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News Release Information

24-1186-BOS
Friday, June 28, 2024

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

Occupational Employment and Wages in Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Niagara Falls — May 2023

Workers in the Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Niagara Falls, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $30.36 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 ($65.70), legal ($49.65), and healthcare practitioners and technical ($47.27). Lower paying occupations included healthcare support ($18.59), food preparation and serving related ($18.72), and personal care and service ($18.98). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Buffalo area included office and administrative support (13.5 percent), food preparation and serving related (8.9 percent), and sales and related (8.5 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included life, physical, and social science (0.9 percent); legal (1.0 percent); and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (1.1 percent).

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Buffalo metropolitan area, May 2023
Major occupational group Percent of total employment Mean hourly wage ($)
United States Buffalo United States Buffalo

All occupations

100.0 100.0 31.48 30.36

Management occupations

6.9 5.6 66.23 65.70

Business and financial operations occupations

6.6 6.5 43.55 40.63

Computer and mathematical occupations

3.4 2.2 54.39 46.88

Architecture and engineering occupations

1.7 1.6 47.64 43.02

Life, physical, and social science occupations

0.9 0.9 42.24 36.47

Community and social service occupations

1.6 1.9 28.36 28.15

Legal occupations

0.8 1.0 64.34 49.65

Educational instruction and library occupations

5.8 7.0 31.92 31.63

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media occupations

1.4 1.1 36.31 33.10

Healthcare practitioners and technical occupations

6.1 7.4 49.07 47.27

Healthcare support occupations

4.7 5.1 18.37 18.59

Protective service occupations

2.3 2.2 27.74 29.07

Food preparation and serving related occupations

8.7 8.9 16.58 18.72

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations

2.9 3.1 18.43 19.00

Personal care and service occupations

2.0 1.9 18.48 18.98

Sales and related occupations

8.8 8.5 25.62 25.74

Office and administrative support occupations

12.2 13.5 23.05 23.37

Farming, fishing, and forestry occupations

0.3 (1) 19.22 18.93

Construction and extraction occupations

4.1 3.6 29.57 30.85

Installation, maintenance, and repair occupations

3.9 3.9 28.13 27.19

Production occupations

5.8 6.7 22.90 23.80

Transportation and material moving occupations

9.1 7.4 22.45 21.39

Footnotes:
(1) Indicates a value of less than 0.05 percent.

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 had 71,050 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 13.5 percent of local area employment, compared to the 12.2-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $23.37, compared to the national wage of $23.05.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included customer service representatives (10,600), office clerks, general (6,940), and secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (6,840). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants ($34.78) and first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers ($33.27). (See chart 1.) At the lower end of the wage scale were library assistants, clerical ($16.45) and hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($16.80). (Detailed data for the office and administrative support occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/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 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 10.5 times the national rate in Buffalo, and bill and account collectors, at 3.1 times the U.S. average. Medical secretaries and administrative assistants had a location quotient of 1.0 in Buffalo, 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 New York State Department of Labor.


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 Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Niagara Falls, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area included 3,524 establishments with a response rate of 75 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 Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Niagara Falls, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Erie County and Niagara 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 office and administrative support occupations, Buffalo metropolitan area, May 2023
Occupation (1) Employment Mean wages ($)
Level (2) Location quotient (3) Hourly Annual (4)

Office and administrative support occupations

71,050 1.1 23.37 48,610

First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers

4,940 1.0 33.27 69,200

Switchboard operators, including answering service

130 0.9 19.79 41,170

Bill and account collectors

2,050 3.1 20.47 42,590

Billing and posting clerks

2,150 1.4 21.90 45,540

Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks

6,120 1.2 23.67 49,230

Payroll and timekeeping clerks

770 1.4 25.65 53,360

Procurement clerks

170 0.8 24.01 49,940

Tellers

850 0.7 18.54 38,550

Financial clerks, all other

240 1.5 22.67 47,150

Brokerage clerks

380 2.3 28.33 58,930

Correspondence clerks

60 3.6 20.96 43,600

Court, municipal, and license clerks

680 1.2 25.63 53,300

Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks

200 4.0 25.79 53,630

Customer service representatives

10,600 1.1 22.08 45,920

Eligibility interviewers, government programs

950 1.8 26.73 55,590

File clerks

240 0.8 19.14 39,820

Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks

700 0.8 16.80 34,950

Interviewers, except eligibility and loan

620 1.1 22.10 45,970

Library assistants, clerical

350 1.2 16.45 34,220

Loan interviewers and clerks

510 0.7 25.90 53,870

New accounts clerks

220 1.6 22.11 45,980

Order clerks

370 1.2 21.03 43,750

Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping

430 1.2 23.76 49,420

Receptionists and information clerks

4,440 1.3 17.99 37,430

Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks

100 0.2 19.83 41,240

Information and record clerks, all other

210 0.4 24.22 50,380

Cargo and freight agents

880 2.4 21.90 45,540

Couriers and messengers

450 1.8 18.09 37,620

Public safety telecommunicators

360 1.1 26.31 54,720

Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance

460 0.7 23.74 49,370

Meter readers, utilities

70 1.1 23.50 48,870

Postal service clerks

290 1.1 28.08 58,410

Postal service mail carriers

1,380 1.2 28.39 59,050

Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators

400 1.0 25.97 54,020

Production, planning, and expediting clerks

2,500 1.8 26.10 54,290

Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks

2,810 1.0 21.04 43,750

Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping

120 0.7 20.69 43,040

Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants

2,920 1.7 34.78 72,350

Legal secretaries and administrative assistants

500 0.9 25.09 52,180

Medical secretaries and administrative assistants

2,560 1.0 21.01 43,700

Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive

6,840 1.1 21.82 45,390

Data entry keyers

430 0.8 19.76 41,100

Word processors and typists

1,350 10.5 21.46 44,630

Insurance claims and policy processing clerks

540 0.6 25.63 53,300

Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service

360 1.6 19.42 40,390

Office clerks, general

6,940 0.8 20.68 43,000

Office machine operators, except computer

180 1.8 20.43 42,490

Office and administrative support workers, all other

150 0.3 23.32 48,500

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Niagara Falls, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_15380.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.

 

Last Modified Date: Friday, June 28, 2024