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News Release Information

23-1984-KAN
Thursday, September 28, 2023

Contacts Technical information: Media contact:
  • (816) 285-7000

Occupational Employment and Wages in St. Louis — May 2022

Workers in the St. Louis, MO-IL Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $28.30 in May 2022, 5 percent below the nationwide average of $29.76, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Assistant Commissioner for Regional Operations Michael Hirniak noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were lower than their respective national averages in 15 of the 22 major occupational groups, including arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media; computer and mathematical; and legal. Four groups had significantly higher wages than their respective national averages, including 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 healthcare practitioners and technical, healthcare support, and food preparation and serving related. Eleven groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including sales and related, management, and community and social service. (See table A.)

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

Total, all occupations

100.0 100.0 29.76 28.30* -5

Management

6.7 6.2* 63.08 57.45* -9

Business and financial operations

6.5 6.8* 41.39 40.20* -3

Computer and mathematical

3.4 3.5* 51.99 45.31* -13

Architecture and engineering

1.7 1.6* 45.52 45.46 0

Life, physical, and social science

0.9 0.8* 40.21 35.04* -13

Community and social service

1.6 1.3* 26.81 24.20* -10

Legal

0.8 0.8 59.87 54.20* -9

Educational instruction and library

5.7 5.6* 30.41 28.71* -6

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.4 1.3* 36.78 29.24* -21

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.1 6.7* 46.52 41.98* -10

Healthcare support

4.6 5.2* 17.10 15.48* -9

Protective service

2.3 2.1* 25.97 25.59 -1

Food preparation and serving related

8.5 8.7* 15.45 15.24* -1

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.9 2.9 17.26 16.85* -2

Personal care and service

1.9 2.1* 17.41 16.43* -6

Sales and related

8.9 8.2* 24.22 23.05* -5

Office and administrative support

12.6 13.0 21.90 21.68* -1

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.3 0.1* 18.21 19.65* 8

Construction and extraction

4.1 4.0* 28.08 31.26* 11

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.9 4.1* 26.77 27.25* 2

Production

5.9 5.9 21.81 22.42* 3

Transportation and material moving

9.2 9.0* 21.12 20.93 -1

(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in the St. Louis, MO-IL 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—healthcare practitioners and technical—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. St. Louis had 88,090 jobs in healthcare practitioners and technical, accounting for 6.7 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 6.1-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $41.98, significantly below the national wage of $46.52.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the healthcare practitioners and technical group included registered nurses (32,240), pharmacy technicians (4,780), and clinical laboratory technologists and technicians (4,690). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were family medicine physicians and general pediatricians, with mean hourly wages of $123.57 and $98.81, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were ophthalmic medical technicians ($16.81) and pharmacy technicians ($18.14). (Detailed data for the healthcare practitioners and technical 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 healthcare practitioners and technical group. For instance, psychiatric technicians were employed at 1.8 times the national rate in St. Louis, and clinical laboratory technologists and technicians, at 1.6 times the U.S. average. Veterinarians 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.

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 St. Louis, MO-IL Metropolitan Statistical Area included 7,539 establishments with a response rate of 48 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, Calhoun County, Clinton County,  Jersey County, Macoupin County, Madison County, Monroe County, and St. Clair County in Illinois, and Franklin County, Jefferson County, Lincoln County, St. Charles County, St. Louis city, St. Louis County, and Warren County in Missouri.

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 healthcare practitioners and technical occupations, St. Louis metropolitan area, May 2022
Occupation (1) Employment Mean wages ($)
Level (2) Location quotient (3) Hourly Annual (4)

Healthcare practitioners and technical occupations

88,090 1.1 41.98 87,310

Chiropractors

360 1.1 39.27 81,690

Dentists, general

1,220 1.1 (5) (5)

Orthodontists

(5) (5) (7) (7)

Dietitians and nutritionists

750 1.2 29.42 61,200

Optometrists

420 1.2 77.43 161,050

Pharmacists

3,500 1.2 61.13 127,160

Physician assistants

560 0.5 55.92 116,320

Podiatrists

70 0.9 70.44 146,510

Occupational therapists

1,700 1.4 40.97 85,220

Physical therapists

2,350 1.2 44.14 91,800

Radiation therapists

230 1.7 42.53 88,450

Recreational therapists

200 1.4 25.35 52,730

Respiratory therapists

1,220 1.1 32.68 67,960

Speech-language pathologists

1,630 1.1 38.83 80,760

Therapists, all other

300 2.0 28.03 58,300

Veterinarians

730 1.0 48.97 101,860

Registered nurses

32,240 1.2 36.14 75,170

Nurse anesthetists

420 1.0 88.72 184,540

Nurse midwives

70 1.0 55.02 114,440

Nurse practitioners

3,300 1.5 53.65 111,600

Audiologists

100 0.8 39.38 81,910

Anesthesiologists

170 0.5 (7) (7)

Emergency medicine physicians

(5) (5) 191.06 397,400

Family medicine physicians

610 0.7 123.57 257,020

General internal medicine physicians

(5) (5) (7) (7)

Obstetricians and gynecologists

70 0.4 124.23 258,400

Pediatricians, general

170 0.6 98.81 205,530

Physicians, pathologists

(5) (5) (7) (7)

Psychiatrists

80 0.4 153.30 318,860

Radiologists

210 0.8 174.93 363,850

Physicians, all other

2,950 1.1 142.81 297,040

Dental hygienists

1,740 0.9 37.06 77,070

Healthcare diagnosing or treating practitioners, all other

120 0.4 47.83 99,490

Clinical laboratory technologists and technicians

4,690 1.6 26.57 55,260

Cardiovascular technologists and technicians

240 0.5 29.76 61,910

Diagnostic medical sonographers

630 0.9 39.39 81,940

Nuclear medicine technologists

170 1.2 38.87 80,850

Radiologic technologists and technicians

1,730 0.9 31.38 65,270

Magnetic resonance imaging technologists

510 1.5 37.99 79,020

Emergency medical technicians

1,230 0.8 18.72 38,940

Paramedics

1,830 2.2 22.97 47,780

Dietetic technicians

50 0.3 16.28 33,860

Pharmacy technicians

4,780 1.2 18.14 37,730

Psychiatric technicians

1,580 1.8 18.25 37,950

Surgical technologists

690 0.7 29.26 60,860

Veterinary technologists and technicians

780 0.7 18.53 38,540

Ophthalmic medical technicians

340 0.6 16.81 34,960

Licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses

4,210 0.8 26.06 54,200

Medical records specialists

1,710 1.0 23.51 48,900

Opticians, dispensing

750 1.2 18.84 39,190

Orthotists and prosthetists

60 0.7 (5) (5)

Hearing aid specialists

50 0.5 25.60 53,250

Health technologists and technicians, all other

2,270 1.6 20.47 42,580

Health information technologists and medical registrars

520 1.7 25.96 54,000

Athletic trainers

230 0.9 (6) 56,430

Genetic counselors

60 2.2 40.65 84,550

Surgical assistants

80 0.5 29.27 60,880

Healthcare practitioners and technical workers, all other

280 0.8 31.35 65,210

(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.
(6) Wages for some occupations that do not generally work year-round, full time, are reported either as hourly wages or annual salaries depending on how they are typically paid.
(7) This wage is equal to or greater than $115.00 per hour or $239,200 per year.

 

Last Modified Date: Thursday, September 28, 2023