Workers in the Provo-Orem, UT Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $23.54 in May 2019, about 8 percent below the nationwide average of $25.72, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Acting Regional Commissioner Susan Mendez noted that, after testing for statistical significance, 18 of the 22 major occupational groups had significantly lower wages than their respective national averages, including protective service, business and financial operations, and management.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Provo area employment was more highly concentrated in 5 of the 22 occupational groups, including construction and extraction, computer and mathematical, and management. Conversely, ten groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including transportation and material moving, healthcare practitioners and technical, and food preparation and serving related. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

One occupational group—management—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Provo had 18,390 jobs in management, accounting for 7.2 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 5.5-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $48.67, significantly below the national wage of $58.88.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the management group included general and operations managers (7,580), computer and information systems managers (1,120), and financial managers (1,100). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were chief executives and computer and information systems managers, with mean hourly wages of $86.36 and $71.20, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were food service managers ($23.63) and property, real estate, and community association managers ($26.42). (Detailed data for the management occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_39340.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 Provo area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the management group. For instance, training and development managers were employed at 2.6 times the national rate in Provo, and chief executives, at 2.4 times the U.S. average. Financial managers had a location quotient of 1.0 in Provo, 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 Utah Department of Workforce Services.

Technical Note

The Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey is a semiannual 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 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. OES data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm.

The OES 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. OES estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.1 million establishments. Each year, two semiannual panels of approximately 180,000 to 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 2019 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2019, November 2018, May 2018, November 2017, May 2017, and November 2016. The unweighted sample employment of 83 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 71 percent based on establishments and 68 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Provo-Orem, UT Metropolitan Statistical Area included 2,347 establishments with a response rate of 77 percent. For more information about OES 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.

The May 2019 OES estimates are the first set of OES estimates to be based in part on survey data collected using the 2018 SOC. These estimates use a hybrid of the 2010 and 2018 SOC systems. More information on the hybrid classification system is available at www.bls.gov/oes/soc_2018.htm.

The May 2019 OES estimates are based on the 2017 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). More information about the 2017 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 Provo-Orem, UT Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Juab and Utah Counties.

For more information

Answers to frequently asked questions about the OES data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_ques.htm. Detailed information about the OES program is available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_doc.htm.

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 for management occupations, Provo-Orem, UT Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2019

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Management occupations	18,390	1.3	$48.67	$101,240
Chief executives	850	2.4	86.36	179,620
General and operations managers	7,580	1.8	41.71	86,760
Legislators	80	0.9	(6)	24,400
Marketing managers	780	1.7	56.11	116,720
Sales managers	1,020	1.5	60.34	125,500
Public relations and fundraising managers	130	1.0	47.57	98,950
Administrative services and facilities managers	480	0.9	44.79	93,150
Computer and information systems managers	1,120	1.5	71.20	148,100
Financial managers	1,100	1.0	58.01	120,660
Industrial production managers	280	0.9	44.24	92,020
Purchasing managers	110	0.9	48.72	101,350
Transportation, storage, and distribution managers	240	1.0	37.24	77,460
Compensation and benefits managers	40	1.3	51.52	107,150
Human resources managers	280	1.1	46.88	97,520
Training and development managers	170	2.6	47.33	98,440
Construction managers	560	1.1	42.91	89,250
Education administrators, kindergarten through secondary	390	0.8	(6)	110,900
Education administrators, postsecondary	(5)	(5)	41.42	86,140
Education administrators, all other	60	0.7	30.58	63,610
Architectural and engineering managers	320	1.0	62.44	129,880
Food service managers	260	0.7	23.63	49,150
Medical and health services managers	580	0.8	47.88	99,590
Natural sciences managers	180	1.5	49.24	102,410
Property, real estate, and community association managers	380	1.0	26.42	54,950
Social and community service managers	200	0.7	32.35	67,280
Personal service managers, all other; entertainment and recreation managers, except gambling; and managers, all other	630	0.8	46.14	95,980
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Provo-Orem, UT Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_39340.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.