Workers in the Roanoke Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $20.20 in May 2014, 11 percent below the nationwide average of $22.71, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Sheila Watkins, the Bureau’s regional commissioner, noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were significantly lower than their respective national averages in 17 of the 22 major occupational groups, including legal, computer and mathematical, and architecture and engineering. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Roanoke employment shares were significantly higher in 4 of the 22 occupational groups including health care practitioners and technical and office and administrative support. Conversely, nine groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation; these groups included management, building and grounds cleaning and maintenance, and computer and mathematical.

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Roanoke Metropolitan Statistical Area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2014

Major occupational group	Employment share (percent of total)			Average (mean) hourly wage
	United States	Roanoke	Significant difference (1)	United States	Roanoke	Significant difference (1)	Percent difference (2)
Total, all occupations	100.0%	100.0%		$22.71	$20.20	Yes	-11
Management	5.0	3.6	Yes	54.08	49.58	Yes	-8
Business and financial operations	5.1	4.7	No	34.81	29.46	Yes	-15
Computer and mathematical	2.8	2.2	Yes	40.37	33.27	Yes	-18
Architecture and engineering	1.8	1.2	Yes	39.19	32.37	Yes	-17
Life, physical, and social science	0.8	0.4	Yes	33.69	28.52	Yes	-15
Community and social service	1.4	1.8	Yes	21.79	21.70	No	0
Legal	0.8	0.6	Yes	48.61	38.27	Yes	-21
Education, training, and library	6.2	5.3	No	25.10	23.96	No	-5
Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media	1.3	1.0	Yes	26.82	21.06	Yes	-21
Healthcare practitioners and technical	5.8	8.2	Yes	36.54	36.26	No	-1
Healthcare support	2.9	3.1	No	13.86	13.17	Yes	-5
Protective service	2.4	2.4	No	21.14	16.37	Yes	-23
Food preparation and serving related	9.1	8.6	Yes	10.57	9.93	Yes	-6
Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance	3.2	2.5	Yes	12.68	11.10	Yes	-12
Personal care and service	3.1	3.0	No	12.01	11.07	Yes	-8
Sales and related	10.5	10.6	No	18.59	17.07	Yes	-8
Office and administrative support	16.0	17.2	Yes	17.08	15.77	Yes	-8
Farming, fishing, and forestry	0.3	0.1	Yes	12.09	14.30	Yes	18
Construction and extraction	3.9	4.1	No	22.40	17.29	Yes	-23
Installation, maintenance, and repair	3.9	4.5	Yes	21.74	18.84	Yes	-13
Production	6.6	7.7	No	17.06	15.56	Yes	-9
Transportation and material moving	6.8	7.2	No	16.57	15.98	No	-4
Footnotes: (1) Statistical significance testing at the 90-percent confidence level. (2) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in Roanoke is above the national mean wage, while a negative percent difference reflects a lower wage.

One occupational group—healthcare practitioners and technical—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Roanoke had 12,350 jobs in the healthcare practitioners and technical group, accounting for 8.2 percent of local area employment, significantly larger than the 5.8-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $36.26, not significantly different from the national average of $36.54.

With employment of 4,150, registered nurses was the largest occupation within the healthcare practitioners and technical group, followed by licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses (1,340). Among the higher-paying jobs were surgeons with a mean hourly wage of $94.20 and pharmacists with a wage of $60.30. At the lower end of the wage scale were pharmacy technicians ($14.07) and medical records and health information technicians ($17.46). (Detailed occupational data for healthcare and practitioners are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_40220.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 as it does nationally. In the Roanoke area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in several of the occupations within the healthcare practitioners and technical group. For instance, surgeons were employed at over two-and-a-half times the national rate in Roanoke, and general internists at over three times the U.S. average. On the other hand, veterinary technologists and technicians had a location quotient of 1.0 in Roanoke, 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 Virginia Employment Commission.

Technical Note

The Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey is a semiannual mail survey measuring occupational employment and wage rates for wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments in the United States. Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands are also surveyed, but their data are not included in the national estimates. OES estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.2 million establishments Each year, forms are mailed to two semiannual panels of approximately 200,000 sampled establishments, one panel in May and the other in November. May 2014 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2014, November 2013, May 2013, November 2012, May 2012, and November 2011. The overall national response rate for the six panels is 74.3 percent based on establishments and 70.5 percent based on employment. The sample in the Roanoke Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,841 establishments with a response rate of 73 percent. For more information about OES concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.tn.htm.

The OES survey provides estimates of employment and hourly and annual wages for wage and salary workers in 22 major occupational groups and 821 detailed occupations for the nation, states, metropolitan statistical areas, metropolitan divisions, and nonmetropolitan areas. In addition, employment and wage estimates for 94 minor groups and 458 broad occupations are available in the national data. OES data by state and metropolitan/nonmetropolitan area are available from www.bls.gov/oes/current/oessrcst.htm and www.bls.gov/oes/current/oessrcma.htm, respectively.

The May 2014 OES estimates are based on the 2010 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system and the 2012 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). Information about the 2010 SOC is available on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/soc and information about the 2012 NAICS is available at www.bls.gov/bls/naics.htm.

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 Roanoke, Va. Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Botetourt, Craig, Franklin, and Roanoke Counties and Roanoke and Salem Cities in Virginia.

Additional information

OES data are available on our regional web page at https://www.bls.gov/regions/mid-atlantic. Answers to frequently asked questions about the OES data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_ques.htm. Detailed technical information about the OES survey is available in our Survey Methods and Reliability Statement on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/oes/current/methods_statement.pdf. Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request – Voice phone: 202-691-5200; Federal Relay Service: 1-800-877-8339.

Table 1. Employment and wage data from the Occupational Employment Statistics survey, by occupation, Roanoke Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2014

Occupation (1)	Employment (2)		Mean wage
	Level	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Healthcare practitioners and technical occupations	12,350	1.4	$36.26	$75,430
Dentists, general	110	1.0	91.70	190,730
Dietitians and nutritionists	80	1.2	26.98	56,110
Optometrists	70	1.9	60.69	126,240
Pharmacists	510	1.6	60.30	125,430
Family and general practitioners	180	1.3	71.34	148,390
Internists, general	160	3.0	85.77	178,400
Obstetricians and gynecologists	70	3.0	98.05	203,950
Pediatricians, general	40	1.1	84.85	176,480
Surgeons	130	2.8	94.20	195,940
Physicians and surgeons, all other	660	1.9	107.16	222,900
Physician assistants	190	1.9	44.08	91,680
Occupational therapists	130	1.1	38.72	80,530
Physical therapists	290	1.3	50.52	105,090
Respiratory therapists	200	1.5	25.15	52,310
Speech-language pathologists	150	1.0	34.57	71,900
Exercise physiologists	40	5.1	22.65	47,110
Veterinarians	80	1.1	61.82	128,580
Registered nurses	4,150	1.4	28.45	59,170
Nurse practitioners	140	1.1	42.01	87,380
Audiologists	(5)	(5)	33.40	69,480
Medical and clinical laboratory technologists	190	1.1	21.05	43,790
Medical and clinical laboratory technicians	270.0	1.5	20.91	43,490
Dental hygienists	170	0.8	34.98	72,760
Cardiovascular technologists and technicians	50	0.9	28.73	59,760
Diagnostic medical sonographers	110	1.6	31.01	64,500
Nuclear medicine technologists	30	1.4	31.39	65,290
Radiologic technologists	290	1.3	23.68	49,250
Magnetic resonance image technologists	(5)	(5)	29.60	61,570
Pharmacy technicians	470	1.1	14.07	29,270
Surgical technologists	170.0	1.6	18.42	38,320
Veterinary technologists and technicians	110	1.0	17.49	36,380
Ophthalmic medical technicians	100	2.4	12.58	26,170
Licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses	1,340	1.7	19.04	39,610
Medical records and health information technicians	340	1.6	17.46	36,320
Opticians, dispensing	(5)	(5)	17.51	36,420
Health technolgists and technicians, all other	90	0.8	(5)	(5)
Occupational health and safety specialists	90	1.3	28.17	58,600
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Roanoke MSA, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_40220.htm. (2) Estimates for detailed occupations do not sum to the totals because the totals include occupations 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 available.