Occupational Employment and Wages in Sioux Falls — May 2023

Workers in the Sioux Falls, SD Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $27.02 in May 2023, compared to the nationwide average of $31.48, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Jason Palmer noted that higher paying major occupational groups included management ($65.51), legal ($55.09), and computer and mathematical ($41.60). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($14.91), personal care and service ($16.43), and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($17.12). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Sioux Falls area included office and administrative support (13.2 percent), healthcare practitioners and technical (10.1 percent), and sales and related (9.8 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.5 percent); life, physical, and social science (0.6 percent); and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (1.2 percent). (See table A.)

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 21,940 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 13.2 percent of local area employment, compared to the 12.2-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $20.21, 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 (4,200); bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks (3,100); and receptionists and information clerks (2,430). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were cargo and freight agents with mean hourly wages of $30.64, first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers ($29.62), and postal service mail carriers ($28.76). At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($14.18). (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 some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, bill and account collectors were employed at 4.6 times the national rate in Sioux Falls, and loan interviewers and clerks, at 3.5 times the U.S. average. Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks had a location quotient of 1.1 in Sioux Falls, 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 Dakota Department of Labor and Regulation.

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 Sioux Falls, SD Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,887 establishments with a response rate of 81 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 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, 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, Sioux Falls metropolitan area, May 2023

Occupation (1)	Employment	Mean wages ($)
Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	21,940	1.1	20.21	42,040
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	840	0.5	29.62	61,610
Bill and account collectors	960	4.6	20.91	43,480
Billing and posting clerks	530	1.1	18.98	39,470
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	3,100	1.9	20.56	42,760
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	160	0.9	23.29	48,450
Procurement clerks	70	1.0	19.06	39,650
Tellers	570	1.5	17.10	35,560
Brokerage clerks	(5)	(5)	23.95	49,810
Court, municipal, and license clerks	150	0.9	21.03	43,740
Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks	130	8.6	21.28	44,250
Customer service representatives	4,200	1.3	19.52	40,600
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	110	0.7	22.41	46,610
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	370	1.3	14.18	29,480
Interviewers, except eligibility and loan	180	1.0	18.93	39,380
Loan interviewers and clerks	780	3.5	20.74	43,140
Order clerks	110	1.1	20.36	42,340
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	110	1.0	20.24	42,100
Receptionists and information clerks	2,430	2.2	16.64	34,610
Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks	100	0.8	16.81	34,960
Information and record clerks, all other	70	0.5	21.85	45,440
Cargo and freight agents	160	1.4	30.64	63,720
Couriers and messengers	30	0.4	17.83	37,080
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	350	1.6	20.83	43,330
Postal service clerks	60	0.7	26.87	55,890
Postal service mail carriers	280	0.8	28.76	59,830
Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators	180	1.4	27.33	56,840
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	230	0.5	23.81	49,520
Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks	1,060	1.1	19.60	40,760
Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping	90	1.7	19.93	41,450
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	950	1.8	24.05	50,020
Legal secretaries and administrative assistants	190	1.1	22.87	47,570
Medical secretaries and administrative assistants	70	0.1	19.97	41,540
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	1,490	0.8	18.57	38,620
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks	550	2.1	20.49	42,620
Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service	130	1.8	17.35	36,100
Office clerks, general	780	0.3	16.91	35,170
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. (5) Estimate not released.

Public link

Please use the above public link if you want to share this noodl on another website.