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News Release Information

17-796-KAN
Thursday, September 28, 2017

Contacts Technical information: Media contact:
  • (816) 285-7000

Occupational Employment and Wages in Grand Junction — May 2016

Workers in the Grand Junction Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $21.21 in May 2016, about 11 percent below the nationwide average of $23.86, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Assistant Commissioner for Regional Operations Stanley W. Suchman noted that, after testing for statistical significance, 13 groups in the local area were lower than their respective national averages in 22 occupational groups including legal; arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media; and management. 

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 8 of the 22 occupational groups, including construction and extraction; sales and related; and healthcare practitioners and technical. Conversely, 10 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including production; computer and mathematical; and management. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Grand Junction Metropolitan Statistical Area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2016
Major occupational groupPercent of total employmentMean hourly wage
United StatesGrand JunctionUnited StatesGrand JunctionPercent difference (1)

Total, all occupations

100.0100.0$23.86$21.21*-11

Management

5.13.4*56.7446.69*-18

Business and financial operations

5.24.2*36.0930.94*-14

Computer and mathematical

3.01.0*42.2535.42*-16

Architecture and engineering

1.81.1*40.5335.68*-12

Life, physical, and social science

0.80.9*35.0630.96*-12

Community and social service

1.42.2*22.6920.72*-9

Legal

0.80.7*50.9532.95*-35

Education, training, and library

6.25.6*26.2121.77*-17

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.41.228.0717.60*-37

Healthcare practitioners and technical

5.98.0*38.0639.012

Healthcare support

2.93.4*14.6514.36-2

Protective service

2.42.2*22.0322.130

Food preparation and serving related

9.210.8*11.4710.69*-7

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

3.22.813.4713.933

Personal care and service

3.22.812.7411.63*-9

Sales and related

10.412.6*19.5018.95-3

Office and administrative support

15.715.817.9116.38*-9

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.30.1*13.3715.4115

Construction and extraction

4.06.4*23.5122.43*-5

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.95.0*22.4521.96-2

Production

6.53.9*17.8817.58-2

Transportation and material moving

6.96.1*17.3417.571

Footnotes:
(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in the Grand Junction Metropolitan Statistical Area is above the national mean wage, while a negative difference reflects a lower wage.
* The percent share of employment or mean hourly wage for this area is significantly different from the national average of all areas at the 90-percent confidence level.
 

One occupational group—sales and related—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Grand Junction had 7,390 jobs in sales and related occupations, accounting for 12.6 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 10.4-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $18.95, compared to the national wage of $19.50.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the sales and related group included retail salespersons (2,550), cashiers (1,950), and wholesale and manufacturing sales representatives except technical and scientific products (670). Among the higher paying jobs were securities, commodities, and financial services sales agents and wholesale and manufacturing sales representatives except technical and scientific products, with mean hourly wages of $34.59 and $30.42, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were cashiers ($11.33) and retail salespersons ($14.54). (Detailed occupational data for sales and related are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/2016/may/oes_24300.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 Grand Junction Metropolitan Statistical Area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in several of the occupations within the sales and related group. For instance, counter and rental clerks were employed at 1.8 times the national rate in Grand Junction. On the other hand, wholesale and manufacturing sales representatives except technical and scientific products had a location quotient of 1.1 in Grand Junction, 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 Colorado Department of Labor & Employment.

Note

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.


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. The OES data available from BLS include cross-industry occupational employment and wage estimates for the nation; over 650 areas, including states and the District of Columbia, metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), metropolitan divisions, nonmetropolitan areas, and territories; national industry-specific estimates at the NAICS sector, 3-, 4-, 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.

OES estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.2 million establishments. Each year, two semiannual panels of approximately 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 2016 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2016, November 2015, May 2015, November 2014, May 2014, and November 2013. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 73 percent based on establishments and 69 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The unweighted employment of sampled establishments across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 58 percent of total national employment. The sample in the Grand Junction Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,138 establishments with a response rate of 78 percent. For more information about OES concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_tec.htm.

The May 2016 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.

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 Grand Junction, Colo. Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Mesa County.

Additional information

OES data are available on our regional web page at www.bls.gov/regions/mountain-plains. 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: (800) 877-8339.

Table 1. Employment and wage data from the Occupational Employment Statistics survey, by occupation, Grand Junction Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2016
Occupation (1)EmploymentMean wages
Level (2)Location quotient (3)HourlyAnnual (4)

Sales and related occupations

7,3901.2$18.95$39,410

First-line supervisors of retail sales workers

5801.226.2754,640

First-line supervisors of non-retail sales workers

1101.0(5)(5)

Cashiers

1,9501.311.3323,560

Counter and rental clerks

3301.815.3731,970

Parts salespersons

1701.619.4140,370

Retail salespersons

2,5501.414.5430,240

Advertising sales agents

701.228.7459,780

Insurance sales agents

1400.930.1362,680

Securities, commodities, and financial services sales agents

1701.234.5971,940

Sales representatives, services, all other

2800.739.8682,920

Sales representatives, wholesale and manufacturing, except technical and scientific products

6701.130.4263,280

Real estate sales agents

1101.8(5)(5)

Sales and related workers, all other

1203.612.0325,020

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Grand Junction Metropolitan Statistical Area see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_24300.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) Estimate not released.
 

 

Last Modified Date: Thursday, September 28, 2017