Workers in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $29.41 in May 2022, 1 percent below the nationwide average of $29.76, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Assistant Commissioner for Regional Operations Michael Hirniak noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were lower than their respective national averages in 17 of the 22 major occupational groups, including arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media; life, physical, and social science; and construction and extraction. Three groups had significantly higher wages than their respective national averages, including legal and also transportation and material moving.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Dallas area employment was more highly concentrated in 7 of the 22 occupational groups, including management, office and administrative support, and transportation and material moving. 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 401,200 jobs in transportation and material moving, accounting for 10.5 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 9.2-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $21.58, significantly above the national wage of $21.12.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the transportation and material moving group included stockers and order fillers (90,790), laborers and hand freight, stock, and material movers (82,030), and heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers (61,560). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were transportation inspectors and wellhead pumpers, with mean hourly wages of $45.08 and $35.70, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were parking attendants ($13.31) and cleaners of vehicles and equipment ($14.19). (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, flight attendants were employed at 2.7 times the national rate in Dallas, and airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers, at 2.4 times the U.S. average. Refuse and recyclable material collectors 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 2022 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2022, November 2021, May 2021, November 2020, May 2020, and November 2019. The unweighted sampled employment of 80 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 65.4 percent based on establishments and 62.5 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX Metropolitan Statistical Area included 10,720 establishments with a response rate of 39 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 2022

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages ($)
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Transportation and material moving occupations	401,200	1.2	21.58	44,880
Aircraft cargo handling supervisors	670	3.3	27.06	56,290
First-line supervisors of transportation and material moving workers, except aircraft cargo handling supervisors	17,350	1.1	28.63	59,550
Airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers	5,540	2.4	(6)	221,090
Commercial pilots	2,060	1.6	(6)	132,720
Airfield operations specialists	500	1.3	(5)	(5)
Flight attendants	7,550	2.7	(6)	64,160
Ambulance drivers and attendants, except emergency medical technicians	80	0.3	16.94	35,240
Driver/sales workers	10,260	0.8	18.37	38,210
Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers	61,560	1.2	24.73	51,440
Light truck drivers	26,380	1.0	22.27	46,320
Bus drivers, school	7,380	0.8	20.72	43,090
Bus drivers, transit and intercity	820	0.2	19.56	40,690
Shuttle drivers and chauffeurs	2,710	0.5	16.56	34,440
Motor vehicle operators, all other	1,090	0.9	14.17	29,460
Railroad conductors and yardmasters	120	0.1	30.61	63,680
Captains, mates, and pilots of water vessels	100	0.1	55.41	115,250
Parking attendants	3,980	1.5	13.31	27,680
Automotive and watercraft service attendants	1,660	0.7	15.41	32,060
Aircraft service attendants	180	0.4	20.34	42,310
Traffic technicians	160	0.9	24.28	50,500
Transportation inspectors	1,090	1.7	45.08	93,770
Passenger attendants	500	1.5	16.41	34,130
Transportation workers, all other	100	0.3	25.88	53,820
Conveyor operators and tenders	460	0.7	20.24	42,100
Crane and tower operators	1,290	1.1	29.42	61,190
Industrial truck and tractor operators	38,420	1.9	20.35	42,330
Cleaners of vehicles and equipment	8,620	0.9	14.19	29,520
Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand	82,030	1.1	17.38	36,150
Machine feeders and offbearers	1,520	1.2	17.29	35,970
Packers and packagers, hand	19,730	1.2	15.32	31,870
Stockers and order fillers	90,790	1.2	17.38	36,150
Pump operators, except wellhead pumpers	590	2.1	29.06	60,440
Wellhead pumpers	950	2.5	35.70	74,250
Refuse and recyclable material collectors	3,480	1.0	19.49	40,540
Material moving workers, all other	90	0.1	21.96	45,690
(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.