Workers in the Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $19.81 in May 2017, about 19 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, 19 groups had significantly lower wages than their respective national averages, including arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media; legal; and computer and mathematical.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 8 of the 22 occupational groups, including office and administrative support; food preparation and serving related; and sales and related. Conversely, 12 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including transportation and material moving, production, 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. Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent had 32,250 jobs in office and administrative support occupations, accounting for 19.0 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 15.4-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $15.54, 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 (3,500), secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (3,290), and stock clerks and order fillers (2,860). 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 $23.68 and $19.92, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($10.34) and couriers and messengers ($11.66). (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_37860.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 Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent Metropolitan Statistical Area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, tellers were employed at 2.3 times the national rate in Pensacola, and legal secretaries, at 2.0 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, general office clerks had a location quotient of 1.0 in Pensacola, 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 Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,863 establishments with a response rate of 79 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 Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Escambia and Santa Rosa Counties 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, Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2017

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	32,250	1.2	$15.54	$32,320
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	2,460	1.4	23.68	49,250
Switchboard operators, including answering service	80	0.9	12.95	26,940
Bill and account collectors	(5)	(5)	16.60	34,530
Billing and posting clerks	440	0.8	17.31	36,010
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	1,720	0.9	16.78	34,900
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	170	0.9	16.01	33,300
Procurement clerks	80	1.0	19.05	39,630
Tellers	1,330	2.3	14.28	29,700
Court, municipal, and license clerks	230	1.5	16.05	33,370
Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks	40	1.0	13.73	28,560
Customer service representatives	(5)	(5)	14.09	29,300
File clerks	170	1.2	14.52	30,210
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	470	1.6	10.34	21,510
Interviewers, except eligibility and loan	250	1.1	14.42	29,990
Library assistants, clerical	60	0.5	10.73	22,320
Loan interviewers and clerks	290	1.1	17.81	37,050
Order clerks	50	0.3	15.94	33,150
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	160	1.0	18.01	37,460
Receptionists and information clerks	1,570	1.3	13.18	27,410
Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks	100	0.6	22.47	46,740
Information and record clerks, all other	340	1.8	18.57	38,620
Cargo and freight agents	70	0.6	(5)	(5)
Couriers and messengers	130	1.5	11.66	24,250
Police, fire, and ambulance dispatchers	200	1.7	15.08	31,360
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	120	0.5	18.82	39,140
Meter readers, utilities	50	1.1	18.03	37,510
Postal service clerks	90	0.9	23.32	48,510
Postal service mail carriers	490	1.2	24.39	50,730
Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators	160	1.2	24.05	50,020
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	140	0.4	21.26	44,220
Shipping, receiving, and traffic clerks	350	0.4	16.21	33,710
Stock clerks and order fillers	2,860	1.2	12.54	26,090
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	510	0.7	19.92	41,440
Legal secretaries	430	2.0	17.62	36,650
Medical secretaries	1,010	1.5	14.61	30,380
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	3,290	1.2	14.64	30,460
Data entry keyers	250	1.2	14.83	30,840
Word processors and typists	150	1.9	14.78	30,740
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks	(5)	(5)	17.25	35,890
Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service	50	0.5	14.92	31,030
Office clerks, general	3,500	1.0	14.34	29,820
Office machine operators, except computer	30	0.5	14.42	30,000
Office and administrative support workers, all other	310	1.3	13.68	28,450
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_37860.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.