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News Release Information

24-1188-BOS
Friday, June 28, 2024

Contacts Technical information: Media contact:
  • (617) 565-4141

Occupational Employment and Wages in Ponce — May 2023

Workers in the Ponce, PR Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $14.24 in May 2023, compared to the nationwide average of $31.48, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner William J. Sibley noted that higher paying major occupational groups included management ($36.16), legal ($32.51), and architecture and engineering ($27.97). Lower paying occupations included building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($9.81), food preparation and serving related ($10.66), and personal care and service ($11.33). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Ponce area included office and administrative support (14.0 percent), sales and related (13.3 percent), and production (10.7 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.2 percent); computer and mathematical (0.6 percent); and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (0.6 percent).

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Ponce metropolitan area, May 2023
Major occupational groupPercent of total employmentMean hourly wage ($)
United StatesPonceUnited StatesPonce

Total, all occupations

100.0100.031.4814.24

Management

6.93.166.2336.16

Business and financial operations

6.63.243.5521.11

Computer and mathematical

3.40.654.3918.62

Architecture and engineering

1.71.447.6427.97

Life, physical, and social science

0.90.742.2424.59

Community and social service

1.61.528.3615.09

Legal

0.80.264.3432.51

Educational instruction and library

5.88.131.9218.61

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.40.636.3117.92

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.16.949.0718.62

Healthcare support

4.72.318.3711.60

Protective service

2.31.727.7412.75

Food preparation and serving related

8.79.216.5810.66

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.96.918.439.81

Personal care and service

2.00.918.4811.33

Sales and related

8.813.325.6211.71

Office and administrative support

12.214.023.0512.13

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.30.419.2210.92

Construction and extraction

4.13.629.5712.33

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.94.028.1313.24

Production

5.810.722.9012.03

Transportation and material moving

9.16.722.4511.58

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Ponce had 7,000 jobs in production, accounting for 10.7 percent of local area employment, compared to the 5.8-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $12.03, compared to the national wage of $22.90.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators (2,320), sewing machine operators (990), and first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (560). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers, with a mean hourly wage of $20.34, followed by machinists ($14.15) and inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers ($14.14). (See chart 1.) At the lower end of the wage scale were sewing machine operators ($8.94) and laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($8.95). (Detailed data for the production occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_38660.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 Ponce area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, sewing machine operators were employed at 19.8 times the national rate in Ponce, and miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators, at 3.6 times the U.S. average. Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters had a location quotient of 0.9 in Ponce, indicating that this particular occupation’s local and national employment shares were similar.

The statistics in this release are from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, a cooperative effort between BLS and the State Workforce Agencies (SWAs). BLS funds the survey and provides the procedures and technical support. State Workforce Agencies collect most of the data: in this case, the Puerto Rico Department of Labor and Human Resources.


Technical Note

The Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey is a semiannual survey measuring occupational employment and wage rates for wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments in the United States. The OEWS 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. Full OEWS data tables are available online.

Additional information about the OEWS estimates and methodology are available in the national Technical Notes. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 65.8 percent based on establishments and 64.3 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Ponce, PR Metropolitan Statistical Area included 809 establishments with a response rate of 71 percent.

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 Ponce, PR Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Guánica, Guayanilla Municipio, Juana Díaz Municipio, Peñuelas Municipio, Ponce Municipio, Villalba Municipio, and Yauco Municipio.

For more information

Answers to frequently asked questions about the OEWS data, as well as general program documentation, are available on the OEWS website.

Information in this release will be made available to individuals with sensory impairments upon request. Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; Telecommunications Relay Service: 7-1-1.

Table 1. Employment and wage data for production occupations, Ponce metropolitan area, May 2023
Occupation (1)EmploymentMean wages ($)
Level (2)Location quotient (3)HourlyAnnual (4)

Production occupations

7,0001.912.0325,010

First-line supervisors of production and operating workers

5601.920.3442,310

Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators

2,3203.611.1423,160

Bakers

2002.19.9820,750

Butchers and meat cutters

1702.910.2621,340

Food batchmakers

901.29.3019,340

Machinists

400.314.1529,430

Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers

1200.713.0727,190

Laundry and dry-cleaning workers

400.58.9518,620

Sewing machine operators

99019.88.9418,600

Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters

300.910.8022,470

Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders

(5)(5)11.8124,560

Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers

4601.814.1429,400

Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders

4302.710.3021,430

Helpers--production workers

1201.511.3023,510

Production workers, all other

1201.212.2125,390

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Ponce, PR Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_38660.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.

 

Last Modified Date: Friday, June 28, 2024