Workers in the Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall Metropolitan Division had an average (mean) hourly wage of $22.48 in May 2017, about 8 percent below the nationwide average of $24.34, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Regional Commissioner Janet S. Rankin noted that, after testing for statistical significance, 13 groups had significantly lower wages than their respective national averages, including production; building and grounds cleaning and maintenance; and construction and extraction. One group—food preparation and serving related—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 transportation and material moving. Conversely, 9 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including production; personal care and service; and computer and mathematical. (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. Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall had 207,860 jobs in office and administrative support occupations, accounting for 18.2 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 15.4-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $17.01, significantly below the national wage of $18.24.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included general office clerks (28,870), customer service representatives (28,270), and secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (22,860). Among the higher paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers and executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants, with mean hourly wages of $27.56 and $27.04, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($12.07) and stock clerks and order fillers ($12.17). (Detailed data for 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_33124.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 Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall Metropolitan Division, 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 3.4 times the national rate in Miami, and cargo and freight agents, at 3.2 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks had a location quotient of 1.0 in Miami, 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 2017 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2017, November 2016, May 2016, November 2015, May 2015, and November 2014. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 72 percent based on establishments and 68 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The unweighted sample employment of 82 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 58 percent of total national employment. The sample in the Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall Metropolitan Division included 5,455 establishments with a response rate of 72 percent. For more information about OES concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_tec.htm.

The May 2017 OES estimates are based on the 2010 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system and the 2017 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 2017 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 Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall Metropolitan Division includes Miami-Dade County in Florida.

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, Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall Metropolitan Division, May 2017

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	207,860	1.2	$17.01	$35,390
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	14,180	1.2	27.56	57,320
Switchboard operators, including answering service	950	1.5	12.53	26,070
Telephone operators	(5)	(5)	13.21	27,470
Bill and account collectors	1,910	0.9	19.32	40,190
Billing and posting clerks	4,150	1.1	16.68	34,700
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	12,700	1.0	19.34	40,230
Gaming cage workers	170	1.2	10.90	22,680
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	910	0.7	19.78	41,140
Procurement clerks	330	0.6	20.31	42,230
Tellers	4,300	1.1	14.72	30,620
Financial clerks, all other	(5)	(5)	22.33	46,440
Brokerage clerks	830	1.8	23.44	48,760
Court, municipal, and license clerks	720	0.7	21.54	44,800
Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks	(5)	(5)	16.03	33,340
Customer service representatives	28,270	1.3	15.57	32,390
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	350	0.3	17.14	35,640
File clerks	3,250	3.4	16.16	33,610
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	2,860	1.4	12.07	25,110
Interviewers, except eligibility and loan	1,400	0.9	17.10	35,570
Library assistants, clerical	430	0.6	14.27	29,680
Loan interviewers and clerks	1,140	0.6	19.50	40,560
New accounts clerks	30	0.1	24.19	50,320
Order clerks	1,160	0.9	13.82	28,750
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	830	0.8	18.34	38,140
Receptionists and information clerks	11,540	1.4	13.24	27,540
Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks	4,240	3.6	15.30	31,820
Information and record clerks, all other	1,870	1.5	18.11	37,670
Cargo and freight agents	2,290	3.2	20.35	42,320
Couriers and messengers	930	1.5	16.24	33,770
Police, fire, and ambulance dispatchers	640	0.8	23.43	48,720
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	2,020	1.3	18.11	37,660
Meter readers, utilities	120	0.5	16.75	34,830
Postal service clerks	470	0.7	25.26	52,540
Postal service mail carriers	2,380	0.9	24.35	50,650
Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators	1,450	1.6	24.24	50,430
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	1,390	0.5	21.83	45,400
Shipping, receiving, and traffic clerks	7,150	1.3	14.23	29,600
Stock clerks and order fillers	22,010	1.4	12.17	25,320
Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping	210	0.4	16.17	33,630
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	4,430	0.9	27.04	56,240
Legal secretaries	2,320	1.6	23.74	49,370
Medical secretaries	2,900	0.6	16.12	33,540
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	22,860	1.3	17.31	36,000
Computer operators	260	0.8	24.67	51,320
Data entry keyers	1,680	1.2	14.08	29,290
Word processors and typists	390	0.7	17.45	36,300
Desktop publishers	50	0.5	21.21	44,130
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks	1,790	0.8	17.78	36,980
Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service	420	0.6	15.00	31,200
Office clerks, general	28,870	1.2	14.85	30,900
Office machine operators, except computer	420	1.0	15.48	32,190
Office and administrative support workers, all other	1,260	0.8	19.19	39,910
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall Metropolitan Division, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_33124.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.