Workers in the Ann Arbor, MI Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $31.80 in May 2022, 7 percent above 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 higher than their respective national averages in 9 of the 22 major occupational groups, including sales and related, healthcare practitioners and technical, and educational instruction and library. Eleven groups had significantly lower wages than their respective national averages, including legal; arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media; and computer and mathematical.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Ann Arbor area employment was more highly concentrated in 8 of the 22 occupational groups, including educational instruction and library, healthcare practitioners and technical, and architecture and engineering. Thirteen groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including transportation and material moving, sales and related, and construction and extraction. (See table A.)

One occupational group—healthcare practitioners and technical—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Ann Arbor had 25,710 jobs in healthcare practitioners and technical, accounting for 12.2 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 6.1-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $48.50, significantly above the national wage of $46.52.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the healthcare practitioners and technical group included registered nurses (10,400), clinical laboratory technologists and technicians (860), and pharmacy technicians (830). Mean hourly wages among the higher-paying jobs in this group were psychiatrists ($110.93), nurse anesthetists ($97.48), and family medicine physicians ($95.08).At the lower end of the wage scale were pharmacy technicians ($19.93); opticians, dispensing ($20.13); and veterinary technologists and technicians ($20.16). (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_11460.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 Ann Arbor area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the healthcare practitioners and technical group. For instance, nurse anesthetists were employed at 7.7 times the national rate in Ann Arbor, and psychiatric technicians, at 4.5 times the U.S. average. Dental hygienists and speech-language pathologists both had a location quotient of 1.1 in Ann Arbor, indicating that these particular occupations’ 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 Michigan Department of Technology, Management & Budget.

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 Ann Arbor, MI Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,671 establishments with a response rate of 68 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 Ann Arbor, MI Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Washtenaw 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 healthcare practitioners and technical occupations, Ann Arbor metropolitan area, May 2022

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Healthcare practitioners and technical occupations	25,710	2.0	$48.50	$100,880
Chiropractors	40	0.8	41.09	85,460
Dentists, general	100	0.6	76.15	158,390
Dietitians and nutritionists	170	1.7	33.56	69,800
Optometrists	50	0.8	67.73	140,870
Pharmacists	610	1.3	64.42	134,000
Physician assistants	630	3.2	59.11	122,960
Occupational therapists	320	1.7	41.75	86,850
Physical therapists	480	1.5	46.21	96,110
Recreational therapists	80	3.6	28.02	58,290
Respiratory therapists	400	2.2	33.89	70,490
Speech-language pathologists	250	1.1	43.03	89,490
Veterinarians	90	0.8	53.94	112,200
Registered nurses	10,400	2.4	41.54	86,410
Nurse anesthetists	510	7.7	97.48	202,750
Nurse practitioners	700	1.9	58.11	120,860
Family medicine physicians	170	1.2	95.08	197,760
Pediatricians, general	130	2.7	59.58	123,930
Psychiatrists	80	2.1	110.93	230,730
Physicians, all other	1,350	3.1	120.10	249,800
Dental hygienists	330	1.1	36.37	75,640
Healthcare diagnosing or treating practitioners, all other	210	4.8	(5)	(5)
Clinical laboratory technologists and technicians	860	1.8	27.85	57,920
Cardiovascular technologists and technicians	230	2.9	30.14	62,680
Diagnostic medical sonographers	290	2.5	36.13	75,150
Radiologic technologists and technicians	720	2.3	34.15	71,020
Pharmacy technicians	830	1.3	19.93	41,440
Psychiatric technicians	640	4.5	27.90	58,040
Surgical technologists	400	2.6	26.55	55,220
Veterinary technologists and technicians	170	1.0	20.16	41,930
Ophthalmic medical technicians	80	0.9	21.45	44,610
Licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses	470	0.5	28.93	60,180
Medical records specialists	350	1.3	24.66	51,290
Opticians, dispensing	140	1.4	20.13	41,860
Hearing aid specialists	50	3.5	22.57	46,940
Health technologists and technicians, all other	590	2.6	24.35	50,640
Health information technologists and medical registrars	50	0.9	31.43	65,370
Athletic trainers	90	2.0	(6)	67,600
Healthcare practitioners and technical workers, all other	90	1.6	28.03	58,300
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Ann Arbor, MI Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_11460.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.