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.)

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.

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)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	243,250	1.2	$16.43	$34,180
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	16,430	1.3	26.94	56,030
Switchboard operators, including answering service	730	0.9	12.54	26,090
Telephone operators	40	0.5	13.96	29,040
Bill and account collectors	3,580	1.3	16.42	34,150
Billing and posting clerks	5,700	1.3	16.90	35,150
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	16,270	1.2	17.61	36,630
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	1,120	0.8	19.21	39,950
Procurement clerks	520	0.8	19.17	39,870
Tellers	4,630	1.0	14.59	30,350
Financial clerks, all other	340	1.1	19.60	40,780
Brokerage clerks	560	1.0	21.71	45,160
Correspondence clerks	40	0.6	13.75	28,600
Court, municipal, and license clerks	890	0.8	17.54	36,470
Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks	1,010	3.0	17.17	35,710
Customer service representatives	49,790	2.0	15.07	31,330
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	590	0.5	17.03	35,420
File clerks	2,310	2.0	14.29	29,720
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	2,140	1.0	10.89	22,650
Interviewers, except eligibility and loan	2,380	1.4	15.96	33,200
Library assistants, clerical	570	0.7	13.32	27,710
Loan interviewers and clerks	3,410	1.7	19.31	40,160
Order clerks	2,120	1.3	13.29	27,630
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	1,330	1.1	17.63	36,660
Receptionists and information clerks	12,230	1.4	13.31	27,680
Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks	2,650	2.0	18.18	37,820
Information and record clerks, all other	2,200	1.5	17.30	35,980
Cargo and freight agents	900	1.1	19.72	41,030
Couriers and messengers	400	0.6	13.59	28,260
Police, fire, and ambulance dispatchers	750	0.9	18.67	38,830
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	1,570	0.9	19.34	40,220
Meter readers, utilities	320	1.1	16.18	33,650
Postal service clerks	640	0.9	24.09	50,100
Postal service mail carriers	3,170	1.1	24.27	50,470
Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators	1,000	1.0	24.53	51,020
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	2,250	0.8	19.32	40,180
Shipping, receiving, and traffic clerks	4,940	0.8	14.16	29,460
Stock clerks and order fillers	19,830	1.1	11.85	24,640
Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping	1,060	1.6	13.79	28,690
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	5,900	1.0	24.58	51,130
Legal secretaries	1,370	0.8	20.86	43,390
Medical secretaries	2,830	0.6	15.37	31,980
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	25,010	1.2	15.89	33,040
Computer operators	280	0.7	18.11	37,670
Data entry keyers	3,610	2.1	14.09	29,300
Word processors and typists	290	0.5	15.08	31,360
Desktop publishers	60	0.5	16.06	33,410
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks	4,800	1.9	18.04	37,520
Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service	1,150	1.4	12.42	25,830
Office clerks, general	25,550	1.0	14.11	29,350
Office machine operators, except computer	580	1.1	12.90	26,830
Proofreaders and copy markers	80	0.8	15.09	31,380
Statistical assistants	(5)	(5)	19.41	40,360
Office and administrative support workers, all other	950	0.5	19.25	40,030
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.