Workers in the Laredo, TX Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $18.45 in May 2019, about 28 percent below the nationwide average of $25.72, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Acting Regional Commissioner Susan Mendez noted that, after testing for statistical significance, 20 of the 22 major occupational groups had average wages in the local area that were significantly lower than their respective national averages, including computer and mathematical, construction and extraction, and sales and related. Only one local group, protective service, had wages that were significantly above their respective national average.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Laredo area employment was more highly concentrated in 6 of the 22 occupational groups including healthcare support, office and administrative support, and transportation and material moving. Fourteen groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including production, computer and mathematical, and healthcare practitioners and technical. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

One occupational group–office and administrative support–was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Laredo had 18,910 jobs in office and administrative support occupations, accounting for 18.1 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 13.3-percent national share. The local average hourly wage for this occupational group was $15.47, significantly lower than the national average of $19.73.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included customer service representatives (3,140), general office clerks (2,990), and shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks (1,380). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants and first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers, with mean hourly wages of $23.56 and $22.48, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($10.01) and receptionists and information clerks ($10.66). (Detailed data for the office and administrative support occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_29700.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 Laredo area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, cargo and freight agents were employed at 14.7 times the national rate in the Laredo area, and dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance, at 4.1 times the U.S. average. Laredo’s location quotients for both of these occupations were among the highest in all the published metropolitan areas nationwide for these particular occupations. On the other hand, bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks, had a location quotient of 1.1 in the greater Laredo area, indicating that this particular occupation’s local and national employment shares were similar.

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 Texas Workforce Commission.

Technical Note

The Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey is a semiannual survey measuring occupational employment and wage rates for wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments in the United States. The OES 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. OES data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm.

The OES 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. OES estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.1 million establishments. Each year, two semiannual panels of approximately 180,000 to 200,000 sampled establishments are contacted, one panel in May and the other in November. Responses are obtained by mail, Internet or other electronic means, email, telephone, or personal visit. The May 2019 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2019, November 2018, May 2018, November 2017, May 2017, and November 2016. The unweighted sampled employment of 83 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 57 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 71 percent based on establishments and 68 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Laredo, TX Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,113 establishments with a response rate of 58 percent. For more information about OES 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.

The May 2019 OES estimates are the first set of OES estimates to be based in part on survey data collected using the 2018 SOC. These estimates use a hybrid of the 2010 and 2018 SOC systems. More information on the hybrid classification system is available at www.bls.gov/oes/soc_2018.htm.

The May 2019 OES estimates are based on the 2017 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). More information about the 2017 NAICS is available at www.bls.gov/bls/naics.htm.

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 Laredo, TX Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Webb County in Texas.

For more information

Answers to frequently asked questions about the OES data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_ques.htm. Detailed information about the OES program is available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_doc.htm.

Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; Federal Relay Service: (800) 877-8339.

 Table 1.  Employment and wage data for office and administrative occupations, Laredo, TX Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2019

Occupation(1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level(2)	Location quotient(3)	Hourly	Annual(4)
Office and administrative support occupations	18,910	1.4	$15.47	$32,180
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	1,220	1.2	22.48	46,760
Bill and account collectors	170	1.0	15.01	31,220
Billing and posting clerks	410	1.2	14.64	30,450
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	1,220	1.1	14.45	30,060
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	110	1.1	17.60	36,610
Procurement clerks	50	1.0	15.83	32,920
Tellers	560	1.8	13.23	27,510
Court, municipal, and license clerks	150	1.4	18.00	37,440
Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks	40	2.3	14.96	31,120
Customer service representatives	3,140	1.5	15.19	31,600
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	160	1.6	17.99	37,420
File clerks	120	1.6	11.67	24,270
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	280	1.5	10.01	20,830
Interviewers, except eligibility and loan	30	0.3	13.45	27,970
Library assistants, clerical	80	1.3	14.27	29,680
Order clerks	120	1.2	13.81	28,730
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	90	1.0	17.19	35,760
Receptionists and information clerks	480	0.6	10.66	22,160
Information and record clerks, all other	400	3.6	13.91	28,930
Cargo and freight agents	1,000	14.7	17.04	35,440
Couriers and messengers	80	1.5	11.05	22,970
Public safety telecommunicators	60	0.9	16.73	34,800
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	580	4.1	18.99	39,500
Postal service mail carriers	140	0.6	25.91	53,890
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	230	0.9	17.64	36,690
Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks	1,380	2.8	13.05	27,140
Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping	(5)	(5)	14.07	29,270
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	190	0.5	23.56	49,010
Legal secretaries and administrative assistants	(5)	(5)	18.47	38,420
Medical secretaries and administrative assistants	570	1.3	14.41	29,980
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	1,710	1.2	14.47	30,100
Data entry keyers	360	3.2	11.65	24,230
Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service	40	0.6	11.99	24,930
Office clerks, general	2,990	1.4	14.95	31,110
Office machine operators, except computer	30	1.0	10.50	21,850
Office and administrative support workers, all other	100	0.7	15.29	31,810
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Laredo, TX Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_29700.htm. (2) Estimates for detailed occupations may not sum to the totals due to rounding, and because the totals may include occupations that 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) Estimates not released.