Workers in the Buffalo-Niagara Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $21.05 in May 2014, about 7 percent below the nationwide average of $22.71, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Chief Regional Economist Martin Kohli noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were higher than their respective national averages in 2 of the 22 major occupational groups. Twelve groups had significantly lower wages than their respective national averages, including legal; computer and mathematical; and architecture and engineering.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 6 of the 22 occupational groups, including office and administrative support; education, training, and library; and food preparation and serving related. Conversely, 10 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including transportation and material moving; management; and construction and extraction. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

One occupational group—office and administrative support—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Buffalo-Niagara Falls had 95,800 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 17.8 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 16.0-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $16.82, compared to the national wage of $17.08.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included office clerks, general (11,200); secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (11,160); and customer service representatives (10,950). Among the higher paying jobs were executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants and brokerage clerks, with mean hourly wages of $27.64 and $25.74, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($9.27) and stock clerks and order fillers ($11.41). (Detailed occupational data for office and administrative support are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/2014/may/oes_15380.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 Buffalo-Niagara Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, word processors and typists were employed at 4.2 times the national rate in Buffalo, and bill and account collectors, at 3.4 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, data entry keyers had a location quotient of 1.0 in Buffalo, 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 New York State Department of Labor.

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. Forms are mailed to approximately 200,000 sampled establishments in May and November each year. 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 weighted sampled employment. The unweighted employment of sampled establishments across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 57.1 percent of total national employment. (Response rates are slightly lower for these estimates due to the federal shutdown in October 2013.) The sample in the Buffalo-Niagara Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area included 3,919 establishments with a response rate of 76 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 Buffalo-Niagara Falls, N.Y. Metropolitan Statistical Area  includes Erie and Niagara Counties.

Additional information

OES data are available on our regional web page at www.bls.gov/regions/northeast. 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/2014/may/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, Buffalo-Niagara Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2014

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and Administrative Support Occupations	95,800	1.1	$16.82	$34,990
First-Line Supervisors of Office and Administrative Support Workers	6,730	1.2	25.58	53,210
Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service	730	1.7	13.10	27,240
Bill and Account Collectors	4,730	3.4	15.47	32,180
Billing and Posting Clerks	2,530	1.3	16.47	34,270
Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks	6,710	1.1	17.59	36,590
Payroll and Timekeeping Clerks	730	1.1	18.44	38,360
Procurement Clerks	260	0.9	19.08	39,680
Tellers	1,540	0.8	13.03	27,110
Financial Clerks, All Other	150	1.0	18.35	38,170
Brokerage Clerks	610	2.7	25.74	53,550
Court, Municipal, and License Clerks	350	0.7	21.46	44,640
Credit Authorizers, Checkers, and Clerks	240	1.3	18.60	38,680
Customer Service Representatives	10,950	1.1	16.89	35,140
Eligibility Interviewers, Government Programs	620	1.3	24.76	51,490
File Clerks	610	1.0	12.31	25,600
Hotel, Motel, and Resort Desk Clerks	680	0.7	9.27	19,290
Interviewers, Except Eligibility and Loan	720	0.9	18.17	37,790
Library Assistants, Clerical	260	0.6	14.59	30,350
Loan Interviewers and Clerks	520	0.6	17.39	36,160
New Accounts Clerks	40	0.2	15.87	33,020
Order Clerks	560	0.7	15.66	32,570
Human Resources Assistants, Except Payroll and Timekeeping	600	1.1	17.24	35,850
Receptionists and Information Clerks	5,150	1.3	13.60	28,290
Reservation and Transportation Ticket Agents and Travel Clerks	180	0.3	15.12	31,440
Information and Record Clerks, All Other	460	0.7	19.15	39,830
Cargo and Freight Agents	770	2.5	16.18	33,650
Couriers and Messengers	230	0.8	13.84	28,790
Police, Fire, and Ambulance Dispatchers	290	0.8	20.29	42,200
Dispatchers, Except Police, Fire, and Ambulance	810	1.1	16.17	33,630
Meter Readers, Utilities	180	1.2	19.93	41,460
Postal Service Clerks	190	0.7	23.70	49,300
Postal Service Mail Carriers	1,290	1.1	24.84	51,670
Postal Service Mail Sorters, Processors, and Processing Machine Operators	400	0.8	24.43	50,820
Production, Planning, and Expediting Clerks	1,230	1.0	22.30	46,390
Shipping, Receiving, and Traffic Clerks	2,740	1.0	14.63	30,430
Stock Clerks and Order Fillers	8,610	1.2	11.41	23,740
Weighers, Measurers, Checkers, and Samplers, Recordkeeping	120	0.4	14.08	29,290
Executive Secretaries and Executive Administrative Assistants	2,170	0.8	27.64	57,490
Legal Secretaries	1,020	1.2	20.30	42,230
Medical Secretaries	1,220	0.6	16.16	33,610
Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive	11,160	1.3	16.49	34,300
Computer Operators	230	1.0	21.66	45,050
Data Entry Keyers	850	1.0	14.95	31,100
Word Processors and Typists	1,370	4.2	17.49	36,370
Insurance Claims and Policy Processing Clerks	1,170	1.2	18.23	37,910
Mail Clerks and Mail Machine Operators, Except Postal Service	320	0.8	17.14	35,660
Office Clerks, General	11,200	1.0	13.51	28,090
Office Machine Operators, Except Computer	160	0.6	14.97	31,140
Proofreaders and Copy Markers	50	1.3	13.11	27,270
Office and Administrative Support Workers, All Other	990	1.1	22.85	47,530
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in Buffalo-Niagara Falls, NY, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_15380.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.