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News Release Information

22-1132-CHI
Tuesday, August 09, 2022

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

Occupational Employment and Wages in St. Cloud — May 2021

Workers in the St. Cloud, MN Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $25.64 in May 2021, 8 percent below the nationwide average of $28.01, 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 11 of the 22 major occupational groups, including legal, management, and computer and mathematical. Five groups had significantly higher wages than their respective national averages, including construction and extraction, protective service, and community and social service.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, St. Cloud area employment was more highly concentrated in 5 of the 22 occupational groups, including production, healthcare practitioners and technical, and construction and extraction. Eleven groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including computer and mathematical, business and financial operations, and protective service. (See table A.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the St. Cloud metropolitan area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2021
Major occupational group Percent of total employment Mean hourly wage
United States St. Cloud United States St. Cloud Percent difference (1)

Total, all occupations

100.0 100.0 $28.01 $25.64* -8

Management

6.3 5.4* 59.31 48.40* -18

Business and financial operations

6.4 4.8* 39.72 34.90* -12

Computer and mathematical

3.3 1.4* 48.01 37.22* -22

Architecture and engineering

1.7 0.9* 44.10 36.19* -18

Life, physical, and social science

0.9 0.6* 38.81 35.22* -9

Community and social service

1.6 1.5 25.94 26.50* 2

Legal

0.8 0.5* 54.38 43.14* -21

Educational instruction and library

5.8 5.8 29.88 27.09* -9

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.3 1.0* 31.78 24.56* -23

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.2 8.0* 43.80 46.84 7

Healthcare support

4.7 5.5* 16.02 16.09 0

Protective service

2.4 1.0* 25.68 26.93* 5

Food preparation and serving related

8.0 7.6* 14.16 14.12 0

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.9 3.0 16.23 16.60* 2

Personal care and service

1.8 1.8 16.17 15.75* -3

Sales and related

9.4 9.5 22.15 20.44* -8

Office and administrative support

13.0 12.3* 20.88 20.89 0

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.3 0.1* 16.70 17.24* 3

Construction and extraction

4.2 5.3* 26.87 29.28* 9

Installation, maintenance, and repair

4.0 4.1 25.66 25.55 0

Production

6.0 9.8* 20.71 20.54 -1

Transportation and material moving

9.0 10.1* 19.88 19.60* -1

Footnotes:
(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in the St. Cloud, MN 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—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. St. Cloud had 9,650 jobs in production, accounting for 9.8 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 6.0-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $20.54, compared to the national wage of $20.71.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators (1,290); packaging and filling machine operators and tenders (610); and welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers (600). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were computer numerically controlled tool programmers ($31.51), first-line supervisors of production and operating workers ($30.45), and stationary engineers and boiler operators with a mean hourly wage of $30.16. At the lower end of the wage scale were helpers--production workers ($14.77), laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($15.60), and sewing machine operators ($15.94). (Detailed data for the production occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_41060.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. Cloud area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, ophthalmic laboratory technicians were employed at 21.5 times the national rate in St. Cloud, and slaughterers and meat packers, at 7.9 times the U.S. average. Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers had a location quotient of 1.0 in St. Cloud, 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 Minnesota Department of Employment & Economic Development.

Changes to the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) Data

With the May 2021 estimates release, the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program has implemented a new model-based (MB3) estimation method. For more information, see the May 2021 Survey Methods and Reliability Statement at www.bls.gov/oes/methods_21.pdf and the Monthly Labor Review article at www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2019/article/model-based-estimates-for-the-occupational-employment-statistics-program.htm. OEWS estimates for the years 2015-19 were recalculated using the new estimation method and are available as research estimates at www.bls.gov/oes/oes-mb3-methods.htm.

The May 2021 OEWS estimates are also the first estimates based entirely on survey data collected using the 2018 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system. To improve data quality, the OEWS program aggregates some occupations to the SOC broad occupation level or as OEWS-specific combinations of 2018 SOC detailed occupations.


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 2021 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2021, November 2020, May 2020, November 2019, May 2019, and November 2018. The unweighted sampled employment of 82 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 62 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 67.2 percent based on establishments and 64.5 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the St. Cloud, MN Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,335 establishments with a response rate of 73 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. Cloud, MN Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Benton and Stearns Counties.

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 production occupations, St. Cloud metropolitan area, May 2021
Occupation (1) Employment Mean wages
Level (2) Location quotient (3) Hourly Annual (4)

Production occupations

9,650 1.7 $20.54 $42,730

First-line supervisors of production and operating workers

590 1.4 30.45 63,340

Electrical, electronic, and electromechanical assemblers, except coil winders, tapers, and finishers

30 0.2 19.08 39,680

Structural metal fabricators and fitters

120 2.9 23.25 48,350

Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators

1,290 1.4 19.84 41,260

Bakers

210 1.7 16.71 34,750

Butchers and meat cutters

330 3.2 18.87 39,250

Meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers

140 1.5 16.66 34,660

Slaughterers and meat packers

470 7.9 16.98 35,320

Food and tobacco roasting, baking, and drying machine operators and tenders

60 4.4 19.87 41,330

Food batchmakers

200 1.9 17.84 37,100

Food processing workers, all other

50 1.6 18.92 39,350

Extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

60 1.4 20.79 43,230

Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

90 0.7 20.56 42,760

Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

120 2.5 21.52 44,770

Machinists

410 1.8 24.38 50,720

Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

160 1.4 18.45 38,380

Tool and die makers

60 1.3 24.41 50,770

Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers

600 2.2 23.42 48,720

Printing press operators

300 2.9 19.60 40,770

Print binding and finishing workers

100 3.4 19.46 40,490

Laundry and dry-cleaning workers

210 1.9 15.60 32,450

Sewing machine operators

110 1.3 15.94 33,140

Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters

300 4.6 19.05 39,620

Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing

150 3.2 20.05 41,710

Stationary engineers and boiler operators

70 3.5 30.16 62,740

Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators

70 0.8 26.72 55,570

Crushing, grinding, and polishing machine setters, operators, and tenders

70 3.2 22.96 47,760

Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders

80 1.1 19.38 40,310

Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders

60 1.5 21.56 44,850

Extruding, forming, pressing, and compacting machine setters, operators, and tenders

70 1.8 18.36 38,180

Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers

400 1.0 20.67 42,990

Dental laboratory technicians

100 4.2 22.28 46,330

Ophthalmic laboratory technicians

280 21.5 17.01 35,390

Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders

610 2.4 17.48 36,350

Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders

170 1.7 21.29 44,270

Computer numerically controlled tool operators

250 2.3 24.39 50,730

Computer numerically controlled tool programmers

50 2.6 31.51 65,530

Cooling and freezing equipment operators and tenders

60 11.6 17.67 36,760

Helpers--production workers

300 2.1 14.77 30,720

Production workers, all other

140 1.0 18.97 39,460

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the St. Cloud, MN Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_41060.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, August 09, 2022