Bureau of Labor Statistics
General Information: (312) 353-1880 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media Contact: Paul LaPorte Tuesday, November 13, 2007 (312) 353 -1138 www.bls.gov/ro5 www.bls.gov/oes 2006 Detailed Data Tables OCCUPATIONAL EMPLOYMENT AND WAGES MINNEAPOLIS-ST. PAUL-BLOOMINGTON, MN-WI MAY 2006 Workers in the Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, Minnesota- Wisconsin Metropolitan Statistical Area1 had an average (mean) wage of $21.63 per hour during May 2006 compared to the nationwide average of $18.84, according to the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. Regional Commissioner Jay A. Mousa noted that after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were measurably higher in 15 of the 22 major occupational groups and lower in two others. In addition, when compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 10 of the 22 occupational groups, including five of the better paid-management; legal; computer and mathematical; architecture and engineering; and life, physical and social science. These statistics are from the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey, a federal-state cooperative program between BLS and State Workforce Agencies, in this case the Minnesota Department of Employment Security. The OES survey provides estimates of employment and hourly and annual wages for wage and salary workers in 22 major occupational groups and up to 801 non-military detailed occupations for the nation, states, and 409 metropolitan areas, including Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, Minnesota-Wisconsin. Occupational wages in the Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington area Management and legal occupations were the two highest-paid occupational groups in the Minneapolis area in May 2006, with those in management averaging $49.21 an hour and those in legal occupations, $44.00. (See table A.) Nationwide, these were also the two highest-paying groups, with earnings of $44.20 in management and $41.04 in legal occupations.
Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and Minneapolis
metropolitan area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2006
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| Employment share | Average (mean)
| (percent of total) | hourly wage
Major occupational group |--------------------------|------------------------
|United |Minneap-|Statis- |United |Minneap-|Statis-
|States |olis |tically |States |olis |tically
| | |signif- | | |signif-
| | |icant1 | | |icant1
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Management 4.4 5.6 Yes $44.20 $49.21 Yes
Business and financial operations 4.4 6.5 Yes 28.85 28.48 No
Computer and mathematical 2.3 3.5 Yes 33.29 33.68 No
Architecture and engineering 1.8 2.2 Yes 31.82 30.71 Yes
Life, physical, and social science .9 1.2 Yes 28.68 30.51 Yes
Community and social services 1.3 1.6 Yes 18.75 19.51 No
Legal .7 .8 Yes 41.04 44.00 No
Education, training, and library 6.2 5.2 Yes 21.79 21.06 Yes
Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media 1.3 1.5 Yes 22.17 23.69 Yes
Healthcare practitioner and technical 5.1 4.8 No 29.82 34.26 Yes
Healthcare support 2.6 2.4 Yes 11.83 13.72 Yes
Protective service 2.3 1.7 Yes 17.81 18.15 No
Food preparation and serving related 8.3 8.0 Yes 8.86 9.72 Yes
Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance 3.3 2.8 Yes 10.86 12.19 Yes
Personal care and service 2.5 3.1 Yes 11.02 12.07 Yes
Sales and related 10.6 10.9 Yes 16.52 19.64 Yes
Office and administrative support 17.4 16.8 Yes 14.60 16.13 Yes
Farming, fishing, and forestry .3 .1 Yes 10.49 12.46 Yes
Construction and extraction 5.0 4.1 Yes 18.89 24.98 Yes
Installation, maintenance, and repair 4.0 3.2 Yes 18.78 21.66 Yes
Production 7.7 8.0 No 14.65 16.54 Yes
Transportation and material moving 7.3 6.2 Yes 14.16 16.70 Yes
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1 Statistical significance testing at the 90-percent confidence level.
The average wage for workers in management occupations in the Minneapolis area was significantly above that for the nation. Locally, hourly wages varied widely within this group. At $82.98 an hour, chief executives were at the higher end of the pay scale, while several occupations had hourly rates in the $50.00 range, including sales, marketing, financial, and training and development managers. Three management occupations had rates under $25.00 (education administrators, preschool and child care center/program; food service; and lodging managers). (Detailed occupational data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_33460.htm.) Within the legal occupational group in Minneapolis, lawyers were among the higher paid occupations at $57.29 an hour, while law clerks were at the lower end of the wage scale, averaging $20.58 an hour. At $34.26, the average wage for the healthcare practitioner and technical occupational group in the Minneapolis area was significantly above the national average of $29.82. Locally, within this group, anesthesiologists, orthodontists, family and general practitioners, and general dentists had among the highest average hourly earnings. Pay for these occupations was greater than $60.00 an hour. At the other end of the spectrum, hourly earnings averaged $20.00 or less for pharmacy technicians, medical records and health information technicians, and licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses. Other occupational groups in the Minneapolis area with pay levels above $30.00 per hour were computer and mathematical; architecture and engineering; and life, physical, and social science. Of these three, only the life, physical, and social science occupational group had wages significantly above the national average - $30.51 locally vs. $28.68 nationally. In the Twin Cities area, physicists, materials scientists, and food scientists and technologists were among the better paid within this group. Local construction and extraction workers earned 32 percent more than their national counterparts. In Minneapolis, construction workers earned $24.98 an hour on average, significantly more than the $18.89 paid nationwide. Five of the higher-paying jobs in this occupational group averaged more than $30.00 an hour--mechanical insulation workers; first-line supervisors/managers of construction trades and extraction workers; elevator installers and repairers; drywall and ceiling tile installers; and structural iron and steel workers. One of the lower-paying jobs in this group was carpenter helpers, which had an average wage of $12.70 per hour. Food preparation and serving related workers were the lowest- paid occupational group in Minneapolis at $9.72 an hour; still, this wage was significantly above the national average of $8.86. Within this group, chefs and head cooks were among the highest paid occupations at $18.71 an hour. Seven occupations averaged from $8.00 to $9.00 an hour, including dishwashers ($8.58) and fast food cooks ($8.57). Occupational employment in the Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington area Office and administrative support was the largest major occupational group in the Minneapolis area, with 297,430 workers representing 16.8 percent of area employment. (See table A.) However, the share of workers in this occupational group locally was significantly below the U.S. average of 17.4 percent; nationally, this was also the largest occupational group. In the Minneapolis metropolitan area, general office clerks (44,890), customer service representatives (29,140), and stock clerks and order fillers (24,510) were among the largest office and administrative support occupations. (Detailed occupational data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_33460.htm.) Sales and related workers represented the second largest major occupational group with a 10.9-percent share of the local workforce compared with 10.6 percent nationwide. The relatively low-paid positions of retail salespersons ($11.64) and cashiers ($9.25) accounted for nearly one-half of local employment in this group, with 52,740 and 39,050 workers, respectively. However, one sales occupation in Minneapolis-St. Paul, wholesale and manufacturing sales representatives (except technical and scientific products), accounted for 13 percent of employment and had earnings approaching $32.00 an hour. Two major occupational groups in the Minneapolis area had employment concentrations of 8 percent-production occupations and food preparation and serving related occupations. The production group's local employment share was above its national share of 7.7 percent. Team assemblers, with 22,360 workers, was one of the largest production occupations. Within the food preparation and serving related group, two jobs accounted for nearly half of local employment--combined food preparation and serving workers, including fast food (38,120) and waiters and waitresses (31,950). Local pay levels for both production workers ($16.54) and food preparation and serving related workers ($9.72) were significantly higher than the national averages of $14.65 and $8.86, respectively. ______________________________________________________________ 1 The Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) is composed of Anoka, Carver, Chisago, Dakota, Hennepin, Isanti, Ramsey, Scott, Sherburne, Washington and Wright Counties in Minnesota, and Pierce and St. Croix Counties in Wisconsin. Minneapolis, the Minneapolis metropolitan area, Twin Cities, and other such abbreviations are used interchangeably to refer to the officially designated MSA.
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The OES wage and employment data for the 22 major occupational groups
in the Minneapolis metropolitan area were compared to their
respective national averages based on statistical significance
testing. Only those occupations with wages or employment shares
above or below the national wage or share after testing for
significance at the 90 percent confidence level meet the criteria.
NOTE: 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.
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Technical Note
The Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey is a
semiannual mail survey measuring occupational employment and wage
rates for wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments in the
United States. Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands also are
surveyed, but their data are not included in this release. OES
estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.2 million
establishments. Forms are mailed to approximately 200,000
establishments in May and November of each year for a 3-year period.
The nationwide response rate for the May 2006 survey was 78.1 percent
based on establishments and 73.4 percent based on employment. The
survey included establishments sampled in the May 2006, November
2005, May 2005, November 2004, May 2004, and November 2003 semiannual
panels. The sample in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area
included 11,674 establishments with a response rate of 76 percent.
The occupational coding system
The OES survey uses the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB)
occupational classification system, the Standard Occupational
Classification (SOC) system. The SOC system is the first OMB-
required occupational classification system for federal agencies.
The OES survey categorizes workers in 1 of 801 detailed occupations.
Together, these detailed occupations make up 23 major occupational
groups, 22 of which are covered in this release. The one exception
is military specific occupations which are not included in the OES
survey.
For more information about the SOC system, please see the Bureau
of Labor Statistics (BLS) Web site at http://www.bls.gov/soc/.
The industry coding system
The OES survey uses the North American Industry Classification
System (NAICS). For more information about NAICS, see the BLS Web
site at http://www.bls.gov/bls/naics.htm.
Survey sample
BLS funds the survey and provides the procedures and technical
support, while the State Workforce Agencies (SWAs) collect most of
the data. BLS produces cross-industry and industry-specific
estimates for the nation, states, and metropolitan statistical areas
(MSAs). Industry-specific estimates are produced at the NAICS
sector, 3-digit, 4-digit, and selected 5-digit industry levels. BLS
releases all cross-industry and national estimates; the SWAs release
industry-specific estimates at the state and MSA levels.
State Unemployment Insurance (UI) files provide the universe
from which the OES survey draws its sample. Employment benchmarks
are obtained from reports submitted by employers to the UI program.
The OES survey sample is stratified by metropolitan and
nonmetropolitan areas and industry. Samples selected in panels prior
to May 2005 were stratified using MSA definitions based on the 1990
Metropolitan Statistical Area standards. Beginning with the May 2005
panel, the sample was stratified using new MSA definitions based on
the 2000 Metropolitan Statistical Area standards.
Concepts
Occupational employment is the estimate of total wage and salary
employment in an occupation across the industries surveyed. The OES
survey defines employment as the number of workers who can be
classified as full- or part-time employees, including workers on paid
vacations or other types of paid leave; workers on unpaid short-term
absences; salaried officers, executives, and staff members of
incorporated firms; employees temporarily assigned to other units;
and employees for whom the reporting unit is their permanent duty
station regardless of whether that unit prepares their paycheck.
Wages for the OES survey are straight-time, gross pay, exclusive
of premium pay. Base rate, cost-of-living allowances, guaranteed
pay, hazardous-duty pay, incentive pay including commissions and
production bonuses, tips, and on-call pay are included. Excluded
are: back pay, jury duty pay, overtime pay, severance pay, shift
differentials, non-production bonuses, employer cost for
supplementary benefits, and tuition reimbursements.
Mean hourly wage. The mean hourly wage rate for an occupation
is the total wages that all workers in the occupation earn in an hour
divided by the total employment of the occupation. To calculate the
mean hourly wage of each occupation, total weighted hourly wages are
summed across all intervals and divided by the occupation's weighted
survey employment. The mean wage for each interval is based on
occupational wage data collected by the BLS Office of Compensation
and Working Conditions for the National Compensation Survey (NCS).
Annual wage. Many employees are paid at an hourly rate by their
employers and may work more than or less than 40 hours per week.
Annual wage estimates for most occupations in this release are
calculated by multiplying the mean hourly wage by a "year-round, full-
time" figure of 2,080 hours (52 weeks by 40 hours). Thus, annual
wage estimates may not represent the actual annual pay received by
the employee if they work more or less than 2,080 hours per year.
Some workers typically work less than full time, year round. For
these occupations, the OES survey collects and reports either the
annual salary or the hourly wage rate, depending on how the
occupation is typically paid, but not both. For example, teachers,
flight attendants, and pilots may be paid an annual salary, but do
not work the usual 2,080 hours per year. In this case, an annual
salary is reported. Other workers, such as entertainment workers are
paid hourly rates, but generally do not work full time, year round.
For these workers, only an hourly wage is reported.
Hourly versus annual wage reporting. For each occupation,
respondents are asked to report the number of employees paid within
specific wage intervals. The intervals are defined both as hourly
rates and the corresponding annual rates, where the annual rate for
an occupation is calculated by multiplying the hourly wage rate by a
typical work year of 2,080 hours. The responding establishment can
reference either the hourly or the annual rate for full-time workers,
but they are instructed to report the hourly rate for part-time
workers.
Estimation methodology
Each OES panel includes approximately 200,000 establishments.
The OES survey is designed to produce estimates using six panels (3
years) of data. The full six-panel sample of 1.2 million
establishments allows the production of estimates at detailed levels
of geography, industry, and occupation.
Wage updating. Significant reductions in sampling errors are
obtained by combining six panels of data, particularly for small
geographic areas and occupations. Wages for the current panel need
no adjustment. However, wages in the five previous panels need to be
updated to the current panel's reference period.
The OES program uses the BLS Employment Cost Index (ECI) to
adjust survey data from prior panels before combining them with the
current panel's data. The wage updating procedure adjusts each
detailed occupation's wage rate, as measured in the earlier panel,
according to the average movement of its broader occupational
division. The procedure assumes that there are no major differences
by geography, industry, or detailed occupation within the
occupational division.
May 2006 OES survey estimates. The May 2006 OES survey
estimates are based on all data collected from establishments in the
May 2006, November 2005, May 2005, November 2004, May 2004, and
November 2003 semiannual samples.
Reliability of the estimates.
Estimates calculated from a
sample survey are subject to two types of error: sampling and
nonsampling. Sampling error occurs when estimates are calculated
from a subset (that is, a sample) of the population instead of the
full population. When a sample of the population is surveyed, there
is a chance that the sample estimate of the characteristic of
interest may differ from the population value of that characteristic.
Differences between the sample estimate and the population value will
vary depending on the sample selected. This variability can be
estimated by calculating the standard error (SE) of the sample
estimate. If we were to repeat the sampling and estimation process
countless times using the same survey design, approximately 90
percent of the intervals created by adding and subtracting 1.645 SEs
from the sample estimate would include the population value. These
intervals are called 90-percent confidence intervals. The OES
survey, however, usually uses the relative standard error (RSE) of a
sample estimate instead of its SE to measure sampling error. RSE is
defined as the SE of a sample estimate divided by the sample estimate
itself. This statistic provides the user with a measure of the
relative precision of the sample estimate. RSEs are calculated for
both occupational employment and mean wage rate estimates.
Occupational employment RSEs are calculated using a subsample, random
group replication technique called the jackknife. Mean wage rate
RSEs are calculated using a variance components model that accounts
for both the observed and unobserved components of the wage data.
The variances of the unobserved components are estimated using wage
data from the BLS National Compensation Survey. In general,
estimates based on many establishments have lower RSEs than estimates
based on few establishments. If the distributional assumptions of
the models are violated, the resulting confidence intervals may not
reflect the prescribed level of confidence.
Nonsampling error occurs for a variety of reasons, none of which
are directly connected to sampling. Examples of nonsampling error
include: nonresponse, data incorrectly reported by the respondent,
mistakes made in entering collected data into the database, and
mistakes made in editing and processing the collected data.
Additional information
The May 2006 OES national data by occupation, are available on
the BLS Web site at http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm.
Users also may access each occupation's
definition and percentile wages. The May 2006 cross-industry data
for states and metropolitan areas are available on the BLS Web site.
Industry staffing patterns at the sector, 3-, 4-, and selected 5-
digit NAICS levels also are also available from the Internet. These
data include industry-specific occupational employment and wage data.
A more detailed technical note for OES is available at
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.tn.htm.
If you have additional questions, you can contact an economist
in the Chicago information office at (312) 353-1880, menu option 0,
from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. (CT). Information in this release will be
made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone:
202-691-5200; TDD message referral phone number: 1-800-877-8339.
Last Modified Date: November 13, 2007
