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News Release Information

17-725-ATL
Thursday, May 25, 2017

Contacts Technical information: Media contact:
  • (404) 893-4220

Occupational Employment and Wages in Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater – May 2016

Workers in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $21.88 in May 2016, about 8 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 lower than their respective national averages in 16 of the 22 major occupational groups, including construction and extraction; architecture and engineering; and computer and mathematical. No occupational group in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater Metropolitan Statistical Area had a significantly higher wage than its respective national average.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 7 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.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater Metropolitan Statistical Area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2016
Major occupational groupPercent of total employmentMean hourly wage
United StatesTampaUnited StatesTampaPercent difference (1)

Total, all occupations

100.0%100.0%$23.86$21.88*-8

Management

5.13.6*56.7457.742

Business and financial operations

5.26.3*36.0932.72*-9

Computer and mathematical

3.03.3*42.2536.03*-15

Architecture and engineering

1.81.3*40.5333.46*-17

Life, physical, and social science

0.80.5*35.0631.41*-10

Community and social services

1.41.0*22.6922.27-2

Legal

0.81.1*50.9546.08*-10

Education, training, and library

6.24.9*26.2122.84*-13

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.41.1*28.0723.98*-15

Healthcare practitioner and technical

5.96.5*38.0638.160

Healthcare support

2.93.014.6514.22*-3

Protective service

2.42.422.0319.05*-14

Food preparation and serving related

9.210.0*11.4711.662

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

3.22.9*13.4711.97*-11

Personal care and service

3.22.7*12.7412.36-3

Sales and related

10.412.1*19.5019.500

Office and administrative support

15.719.2*17.9116.43*-8

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.30.1*13.3712.00*-10

Construction and extraction

4.04.023.5118.35*-22

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.94.022.4519.90*-11

Production

6.54.4*17.8816.18*-10

Transportation and material moving

6.95.2*17.3415.13*-13

Footnotes:
(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater Metropolitan Statistical Area is above the national mean wage, while a negative difference reflects a lower wage.
* The percent share of employment or mean hourly wage for this area is significantly different from the national average of all areas at the 90-percent confidence level.
 

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 243,250 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 19.2 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 15.7-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $16.43, 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 (49,790), general office clerks (25,550), and secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (25,010). 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 $26.94 and $24.58, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($10.89) and stock clerks and order fillers ($11.85). (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_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, data entry keyers were employed at 2.1 times the national rate in Tampa, and customer service representatives, at 2.0 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, tellers 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.

Note on Occupational Employment Statistics Data

A value that is statistically different from another does not necessarily mean that the difference has economic or practical significance. Statistical significance is concerned with the ability to make confident statements about a universe based on a sample. It is entirely possible that a large difference between two values is not significantly different statistically, while a small difference is, since both the size and heterogeneity of the sample affect the relative error of the data being tested.


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 Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater Metropolitan Statistical Area included 5,756 establishments with a response rate of 72 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 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/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, Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2016
Occupation (1)EmploymentMean wages
Level (2)Location quotient (3)HourlyAnnual (4)

Office and administrative support occupations

243,2501.2$16.43$34,180

First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers

16,4301.326.9456,030

Switchboard operators, including answering service

7300.912.5426,090

Telephone operators

400.513.9629,040

Bill and account collectors

3,5801.316.4234,150

Billing and posting clerks

5,7001.316.9035,150

Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks

16,2701.217.6136,630

Payroll and timekeeping clerks

1,1200.819.2139,950

Procurement clerks

5200.819.1739,870

Tellers

4,6301.014.5930,350

Financial clerks, all other

3401.119.6040,780

Brokerage clerks

5601.021.7145,160

Correspondence clerks

400.613.7528,600

Court, municipal, and license clerks

8900.817.5436,470

Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks

1,0103.017.1735,710

Customer service representatives

49,7902.015.0731,330

Eligibility interviewers, government programs

5900.517.0335,420

File clerks

2,3102.014.2929,720

Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks

2,1401.010.8922,650

Interviewers, except eligibility and loan

2,3801.415.9633,200

Library assistants, clerical

5700.713.3227,710

Loan interviewers and clerks

3,4101.719.3140,160

Order clerks

2,1201.313.2927,630

Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping

1,3301.117.6336,660

Receptionists and information clerks

12,2301.413.3127,680

Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks

2,6502.018.1837,820

Information and record clerks, all other

2,2001.517.3035,980

Cargo and freight agents

9001.119.7241,030

Couriers and messengers

4000.613.5928,260

Police, fire, and ambulance dispatchers

7500.918.6738,830

Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance

1,5700.919.3440,220

Meter readers, utilities

3201.116.1833,650

Postal service clerks

6400.924.0950,100

Postal service mail carriers

3,1701.124.2750,470

Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators

1,0001.024.5351,020

Production, planning, and expediting clerks

2,2500.819.3240,180

Shipping, receiving, and traffic clerks

4,9400.814.1629,460

Stock clerks and order fillers

19,8301.111.8524,640

Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping

1,0601.613.7928,690

Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants

5,9001.024.5851,130

Legal secretaries

1,3700.820.8643,390

Medical secretaries

2,8300.615.3731,980

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

25,0101.215.8933,040

Computer operators

2800.718.1137,670

Data entry keyers

3,6102.114.0929,300

Word processors and typists

2900.515.0831,360

Desktop publishers

600.516.0633,410

Insurance claims and policy processing clerks

4,8001.918.0437,520

Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service

1,1501.412.4225,830

Office clerks, general

25,5501.014.1129,350

Office machine operators, except computer

5801.112.9026,830

Proofreaders and copy markers

800.815.0931,380

Statistical assistants

(5)(5)19.4140,360

Office and administrative support workers, all other

9500.519.2540,030

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area, 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.
 

 

Last Modified Date: Thursday, May 25, 2017