Workers in the Hattiesburg Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $17.79 in May 2016, about 25 percent below the nationwide average of $23.86, 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 significantly lower than their respective national averages in 20 of the 22 major occupational groups including management; sales and related; and construction and extraction.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 3 of the 22 occupational groups: office and administrative support; food preparation and serving related; and installation, maintenance, and repair. Conversely, 10 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including business and financial operations; computer and mathematical; and production. (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. Hattiesburg had 11,230 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 19.0 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 15.7-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $13.79, significantly below the national wage of $17.91.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included customer service representatives (2,150), general office clerks (1,300), and secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (1,250). Among the higher paying jobs were first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers; and bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks, with mean hourly wages of $20.12 and $16.58, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($8.64) and stock clerks and order fillers ($10.16). (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/current/oes_25620.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 Hattiesburg Metropolitan Statistical Area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, customer service representatives were employed at 1.9 times the national rate in Hattiesburg, and receptionists and information clerks, at 1.6 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks had a location quotient of 1.0 in Hattiesburg, 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 Mississippi Department of Employment Security.

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. The OES data available from BLS include cross-industry occupational employment and wage estimates for the nation; over 650 areas, including states and the District of Columbia, metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), metropolitan divisions, nonmetropolitan areas, and territories; national industry-specific estimates at the NAICS sector, 3-, 4-, and selected 5- and 6-digit industry levels, and national estimates by ownership across all industries and for schools and hospitals. OES data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm.

OES estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.2 million establishments. Each year, two semiannual panels of approximately 200,000 sampled establishments are contacted, one panel in May and the other in November. Responses are obtained by mail, Internet or other electronic means, email, telephone, or personal visit. The May 2016 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2016, November 2015, May 2015, November 2014, May 2014, and November 2013. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 73 percent based on establishments and 69 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The unweighted employment of sampled establishments across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 58 percent of total national employment. The sample in the Hattiesburg Metropolitan Statistical Area included 919 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 May 2016 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.

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 Hattiesburg, Miss. Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Forrest, Lamar, and Perry 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/current/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, Hattiesburg Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2016

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	11,230	1.2	$13.79	$28,690
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	820	1.3	20.12	41,850
Switchboard operators, including answering service	70	1.8	11.81	24,560
Bill and account collectors	240	1.9	13.18	27,420
Billing and posting clerks	510	2.5	15.35	31,930
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	670	1.0	16.58	34,480
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	70	1.0	18.97	39,460
Procurement clerks	60	1.9	19.36	40,280
Tellers	290	1.4	12.19	25,350
Court, municipal, and license clerks	90	1.7	14.18	29,500
Customer service representatives	2,150	1.9	10.17	21,160
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	60	1.1	15.63	32,510
File clerks	70	1.3	12.80	26,630
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	150	1.5	8.64	17,970
Interviewers, except eligibility and loan	110	1.4	13.46	28,000
Library assistants, clerical	40	1.0	11.79	24,520
Loan interviewers and clerks	110	1.2	16.05	33,390
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	40	0.7	18.74	38,990
Receptionists and information clerks	680	1.6	11.26	23,420
Information and record clerks, all other	40	0.5	17.75	36,920
Police, fire, and ambulance dispatchers	70	1.7	13.13	27,310
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	40	0.5	14.80	30,790
Postal service clerks	30	1.0	24.47	50,890
Postal service mail carriers	160	1.1	24.41	50,780
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	130	0.9	21.43	44,570
Shipping, receiving, and traffic clerks	210	0.7	14.18	29,500
Stock clerks and order fillers	970	1.1	10.16	21,130
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	170	0.6	17.50	36,390
Legal secretaries	(5)	(5)	16.62	34,560
Medical secretaries	250	1.1	12.41	25,810
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	1,250	1.3	14.04	29,210
Data entry keyers	50	0.6	14.50	30,150
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks	30	0.3	19.05	39,620
Office clerks, general	1,300	1.0	14.58	30,340
Office and administrative support workers, all other	50	0.5	16.22	33,740
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Hattiesburg, MS Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_25620.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.