Workers in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $27.89 in May 2021, compared to the nationwide average of $28.01, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Michael Hirniak noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were lower than their respective national averages in 12 of the 22 major occupational groups, including construction and extraction; arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media; and food preparation and serving related. Three groups had significantly higher wages than their respective national averages: transportation and material moving, sales and related, and architecture and engineering.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Dallas area employment was more highly concentrated in 8 of the 22 occupational groups, including transportation and material moving, office and administrative support, and computer and mathematical. Thirteen groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including healthcare support, healthcare practitioners and technical, and production. (See table A.)

One occupational group—transportation and material moving—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Dallas had 376,950 jobs in transportation and material moving, accounting for 10.5 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 9.0-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $20.62, significantly above the national wage of $19.88.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the transportation and material moving group included stockers and order fillers (82,840); hand laborers and freight, stock, and material movers (75,510); and heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers (60,790). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were air traffic controllers and transportation inspectors with mean hourly wages of $74.13. and $50.14, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were parking attendants ($11.65) and hand packers and packagers($13.10). (Detailed data for the transportation and material moving occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_19100.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 Dallas area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the transportation and material moving group. For instance, wellhead pumpers  were employed at 3.52 times the national rate in Dallas; and airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers, at 2.7 times the U.S. average. Light truck drivers had a location quotient of 1.0 in Dallas, 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 Texas Workforce Commission.

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 Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX Metropolitan Statistical Area included 10,540 establishments with a response rate of 37 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 Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Collin County, Dallas County, Denton County, Ellis County, Hood County, Hunt County, Johnson County, Kaufman County, Parker County, Rockwall County, Somervell County, Tarrant County, and Wise County.

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 transportation and material moving occupations, Dallas metropolitan area, May 2021

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Transportation and material moving occupations	376,950	1.2	$20.62	$42,890
Aircraft cargo handling supervisors	780	3.6	30.05	62,510
First-line supervisors of transportation and material moving workers, except aircraft cargo handling supervisors	15,200	1.1	28.41	59,080
Airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers	5,580	2.7	(6)	213,010
Commercial pilots	1,750	1.6	(6)	120,230
Air traffic controllers	750	1.4	74.13	154,180
Airfield operations specialists	490	1.5	(5)	(5)
Flight attendants	8,320	3.4	(6)	61,000
Ambulance drivers and attendants, except emergency medical technicians	110	0.4	16.32	33,940
Driver/sales workers	10,790	0.9	16.43	34,170
Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers	60,790	1.3	24.39	50,720
Light truck drivers	25,150	1.0	21.04	43,750
Bus drivers, school	7,100	0.8	17.00	35,360
Bus drivers, transit and intercity	(5)	(5)	17.84	37,110
Shuttle drivers and chauffeurs	2,790	0.6	14.12	29,370
Motor vehicle operators, all other	830	0.7	15.61	32,460
Captains, mates, and pilots of water vessels	70	0.1	52.24	108,650
Parking attendants	3,110	1.3	11.65	24,240
Automotive and watercraft service attendants	3,030	1.1	14.57	30,310
Aircraft service attendants	350	1.1	18.72	38,930
Traffic technicians	200	1.0	22.99	47,820
Transportation inspectors	790	1.2	50.14	104,290
Passenger attendants	360	0.7	13.84	28,780
Transportation workers, all other	110	0.3	24.19	50,310
Conveyor operators and tenders	750	1.0	16.48	34,280
Crane and tower operators	1,420	1.3	29.16	60,640
Industrial truck and tractor operators	35,560	1.8	19.16	39,860
Cleaners of vehicles and equipment	10,420	1.2	13.65	28,390
Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand	75,510	1.1	16.21	33,720
Machine feeders and offbearers	2,660	1.7	17.08	35,530
Packers and packagers, hand	12,740	0.9	13.10	27,250
Stockers and order fillers	82,840	1.3	16.31	33,910
Pump operators, except wellhead pumpers	510	1.9	28.56	59,400
Wellhead pumpers	1,440	3.5	37.38	77,750
Refuse and recyclable material collectors	2,940	0.9	16.50	34,320
Material moving workers, all other	160	0.3	19.29	40,130
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_19100.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. (6) Wages for some occupations that do not generally work year-round, full time, are reported either as hourly wages or annual salaries depending on how they are typically paid.