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News Release Information

23-1922-DAL
Tuesday, September 26, 2023

Contacts Technical information: Media contact:
  • (972) 850-4800

Occupational Employment and Wages in San Antonio-New Braunfels — May 2022

Workers in the San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $25.99 in May 2022, 13 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 21 of the 22 major occupational groups, including arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media; legal; and management.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, San Antonio area employment was more highly concentrated in 7 of the 22 occupational groups, including food preparation and serving related, office and administrative support, and healthcare support. Twelve groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including production; computer and mathematical; and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media. (See table A.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the San Antonio metropolitan area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2022
Major occupational group Percent of total employment Mean hourly wage ($)
United States San Antonio United States San Antonio Percent difference (1)

Total, all occupations

100.0 100.0 29.76 25.99* -13

Management

6.7 7.2* 63.08 54.26* -14

Business and financial operations

6.5 6.6 41.39 36.82* -11

Computer and mathematical

3.4 2.7* 51.99 43.88* -16

Architecture and engineering

1.7 1.3* 45.52 41.27* -9

Life, physical, and social science

0.9 0.7* 40.21 36.18* -10

Community and social service

1.6 1.2* 26.81 25.08* -6

Legal

0.8 0.6* 59.87 50.97* -15

Educational instruction and library

5.7 6.2* 30.41 28.24* -7

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.4 0.9* 36.78 27.07* -26

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.1 6.0* 46.52 43.33* -7

Healthcare support

4.6 5.4* 17.10 13.94* -18

Protective service

2.3 2.3 25.97 23.79* -8

Food preparation and serving related

8.5 9.9* 15.45 13.50* -13

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.9 2.8* 17.26 14.64* -15

Personal care and service

1.9 1.9 17.41 15.08* -13

Sales and related

8.9 9.1* 24.22 20.60* -15

Office and administrative support

12.6 13.9* 21.90 20.36* -7

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.3 (2)* 18.21 17.45 -4

Construction and extraction

4.1 4.0* 28.08 23.18* -17

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.9 4.4* 26.77 24.50* -8

Production

5.9 4.1* 21.81 20.05* -8

Transportation and material moving

9.2 8.9* 21.12 18.72* -11

(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in the San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX Metropolitan Statistical Area is above the national mean wage, while a negative difference reflects a lower wage.
(2) Indicates a value of less than 0.05 percent.
* The mean hourly wage or percent share of employment is significantly different from the national average of all areas at the 90-percent confidence level.

One occupational group—office and administrative support—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. San Antonio had 145,380 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 13.9 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 12.6-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $20.36, significantly below the national wage of $21.90.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included customer service representatives (33,350), general office clerks (14,390), and first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers (13,350). 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 $31.46 and $30.02, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($12.58) and clerical library assistants ($14.29). (Detailed data for the office and administrative support occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_41700.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 San Antonio area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, insurance claims and policy processing clerks were employed at 2.9 times the national rate in San Antonio, and reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks, at 2.0 times the U.S. average. Medical secretaries and administrative assistants had a location quotient of 1.0 in San Antonio, 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.

Changes to the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) Data

The May 2022 OEWS estimates use the model-based (MB3) estimation method implemented with the May 2021 estimates release. Additional updates were made to the MB3 wage processing methodology for May 2022. For more information, see the May 2022 Survey Methods and Reliability Statement.

The May 2022 estimates are the first OEWS estimates to be produced using the 2022 NAICS, which replaces the 2017 NAICS used for the May 2017-May 2021 estimates. See North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) at BLS for details.


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 San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX Metropolitan Statistical Area included 4,839 establishments with a response rate of 46 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 San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Atascosa, Bandera, Bexar, Comal, Guadalupe, Kendall, Medina, and Wilson Counties.

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 office and administrative support occupations, San Antonio metropolitan area, May 2022
Occupation (1) Employment Mean wages ($)
Level (2) Location quotient (3) Hourly Annual (4)

Office and administrative support occupations

145,380 1.1 20.36 42,350

First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers

13,350 1.3 30.02 62,430

Switchboard operators, including answering service

450 1.4 14.56 30,290

Bill and account collectors

1,630 1.1 20.19 41,980

Billing and posting clerks

3,050 1.0 19.91 41,410

Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks

10,690 1.0 21.14 43,980

Payroll and timekeeping clerks

1,210 1.1 22.41 46,620

Procurement clerks

630 1.4 21.07 43,820

Tellers

2,220 0.9 17.38 36,140

Financial clerks, all other

460 1.6 21.54 44,800

Brokerage clerks

290 1.0 24.97 51,930

Court, municipal, and license clerks

840 0.7 20.09 41,780

Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks

120 1.1 19.93 41,460

Customer service representatives

33,350 1.6 18.47 38,410

Eligibility interviewers, government programs

860 0.8 17.42 36,230

File clerks

780 1.3 17.48 36,350

Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks

2,030 1.2 12.58 26,160

Interviewers, except eligibility and loan

1,280 1.1 18.24 37,950

Library assistants, clerical

390 0.7 14.29 29,720

Loan interviewers and clerks

2,290 1.3 23.22 48,300

New accounts clerks

390 1.2 19.80 41,180

Order clerks

490 0.6 17.00 35,370

Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping

970 1.3 21.09 43,870

Receptionists and information clerks

8,510 1.2 15.16 31,540

Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks

1,670 2.0 22.07 45,910

Information and record clerks, all other

1,670 1.6 19.72 41,020

Cargo and freight agents

360 0.5 21.45 44,620

Couriers and messengers

480 0.9 16.08 33,440

Public safety telecommunicators

600 0.9 20.87 43,410

Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance

1,660 1.1 20.96 43,600

Meter readers, utilities

170 1.2 18.32 38,110

Postal service clerks

360 0.6 26.20 54,490

Postal service mail carriers

2,050 0.9 26.74 55,630

Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators

750 0.9 25.19 52,390

Production, planning, and expediting clerks

2,260 0.8 24.14 50,210

Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks

5,560 0.9 17.70 36,820

Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping

410 1.1 19.29 40,120

Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants

2,090 0.6 31.46 65,430

Legal secretaries and administrative assistants

780 0.7 24.03 49,980

Medical secretaries and administrative assistants

4,840 1.0 18.23 37,910

Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive

11,030 0.9 19.44 40,440

Data entry keyers

1,330 1.2 17.04 35,450

Word processors and typists

60 0.2 21.71 45,160

Insurance claims and policy processing clerks

4,690 2.9 24.32 50,580

Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service

340 0.7 16.60 34,530

Office clerks, general

14,390 0.8 18.02 37,490

Office machine operators, except computer

330 1.5 17.33 36,040

Office and administrative support workers, all other

1,120 0.9 20.42 42,470

(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_41700.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.

 

Last Modified Date: Tuesday, September 26, 2023