Workers in the Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $20.43 in May 2018, about 18 percent below the nationwide average of $24.98, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Regional Commissioner Janet S. Rankin noted that, after testing for statistical significance, 20 of the 22 major occupational groups had average wages in the local area that were significantly lower than their respective national averages including legal; construction and extraction; and management.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 9 of the 22 occupational groups, including office and administrative support; food preparation and serving related; and sales and related. Conversely, 11 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including production; transportation and material moving; and personal care and service. (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 31,990 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 18.3 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 15.1-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $16.19, significantly below the national wage of $18.75.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included customer service representatives (6,280); general office clerks (3,990); and stock clerks and order fillers (3,230). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers, and production, planning, and expediting clerks, with mean hourly wages of $24.11 and $23.75, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($10.35) and clerical library assistants ($10.46). (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 1.9 times the national rate in Pensacola, and legal secretaries, at 1.7 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks had a location quotient of 1.1 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 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 580 areas, including states and the District of Columbia, metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), nonmetropolitan areas, and territories; national industry-specific estimates at the NAICS sector, 3-digit, most 4-digit, 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.

The OES survey is a cooperative effort between BLS and the State Workforce Agencies (SWAs). BLS funds the survey and provides the procedures and technical support, while the State Workforce Agencies collect most of the data. OES estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.2 million establishments. Each year, two semiannual panels of approximately 180,000 to 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 2018 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2018, November 2017, May 2017, November 2016, May 2016, and November 2015. The unweighted sample employment of 83 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 58 percent of total national employment. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 71 percent based on establishments and 68 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,913 establishments with a response rate of 76 percent. For more information about OES concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_tec.htm.

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.

The May 2018 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, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Escambia and Santa Rosa 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, Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2018

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	31,990	1.2	$16.19	$33,670
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	2,480	1.4	24.11	50,150
Switchboard operators, including answering service	90	1.0	13.53	28,140
Bill and account collectors	220	0.7	17.89	37,200
Billing and posting clerks	470	0.8	17.50	36,390
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	1,960	1.1	17.87	37,180
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	130	0.7	18.61	38,700
Procurement clerks	80	1.0	19.35	40,250
Tellers	1,090	1.9	14.84	30,880
Court, municipal, and license clerks	190	1.1	14.95	31,090
Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks	(5)	(5)	13.51	28,090
Customer service representatives	6,280	1.8	14.76	30,700
File clerks	130	1.0	15.01	31,210
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	560	1.8	10.35	21,530
Interviewers, except eligibility and loan	250	1.1	15.15	31,520
Library assistants, clerical	60	0.6	10.46	21,750
Loan interviewers and clerks	450	1.7	19.78	41,140
Order clerks	60	0.3	18.20	37,850
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	180	1.2	18.14	37,740
Receptionists and information clerks	1,420	1.1	13.51	28,100
Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks	110	0.7	20.50	42,630
Information and record clerks, all other	370	2.0	18.70	38,890
Cargo and freight agents	70	0.7	(5)	(5)
Couriers and messengers	110	1.2	11.69	24,320
Police, fire, and ambulance dispatchers	120	1.0	14.39	29,930
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	220	0.9	19.72	41,020
Meter readers, utilities	(5)	(5)	19.37	40,290
Postal service clerks	80	0.9	23.70	49,300
Postal service mail carriers	500	1.2	24.81	51,610
Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators	180	1.4	23.32	48,510
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	140	0.3	23.75	49,400
Shipping, receiving, and traffic clerks	380	0.5	17.06	35,480
Stock clerks and order fillers	3,230	1.3	12.86	26,750
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	440	0.6	20.54	42,730
Legal secretaries	360	1.7	19.05	39,630
Medical secretaries	970	1.4	15.03	31,260
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	3,000	1.2	15.40	32,020
Data entry keyers	340	1.6	15.39	32,010
Word processors and typists	50	0.7	13.06	27,160
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks	(5)	(5)	17.87	37,170
Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service	(5)	(5)	15.68	32,610
Office clerks, general	3,990	1.1	14.95	31,090
Office machine operators, except computer	50	0.8	14.40	29,950
Office and administrative support workers, all other	380	1.6	13.47	28,020
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent, FL 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.