Workers in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $20.88 in May 2014, about 8 percent below the nationwide average of $22.71, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Regional Commissioner Janet S. Rankin noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were higher than their respective national averages in 2 of the 22 major occupational groups: management, and sales and related. Sixteen groups had significantly lower wages than their respective national averages, including construction and extraction; legal; and architecture and engineering.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 8 of the 22 occupational groups, including office and administrative support; sales and related; and business and financial operations. Conversely, 11 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including production; transportation and material moving; and management. (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. Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater had 222,860 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 18.9 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 16.0-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $15.89, significantly below the national wage of $17.08.

Some of the largest detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included customer service representatives (40,160), secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (24,840), and general office clerks (20,570). 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 $25.26 and $22.64, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($10.35) and stock clerks and order fillers ($11.33). (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_45300.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 Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater Metropolitan Statistical Area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, file clerks were employed at 2.1 times the national rate in Tampa, and data entry keyers, at 1.9 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks had a location quotient of 1.0 in Tampa, 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 Florida Department of Economic Opportunity.

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 Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater Metropolitan Statistical Area included 5,723 establishments with a response rate of 73 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 Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Fla. Metropolitan Statistical Area  includes Hernando, Hillsborough, Pasco, and Pinellas Counties.

Additional information

OES data are available on our regional web page at www.bls.gov/regions/southeast. 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, Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2014

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and Administrative Support Occupations	222,860	1.2	$15.89	$33,040
First-Line Supervisors of Office and Administrative Support Workers	14,850	1.2	25.26	52,530
Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service	800	0.8	12.32	25,620
Telephone Operators	(5)	(5)	10.96	22,800
Communications Equipment Operators, All Other	50	2.6	17.32	36,010
Bill and Account Collectors	5,000	1.7	16.32	33,950
Billing and Posting Clerks	5,060	1.2	16.10	33,500
Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks	14,300	1.0	16.07	33,420
Gaming Cage Workers	40	0.3	10.40	21,630
Payroll and Timekeeping Clerks	880	0.6	18.95	39,420
Procurement Clerks	640	1.0	17.46	36,330
Tellers	4,780	1.1	14.53	30,220
Financial Clerks, All Other	470	1.4	22.04	45,840
Brokerage Clerks	780	1.6	20.99	43,660
Correspondence Clerks	100	1.4	16.02	33,330
Court, Municipal, and License Clerks	710	0.6	17.30	35,990
Credit Authorizers, Checkers, and Clerks	960	2.4	16.39	34,080
Customer Service Representatives	40,160	1.8	15.24	31,700
Eligibility Interviewers, Government Programs	440	0.4	17.34	36,060
File Clerks	2,660	2.1	13.81	28,710
Hotel, Motel, and Resort Desk Clerks	1,840	0.9	10.35	21,540
Interviewers, Except Eligibility and Loan	1,660	1.0	15.43	32,100
Library Assistants, Clerical	580	0.7	12.56	26,130
Loan Interviewers and Clerks	3,450	1.9	18.98	39,480
New Accounts Clerks	310	0.7	17.02	35,390
Order Clerks	1,870	1.1	13.46	27,990
Human Resources Assistants, Except Payroll and Timekeeping	1,220	1.0	17.55	36,500
Receptionists and Information Clerks	12,000	1.4	13.08	27,200
Reservation and Transportation Ticket Agents and Travel Clerks	(5)	(5)	17.55	36,500
Information and Record Clerks, All Other	2,140	1.4	17.65	36,700
Cargo and Freight Agents	1,010	1.5	18.13	37,700
Couriers and Messengers	450	0.7	12.74	26,500
Police, Fire, and Ambulance Dispatchers	740	0.9	17.51	36,420
Dispatchers, Except Police, Fire, and Ambulance	1,340	0.8	19.01	39,540
Meter Readers, Utilities	270	0.9	14.50	30,160
Postal Service Clerks	580	0.9	24.56	51,090
Postal Service Mail Carriers	2,830	1.1	25.12	52,240
Postal Service Mail Sorters, Processors, and Processing Machine Operators	1,200	1.1	23.79	49,480
Production, Planning, and Expediting Clerks	2,030	0.8	19.38	40,300
Shipping, Receiving, and Traffic Clerks	5,260	0.9	13.49	28,050
Stock Clerks and Order Fillers	17,100	1.0	11.33	23,560
Weighers, Measurers, Checkers, and Samplers, Recordkeeping	750	1.2	12.62	26,240
Executive Secretaries and Executive Administrative Assistants	7,080	1.1	22.64	47,100
Legal Secretaries	1,830	1.0	19.70	40,970
Medical Secretaries	2,360	0.5	14.80	30,790
Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive	24,840	1.3	14.85	30,880
Computer Operators	450	0.9	15.67	32,590
Data Entry Keyers	3,500	1.9	13.14	27,320
Word Processors and Typists	500	0.7	13.18	27,420
Desktop Publishers	150	1.3	14.66	30,480
Insurance Claims and Policy Processing Clerks	3,440	1.6	16.78	34,910
Mail Clerks and Mail Machine Operators, Except Postal Service	940	1.1	12.70	26,410
Office Clerks, General	20,570	0.8	13.31	27,680
Office Machine Operators, Except Computer	500	0.9	12.58	26,160
Proofreaders and Copy Markers	70	0.8	14.04	29,200
Statistical Assistants	50	0.4	(5)	(5)
Office and Administrative Support Workers, All Other	1,780	0.9	11.84	24,620
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_45300.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.