Workers in the Arecibo, PR Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $16.65 in May 2025, compared to the United States average of $33.54, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Mark J. Maggi noted that higher paying major occupational groups included management ($40.14); life, physical, and social science ($30.67); and architecture and engineering ($30.53). Lower paying occupations included personal care and service ($11.66), food preparation and serving related ($11.86), and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($12.40). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment shares in the Arecibo area included office and administrative support (15.0 percent), sales and related (14.1 percent), and production (11.4 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.2 percent); arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (0.4 percent); and life, physical, and social science (0.5 percent).

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 21 major occupational categories for which data is available. Arecibo had 3,970 jobs in production, accounting for 11.4 percent of local area employment, compared to the 5.5-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $13.31, compared to the national wage of $24.81.

  

View Chart Data

Chart 1. Hourly mean wages for selected higher paying production occupations in the Arecibo metropolitan area, May 2025

Occupation	Wage
All occupations	$16.65
Production occupations	13.31
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers	23.68
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders	14.85
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers	14.82
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders	14.61
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	14.59

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included sewing machine operators (1,010) and miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators (560). Among the higher paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers ($23.68). (See chart 1.) At the lower end of the wage scale were sewing machine operators ($10.75) and bakers ($11.27). (Detailed data for the production occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0011640/2025.)

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 2.00 indicates that an occupation accounts for twice the share of employment in the area than it does nationally. In the Arecibo 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 43.14 times the national rate in Arecibo, and helpers--production workers, at 4.39 times the U.S. average. Packing and filling machine operators and tenders had a location quotient of 0.68 in Arecibo, indicating that this particular occupation’s local employment share was lower than the national share.

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.

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 530 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 is 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 66.2 percent based on establishments and 67.2 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Arecibo, PR Metropolitan Statistical Area included 591 establishments with a response rate of 61 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 Arecibo, PR Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Arecibo Municipio, Camuy Municipio, Hatillo Municipio, and Quebradillas 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.

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