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News Release Information

23-1335-ATL
Thursday, June 15, 2023

Contacts Technical information: Media contact:
  • (404) 893-4220

Occupational Employment and Wages in Macon — May 2022

Workers in the Macon, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $24.20 in May 2022, 19 percent below the nationwide average of $29.76, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Victoria G. Lee noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were lower than their respective national averages in 19 of the 22 major occupational groups, including sales and related, business and financial operations, and food preparation and serving related.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Macon area employment was more highly concentrated in 10 of the 22 occupational groups, including office and administrative support, healthcare practitioners and technical, and educational instruction and library. Ten groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including computer and mathematical, construction and extraction, and management. (See table A.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Macon metropolitan area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2022
Major occupational groupPercent of total employmentMean hourly wage ($)
United StatesMaconUnited StatesMaconPercent difference (1)

Total, all occupations

100.0100.029.7624.20*-19

Management

6.75.4*63.0852.01*-18

Business and financial operations

6.55.7*41.3933.11*-20

Computer and mathematical

3.41.8*51.9939.62*-24

Architecture and engineering

1.70.7*45.5239.22*-14

Life, physical, and social science

0.90.3*40.2131.82*-21

Community and social service

1.61.2*26.8121.94*-18

Legal

0.80.959.87(2)(2)

Educational instruction and library

5.76.5*30.4127.07*-11

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.40.7*36.7823.46*-36

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.18.4*46.5240.96*-12

Healthcare support

4.64.8*17.1015.34*-10

Protective service

2.32.9*25.9723.20*-11

Food preparation and serving related

8.59.2*15.4512.45*-19

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.93.4*17.2614.62*-15

Personal care and service

1.91.3*17.4114.87*-15

Sales and related

8.98.824.2218.37*-24

Office and administrative support

12.615.8*21.9019.10*-13

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.30.4*18.2119.45*7

Construction and extraction

4.12.7*28.0821.80*-22

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.94.4*26.7723.29*-13

Production

5.95.1*21.8121.36-2

Transportation and material moving

9.29.6*21.1218.02*-15

Footnotes:
(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in the Macon, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area is above the national mean wage, while a negative difference reflects a lower wage.
(2) Estimate not released.
* The mean hourly wage or percent share of employment is significantly different from the national average of all areas at the 90-percent confidence level.

One occupational group—office and administrative support—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Macon had 15,150 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 15.8 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 12.6-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $19.10, significantly below the national wage of $21.90.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included customer service representatives (2,930), general office clerks (1,520), first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers (1,270), and secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (1,230). 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 $28.54 and $28.53, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale was couriers and messengers ($14.32).(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_31420.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 Macon area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, bill and account collectors were employed at 2.1 times the national rate in Macon, and customer service representatives, at 1.6 times the U.S. average. Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive, had a location quotient of 1.0 in Macon, 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 Georgia Department of Labor.

Changes to the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) Data

The May 2022 OEWS estimates use the model-based (MB3) estimation method implemented with the May 2021 estimates release. Additional updates were made to the MB3 wage processing methodology for May 2022. For more information, see the May 2022 Survey Methods and Reliability Statement.

The May 2022 estimates are the first OEWS estimates to be produced using the 2022 NAICS, which replaces the 2017 NAICS used for the May 2017-May 2021 estimates. See North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) at BLS for details.


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 2022 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2022, November 2021, May 2021, November 2020, May 2020, and November 2019. The unweighted sampled employment of 80 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 57 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 65.4 percent based on establishments and 62.5 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Macon, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,243 establishments with a response rate of 67 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 Macon, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Bibb County, Crawford County, Jones County, Monroe County, and Twiggs County.

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, Macon metropolitan area, May 2022
Occupation (1)EmploymentMean wages ($)
Level (2)Location quotient (3)HourlyAnnual (4)

Office and administrative support occupations

15,1501.319.1039,730

First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers

1,2701.328.5359,330

Bill and account collectors

2802.116.2833,870

Billing and posting clerks

4001.419.6640,890

Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks

7300.720.1141,820

Payroll and timekeeping clerks

900.922.3646,520

Tellers

2601.215.9833,240

Court, municipal, and license clerks

1101.117.1035,560

Customer service representatives

2,9301.617.1035,570

Eligibility interviewers, government programs

(5)(5)15.7932,850

File clerks

501.015.3031,820

Interviewers, except eligibility and loan

400.418.3438,140

Loan interviewers and clerks

600.419.4740,500

Order clerks

400.518.5138,500

Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping

400.617.8437,110

Receptionists and information clerks

8001.215.3731,970

Information and record clerks, all other

600.618.5438,560

Couriers and messengers

1002.014.3229,780

Public safety telecommunicators

901.515.9133,080

Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance

(5)(5)17.0535,460

Postal service clerks

501.027.8757,960

Postal service mail carriers

2501.226.0954,270

Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators

2303.024.7351,440

Production, planning, and expediting clerks

2401.022.7047,220

Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks

4300.817.5136,410

Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping

301.018.1137,670

Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants

1700.628.5459,350

Legal secretaries and administrative assistants

600.620.7243,100

Medical secretaries and administrative assistants

3400.817.1635,690

Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive

1,2301.016.3133,920

Data entry keyers

500.515.5432,330

Insurance claims and policy processing clerks

(5)(5)23.2248,290

Office clerks, general

1,5200.917.1035,570

Office machine operators, except computer

904.715.7832,810

Office and administrative support workers, all other

1401.217.7736,960

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Macon, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_31420.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.

 

Last Modified Date: Thursday, June 15, 2023