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News Release Information

24-1466-ATL
Friday, July 26, 2024

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

Occupational Employment and Wages in Columbia, SC — May 2023

Workers in the Columbia, SC Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $26.22 in May 2023, compared to the nationwide average of $31.48, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Victoria G. Lee noted that higher paying major occupational groups included management ($54.35), healthcare practitioners and technical ($43.43), computer and mathematical ($42.84), and legal ($42.27). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($13.08), building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($15.97), personal care and service ($16.07), and healthcare support ($16.57). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Columbia area included office and administrative support (14.6 percent), sales and related (9.5 percent), and transportation and material moving (9.1 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included life, physical, and social science (0.8 percent); arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (1.1 percent); and legal (1.2 percent). (See table A.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Columbia metropolitan area, May 2023
Major occupational group Percent of total employment Mean hourly wage ($)
United States Columbia United States Columbia

Total, all occupations

100.0 100.0 31.48 26.22

Management

6.9 6.0 66.23 54.35

Business and financial operations

6.6 5.5 43.55 35.62

Computer and mathematical

3.4 3.0 54.39 42.84

Architecture and engineering

1.7 1.4 47.64 40.15

Life, physical, and social science

0.9 0.8 42.24 32.37

Community and social service

1.6 1.4 28.36 24.60

Legal

0.8 1.2 64.34 42.27

Educational instruction and library

5.8 5.8 31.92 29.16

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.4 1.1 36.31 27.21

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.1 6.9 49.07 43.43

Healthcare support

4.7 3.9 18.37 16.57

Protective service

2.3 3.0 27.74 21.26

Food preparation and serving related

8.7 8.9 16.58 13.08

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.9 2.7 18.43 15.97

Personal care and service

2.0 2.0 18.48 16.07

Sales and related

8.8 9.5 25.62 21.55

Office and administrative support

12.2 14.6 23.05 20.35

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.3 0.1 19.22 18.58

Construction and extraction

4.1 2.9 29.57 23.94

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.9 4.3 28.13 25.22

Production

5.8 5.9 22.90 22.02

Transportation and material moving

9.1 9.1 22.45 19.16

One occupational group—office and administrative support—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Columbia had 55,750 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 14.6 percent of local area employment, compared to the 12.2-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $20.35, compared to the national wage of $23.05.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included customer service representatives (11,320); secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (7,520); and general office clerks (7,350). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers and postal service clerks, with mean hourly wages of $30.60 and $29.21, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($13.49) and clerical library assistants ($14.92). (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_17900.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 Columbia area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, insurance claims and policy processing clerks were employed at 2.7 times the national rate in Columbia, and bill and account collectors, at 2.4 times the U.S. average. Loan interviewers and clerks had a location quotient of 1.0 in Columbia, 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 South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce.


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 Columbia, SC Metropolitan Statistical Area included 2,844 establishments with a response rate of 70 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 Columbia, SC Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Calhoun County, Fairfield County, Kershaw County, Lexington County, Richland County, and Saluda 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 office and administrative support occupations, Columbia metropolitan area, May 2023
Occupation (1) Employment Mean wages ($)
Level (2) Location quotient (3) Hourly Annual (4)

Office and administrative support occupations

55,750 1.2 20.35 42,330

First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers

4,750 1.3 30.60 63,640

Switchboard operators, including answering service

90 0.9 15.49 32,220

Bill and account collectors

1,150 2.4 18.89 39,300

Billing and posting clerks

1,200 1.1 20.85 43,370

Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks

3,440 0.9 20.80 43,260

Payroll and timekeeping clerks

190 0.5 23.68 49,260

Procurement clerks

310 2.0 21.78 45,290

Tellers

1,180 1.4 18.36 38,180

Financial clerks, all other

30 0.3 20.63 42,910

Brokerage clerks

60 0.5 22.02 45,800

Court, municipal, and license clerks

270 0.7 22.12 46,000

Customer service representatives

11,320 1.6 17.91 37,260

Eligibility interviewers, government programs

400 1.1 19.04 39,600

File clerks

260 1.3 17.14 35,640

Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks

610 0.9 13.49 28,050

Interviewers, except eligibility and loan

170 0.4 17.99 37,420

Library assistants, clerical

350 1.7 14.92 31,030

Loan interviewers and clerks

530 1.0 21.78 45,310

New accounts clerks

50 0.5 21.26 44,230

Order clerks

80 0.4 20.13 41,880

Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping

400 1.6 21.05 43,790

Receptionists and information clerks

2,060 0.8 15.69 32,620

Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks

70 0.2 22.29 46,370

Information and record clerks, all other

460 1.2 22.87 47,560

Cargo and freight agents

170 0.7 20.58 42,810

Couriers and messengers

170 0.9 15.31 31,850

Public safety telecommunicators

230 0.9 18.10 37,650

Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance

520 1.0 21.70 45,130

Meter readers, utilities

50 1.1 19.46 40,470

Postal service clerks

120 0.6 29.21 60,750

Postal service mail carriers

950 1.1 27.09 56,360

Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators

520 1.8 26.34 54,790

Production, planning, and expediting clerks

920 0.9 26.08 54,240

Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks

1,890 0.9 18.79 39,080

Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping

60 0.5 18.35 38,170

Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants

1,530 1.3 26.82 55,780

Legal secretaries and administrative assistants

230 0.6 (5) (5)

Medical secretaries and administrative assistants

1,510 0.8 19.00 39,520

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

7,520 1.7 19.65 40,880

Data entry keyers

440 1.2 16.36 34,020

Insurance claims and policy processing clerks

1,610 2.7 21.49 44,700

Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service

140 0.8 17.01 35,370

Office clerks, general

7,350 1.2 17.71 36,830

Office machine operators, except computer

40 0.5 17.54 36,470

Statistical assistants

60 3.1 19.54 40,640

Office and administrative support workers, all other

140 0.3 25.46 52,970

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Columbia, SC Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_17900.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: Friday, July 26, 2024