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News Release Information

25-666-BOS
Tuesday, April 29, 2025

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

Occupational Employment and Wages in Barnstable Town — May 2024

Workers in the Barnstable Town, MA Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $32.45 in May 2024, compared to the nationwide average of $32.66, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner William J. Sibley noted that higher paying major occupational groups included management ($60.34), healthcare practitioners and technical ($54.61), and computer and mathematical ($52.10). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($20.61), healthcare support ($22.00), and personal care and service ($22.16). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Barnstable Town area included food preparation and serving related (13.4 percent), office and administrative support (11.6 percent), and sales and related (10.5 percent). Legal (0.6 percent) was among the major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment.

One occupational group—food preparation and serving related—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Barnstable Town had 12,540 jobs in food preparation and serving related, accounting for 13.4 percent of local area employment, compared to the 8.8-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $20.61, compared to the national wage of $17.32.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the food preparation and serving related group included waiters and waitresses (2,630) and fast food and counter workers (2,610). Among the higher paying jobs in this group were chefs and head cooks ($36.13). (See chart 1.) At the lower end of the wage scale were fast food and counter workers ($17.63) and restaurant, lounge, and coffee shop hosts and hostesses ($17.82). (Detailed data for the food preparation and serving related occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0012700.)

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 Barnstable Town area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the food preparation and serving related group. For instance, restaurant, lounge, and coffee shop hosts and hostesses were employed at 2.30 times the national rate in Barnstable Town, and restaurant cooks, at 2.15 times the U.S. average. Nonrestaurant food servers had a location quotient of 1.00 in Barnstable Town, 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 Massachusetts Division of Unemployment Assistance.

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Barnstable Town metropolitan area, May 2024
Major occupational group Percent of total employment Average hourly wage ($)
United States Barnstable Town United States Barnstable Town

All occupations

100.0 100.0 32.66 32.45

Management occupations

7.1 7.3 68.15 60.34

Business and financial operations occupations

6.7 4.5 45.04 43.64

Computer and mathematical occupations

3.4 1.4 56.16 52.10

Architecture and engineering occupations

1.7 1.3 49.99 51.44

Life, physical, and social science occupations

0.9 1.2 43.12 47.67

Community and social service occupations

1.7 1.9 30.31 31.86

Legal occupations

0.8 0.6 66.19 50.60

Educational instruction and library occupations

5.8 5.8 31.69 34.66

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media occupations

1.4 1.0 37.04 36.68

Healthcare practitioners and technical occupations

6.2 6.4 50.59 54.61

Healthcare support occupations

4.8 4.6 19.06 22.00

Protective service occupations

2.4 2.2 29.33 35.39

Food preparation and serving related occupations

8.8 13.4 17.32 20.61

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations

2.9 5.4 19.01 23.65

Personal care and service occupations

2.0 2.6 18.95 22.16

Sales and related occupations

8.7 10.5 26.00 24.73

Office and administrative support occupations

11.8 11.6 24.12 25.96

Farming, fishing, and forestry occupations

0.3 0.2 20.06 25.73

Construction and extraction occupations

4.1 5.8 30.73 33.60

Installation, maintenance, and repair occupations

3.9 4.0 29.63 32.78

Production occupations

5.7 2.0 24.08 26.99

Transportation and material moving occupations

8.9 6.6 23.44 24.10
Changes to the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) Data

Effective with the May 2024 OEWS news release, the OEWS program has implemented new metropolitan area definitions based on the 2020 decennial census and delineated by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Bulletin 23-01. See the national OEWS news release for more information.


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 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 65.7 percent based on establishments and 65.9 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Barnstable Town, MA Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,408 establishments with a response rate of 52 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 Barnstable Town, MA Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Barnstable County.

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 food preparation and serving related occupations, Barnstable Town metropolitan area, May 2024
Occupation (1) Employment Mean wages ($)
Level (2) Location quotient (3) Hourly Annual (4)

Food preparation and serving related occupations

12,540 1.52 20.61 42,860

Chefs and head cooks

260 2.38 36.13 75,160

First-line supervisors of food preparation and serving workers

1,030 1.43 25.47 52,970

Cooks, fast food

210 0.53 18.37 38,210

Cooks, institution and cafeteria

180 0.66 23.51 48,890

Cooks, restaurant

1,890 2.15 21.52 44,760

Cooks, short order

190 2.09 21.91 45,580

Food preparation workers

720 1.34 19.25 40,030

Bartenders

930 2.06 21.84 45,420

Fast food and counter workers

2,610 1.14 17.63 36,680

Waiters and waitresses

2,630 1.89 20.80 43,270

Food servers, nonrestaurant

160 1.00 18.47 38,410

Dining room and cafeteria attendants and bartender helpers

510 1.62 18.98 39,480

Dishwashers

590 2.07 18.57 38,630

Hosts and hostesses, restaurant, lounge, and coffee shop

600 2.30 17.82 37,060

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Barnstable Town, MA Metropolitan Statistical Area, see https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0012700.
(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.

 

Last Modified Date: Tuesday, April 29, 2025