Springfield wages grow 2.6% in latest survey

Springfield metropolitan area wages are growing slowly but steadily despite the weakened economy, according to the latest National Compensation Survey by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The survey, released June 19, shows full-time employees among the more than 200 businesses surveyed in the Springfield area earned an average hourly wage of $16.74 as of October 2008. The Springfield metro covers Christian, Dallas, Greene, Polk and Webster counties.

While that number is up 2.6 percent from the $16.32 posted for full-time workers in 2007, BLS spokeswoman Cassandra Yocum said the bureau does not use the numbers for purposes of year-to-year comparison. She noted that the survey is more of a snapshot of the area; different companies are surveyed each year and different workers are surveyed at those companies, meaning direct annual comparison is impossible.

"They select establishments using probability sampling, so from year to year, you might select different establishments," Yocum said. "Then, once they have the establishment, they do another probability sample for occupation, so you might not get the same occupations at the same establishment from year to year. That's why they're considered snapshots as opposed to time series."

Among the numbers in the survey, Springfield-area management employees averaged $25.38 an hour; production workers earned an hourly wage of $13.83, and service employees averaged $9.54 per hour.[[In-content Ad]]See SBJ's June 29 issue for more on the latest compensation survey.