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News Release Information

23-1164-CHI
Tuesday, July 18, 2023

Contacts Technical information: Media contact:
  • (312) 353-1138

Occupational Employment and Wages in Sioux Falls — May 2022

Workers in the Sioux Falls, SD Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $25.41 in May 2022, 15 percent below the nationwide average of $29.76, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Jason Palmer noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were lower than their respective national averages in 21 of the 22 major occupational groups, including legal; arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media; and computer and mathematical. Only one group had significantly higher wages than their respective national averages: sales and related.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Sioux Falls area employment was more highly concentrated in 9 of the 22 occupational groups, including healthcare practitioners and technical, office and administrative support, and sales and related. Twelve groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including management, educational instruction and library, and transportation and material moving. (See table A.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Sioux Falls metropolitan area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2022
Major occupational group Percent of total employment Mean hourly wage
United States Sioux Falls United States Sioux Falls Percent difference (1)

Total, all occupations

100.0 100.0 $29.76 $25.41* -15

Management

6.7 3.3* 63.08 60.12* -5

Business and financial operations

6.5 6.3* 41.39 36.54* -12

Computer and mathematical

3.4 2.9* 51.99 40.41* -22

Architecture and engineering

1.7 1.2* 45.52 38.03* -16

Life, physical, and social science

0.9 0.6* 40.21 31.02* -23

Community and social service

1.6 1.6* 26.81 22.89* -15

Legal

0.8 0.5* 59.87 44.37* -26

Educational instruction and library

5.7 4.2* 30.41 21.56* -29

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.4 1.2* 36.78 23.90* -35

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.1 10.2* 46.52 39.27* -16

Healthcare support

4.6 3.5* 17.10 16.49* -4

Protective service

2.3 1.3* 25.97 24.19* -7

Food preparation and serving related

8.5 8.5 15.45 13.92* -10

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.9 3.2* 17.26 16.10* -7

Personal care and service

1.9 2.5* 17.41 15.26* -12

Sales and related

8.9 10.2* 24.22 24.95* 3

Office and administrative support

12.6 14.5* 21.90 19.01* -13

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.3 0.1* 18.21 17.53* -4

Construction and extraction

4.1 5.3* 28.08 23.41* -17

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.9 4.1* 26.77 25.71* -4

Production

5.9 6.6* 21.81 19.90* -9

Transportation and material moving

9.2 8.0* 21.12 19.88* -6

Footnotes:
(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in the Sioux Falls, SD Metropolitan Statistical Area is above the national mean wage, while a negative difference reflects a lower wage.
* 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. Sioux Falls had 23,430 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 14.5 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 12.6-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $19.01, 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 (4,790); bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks (3,310); and receptionists and information clerks (2,520). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were cargo and freight agents and first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers, with mean hourly wages of $28.22 and $28.08, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($13.15). (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_43620.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 Sioux Falls area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks were employed at 13.2 times the national rate in Sioux Falls, and bill and account collectors, at 5.4 times the U.S. average. Billing and posting clerks had a location quotient of 1.0 in Sioux Falls, 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 South Dakota Department of Labor and Regulation.

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 Sioux Falls, SD Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,813 establishments with a response rate of 81 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 Sioux Falls, SD Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Lincoln County, McCook County, Minnehaha County, and Turner 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, Sioux Falls metropolitan area, May 2022
Occupation (1) Employment Mean wages
Level (2) Location quotient (3) Hourly Annual (4)

Office and administrative support occupations

23,430 1.2 $19.01 $39,540

First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers

850 0.5 28.08 58,400

Bill and account collectors

1,190 5.4 19.03 39,580

Billing and posting clerks

490 1.0 17.84 37,110

Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks

3,310 2.0 19.54 40,640

Payroll and timekeeping clerks

160 0.9 20.70 43,050

Procurement clerks

80 1.1 19.03 39,590

Tellers

590 1.5 16.31 33,910

Brokerage clerks

80 1.7 22.11 46,000

Court, municipal, and license clerks

160 0.9 19.75 41,090

Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks

230 13.2 19.35 40,250

Customer service representatives

4,790 1.5 18.54 38,560

Eligibility interviewers, government programs

100 0.6 20.43 42,500

Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks

320 1.2 13.15 27,340

Interviewers, except eligibility and loan

210 1.2 17.00 35,350

Loan interviewers and clerks

790 3.0 20.32 42,260

Order clerks

90 0.7 18.69 38,870

Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping

100 0.9 19.98 41,550

Receptionists and information clerks

2,520 2.3 15.75 32,760

Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks

80 0.6 15.56 32,370

Information and record clerks, all other

90 0.6 20.26 42,140

Cargo and freight agents

130 1.2 28.22 58,690

Couriers and messengers

40 0.5 16.12 33,520

Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance

420 1.9 20.21 42,040

Postal service clerks

60 0.7 25.51 53,060

Postal service mail carriers

290 0.8 27.07 56,310

Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators

180 1.4 25.63 53,320

Production, planning, and expediting clerks

240 0.6 22.90 47,640

Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks

1,130 1.2 18.38 38,230

Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping

90 1.6 19.16 39,840

Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants

840 1.6 22.77 47,360

Legal secretaries and administrative assistants

170 1.0 19.34 40,220

Medical secretaries and administrative assistants

70 0.1 19.34 40,220

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

1,860 0.9 17.76 36,940

Insurance claims and policy processing clerks

510 2.1 19.54 40,640

Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service

150 2.1 16.21 33,720

Office clerks, general

780 0.3 15.70 32,650

Office machine operators, except computer

30 1.0 19.19 39,910

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Sioux Falls, SD Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_43620.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.

 

Last Modified Date: Tuesday, July 18, 2023