Occupational Employment and Wages in Saginaw — May 2023

Workers in the Saginaw, MI Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $26.71 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 ($53.59), legal ($49.45), and healthcare practitioners and technical ($47.85). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($15.81), personal care and service ($16.19), and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($17.02). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Saginaw area included office and administrative support (13.7 percent), sales and related (9.9 percent), and production (9.0 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.5 percent); life, physical, and social science (0.5 percent); and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (0.9 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. Saginaw had 10,830 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 13.7 percent of local area employment, compared to the 12.2-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $20.57, 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 (2,440) and general office clerks (1,490). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were production, planning, and expediting clerks with mean hourly wages of $32.10 and executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants ($30.05). At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($14.45), clerical library assistants ($15.24). (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_40980.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 Saginaw area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, eligibility interviewers, government programs were employed at 2.5 times the national rate in Saginaw, and tellers, at 1.6 times the U.S. average. Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks had a location quotient of 0.9 in Saginaw, 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 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. 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 Saginaw, MI Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,024 establishments with a response rate of 68 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 Saginaw, MI Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Saginaw 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, Saginaw metropolitan area, May 2023

Occupation (1)	Employment	Mean wages ($)
Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	10,830	1.1	20.57	42,790
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	620	0.8	29.31	60,970
Bill and account collectors	110	1.1	20.49	42,630
Billing and posting clerks	330	1.5	19.78	41,150
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	690	0.9	20.77	43,200
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	60	0.8	22.73	47,280
Tellers	290	1.6	17.33	36,050
Court, municipal, and license clerks	60	0.7	23.30	48,460
Customer service representatives	2,440	1.6	18.15	37,750
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	190	2.5	29.09	60,510
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	140	1.0	14.45	30,050
Interviewers, except eligibility and loan	60	0.8	(5)	(5)
Library assistants, clerical	70	1.6	15.24	31,700
Loan interviewers and clerks	120	1.1	22.52	46,840
New accounts clerks	110	5.0	20.83	43,330
Order clerks	60	1.2	20.97	43,610
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	80	1.4	19.67	40,920
Receptionists and information clerks	580	1.1	16.83	35,010
Information and record clerks, all other	50	0.6	24.39	50,730
Couriers and messengers	80	2.2	15.94	33,150
Public safety telecommunicators	70	1.5	21.68	45,090
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	100	0.9	23.99	49,890
Postal service clerks	40	1.0	28.27	58,800
Postal service mail carriers	240	1.4	27.86	57,950
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	160	0.8	32.10	66,770
Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks	510	1.2	19.35	40,250
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	160	0.6	30.05	62,510
Legal secretaries and administrative assistants	90	1.1	20.02	41,640
Medical secretaries and administrative assistants	510	1.3	17.72	36,860
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	770	0.8	20.42	42,480
Data entry keyers	30	0.4	16.90	35,160
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks	70	0.6	20.28	42,170
Office clerks, general	1,490	1.1	20.05	41,710
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Saginaw, MI Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_40980.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.

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