Workers in the Rochester Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $22.01 in May 2014, about 3 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 3 of the 22 major occupational groups. Ten groups had significantly lower wages than their respective national averages, including legal; life, physical, and social science; and computer and mathematical.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 8 of the 22 occupational groups, including education, training, and library; office and administrative support; and healthcare practitioners and technical. Conversely, 10 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including transportation and material moving, sales and related, 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. Rochester had 84,350 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 17.0 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 16.0-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $16.96, compared to the national wage of $17.08.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (12,470); customer service representatives (12,030); and office clerks, general (10,260). Among the higher paying jobs were first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers and executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants, with mean hourly wages of $27.65 and $27.25, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($10.13) and stock clerks and order fillers ($11.71). (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_40380.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 Rochester 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 3.4 times the national rate in Rochester, and interviewers, except eligibility and loan, at 1.7 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, postal service mail carriers had a location quotient of 1.0 in Rochester, 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 Rochester Metropolitan Statistical Area included 3,699 establishments with a response rate of 77 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 Rochester, N.Y. Metropolitan Statistical Area  includes Livingston, Monroe, Ontario, Orleans and Wayne 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, Rochester Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2014

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and Administrative Support Occupations	84,350	1.1	$16.96	$35,290
First-Line Supervisors of Office and Administrative Support Workers	5,730	1.1	27.65	57,510
Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service	470	1.2	14.12	29,370
Bill and Account Collectors	1,510	1.2	18.20	37,850
Billing and Posting Clerks	1,710	1.0	16.64	34,600
Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks	5,950	1.0	18.03	37,490
Payroll and Timekeeping Clerks	690	1.1	17.94	37,310
Procurement Clerks	280	1.1	18.48	38,440
Tellers	1,530	0.8	12.81	26,650
Financial Clerks, All Other	(5)	(5)	22.58	46,970
Brokerage Clerks	120	0.6	24.48	50,920
Court, Municipal, and License Clerks	400	0.9	20.24	42,100
Credit Authorizers, Checkers, and Clerks	60	0.4	20.37	42,370
Customer Service Representatives	12,030	1.3	16.17	33,640
Eligibility Interviewers, Government Programs	630	1.4	20.14	41,890
File Clerks	430	0.8	12.11	25,190
Hotel, Motel, and Resort Desk Clerks	560	0.6	10.13	21,080
Interviewers, Except Eligibility and Loan	1,170	1.7	14.46	30,070
Library Assistants, Clerical	440	1.2	12.82	26,660
Loan Interviewers and Clerks	360	0.5	18.96	39,440
New Accounts Clerks	80	0.4	16.43	34,180
Order Clerks	540	0.8	16.30	33,910
Human Resources Assistants, Except Payroll and Timekeeping	670	1.4	17.68	36,780
Receptionists and Information Clerks	3,780	1.1	13.07	27,180
Reservation and Transportation Ticket Agents and Travel Clerks	140	0.3	16.41	34,130
Information and Record Clerks, All Other	250	0.4	16.80	34,950
Cargo and Freight Agents	100	0.4	21.24	44,180
Couriers and Messengers	270	1.0	13.15	27,340
Police, Fire, and Ambulance Dispatchers	330	0.9	20.98	43,630
Dispatchers, Except Police, Fire, and Ambulance	690	1.0	16.96	35,270
Meter Readers, Utilities	(5)	(5)	16.22	33,730
Postal Service Clerks	220	0.8	23.95	49,810
Postal Service Mail Carriers	1,110	1.0	24.75	51,490
Postal Service Mail Sorters, Processors, and Processing Machine Operators	560	1.3	22.78	47,380
Production, Planning, and Expediting Clerks	1,320	1.2	22.70	47,210
Shipping, Receiving, and Traffic Clerks	2,200	0.9	15.05	31,300
Stock Clerks and Order Fillers	6,760	1.0	11.71	24,360
Weighers, Measurers, Checkers, and Samplers, Recordkeeping	160	0.6	14.27	29,690
Executive Secretaries and Executive Administrative Assistants	2,240	0.9	27.25	56,690
Legal Secretaries	720	0.9	18.71	38,920
Medical Secretaries	1,270	0.7	14.44	30,040
Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive	12,470	1.5	16.63	34,590
Computer Operators	330	1.5	17.86	37,140
Data Entry Keyers	850	1.1	14.66	30,480
Word Processors and Typists	1,010	3.4	15.67	32,590
Desktop Publishers	(5)	(5)	22.36	46,510
Insurance Claims and Policy Processing Clerks	260	0.3	19.71	40,990
Mail Clerks and Mail Machine Operators, Except Postal Service	180	0.5	14.79	30,770
Office Clerks, General	10,260	1.0	14.40	29,960
Office Machine Operators, Except Computer	300	1.2	13.27	27,590
Proofreaders and Copy Markers	50	1.2	19.88	41,350
Office and Administrative Support Workers, All Other	920	1.1	15.22	31,660
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in Rochester, NY, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_40380.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.