.07	27,190
Interviewers, except eligibility and loan	2,430	1.6	17.64	36,700
Library assistants, clerical	(5)	(5)	14.73	30,640
Loan interviewers and clerks	3,220	1.5	21.10	43,890
New accounts clerks	1,310	3.6	22.49	46,780
Order clerks	1,450	1.2	19.50	40,550
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	770	0.8	22.00	45,760
Receptionists and information clerks	8,510	1.0	15.32	31,860
Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks	570	0.6	21.71	45,150
Information and record clerks, all other	1,130	0.8	21.61	44,940
Cargo and freight agents	1,250	1.6	22.14	46,060
Couriers and messengers	340	0.6	15.25	31,710
Public safety telecommunicators	1,030	1.2	20.44	42,510
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	1,470	0.8	26.29	54,680
Meter readers, utilities	280	1.3	23.14	48,120
Postal service clerks	680	0.9	24.98	51,960
Postal service mail carriers	3,730	1.2	25.92	53,910
Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators	1,440	1.4	23.54	48,970
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	2,610	0.8	25.22	52,460
Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks	9,270	1.3	17.46	36,310
Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping	370	0.7	20.74	43,150
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	5,290	1.3	28.82	59,950
Legal secretaries and administrative assistants	1,660	1.2	24.89	51,780
Medical secretaries and administrative assistants	5,360	0.9	18.74	38,990
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	20,770	1.3	18.64	38,760
Data entry keyers	1,280	1.0	15.80	32,850
Word processors and typists	70	0.2	19.08	39,690
Desktop publishers	70	1.0	20.22	42,060
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks	1,940	1.0	22.19	46,140
Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service	740	1.2	16.99	35,330
Office clerks, general	25,200	1.1	19.24	40,010
Office machine operators, except computer	700	2.4	15.58	32,400
Statistical assistants	200	3.6	27.35	56,890
Office and administrative support workers, all other	550	0.4	19.80	41,190
(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.