Workers in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $22.95 in May 2018, about 8 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, 16 of the 22 major occupational groups had average wages in the local area that were significantly lower than their respective national averages, including construction and extraction; legal; and architecture and engineering.

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, nine groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including production; transportation and material moving; and education, training, and library. (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 244,250 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 18.6 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 15.1-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $17.56, 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 (52,010); general office clerks (27,580); and secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (21,050). 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 $27.62 and $24.77, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($11.64) and switchboard operators, including answering service ($12.46). (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_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, order clerks were employed at 3.8 times the national rate in Tampa, and insurance claims and policy processing clerks, at 2.1 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 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 Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater Metropolitan Statistical Area included 5,953 establishments with a response rate of 73 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 Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL 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 2018

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	244,250	1.2	$17.56	$36,530
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	17,300	1.3	27.62	57,460
Switchboard operators, including answering service	860	1.3	12.46	25,910
Bill and account collectors	3,390	1.5	17.14	35,640
Billing and posting clerks	5,310	1.3	18.07	37,590
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	17,520	1.3	19.75	41,080
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	1,370	1.1	20.77	43,210
Procurement clerks	490	0.8	18.88	39,260
Tellers	4,360	1.0	16.59	34,520
Financial clerks, all other	240	0.9	19.05	39,620
Brokerage clerks	650	1.3	21.95	45,660
Correspondence clerks	30	0.7	18.16	37,780
Court, municipal, and license clerks	830	0.6	18.51	38,500
Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks	790	2.9	18.10	37,640
Customer service representatives	52,010	2.0	16.27	33,830
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	430	0.3	19.78	41,140
File clerks	1,620	1.6	15.28	31,780
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	1,830	0.8	11.64	24,220
Interviewers, except eligibility and loan	2,700	1.5	16.47	34,260
Library assistants, clerical	440	0.5	14.10	29,330
Loan interviewers and clerks	2,940	1.5	19.90	41,390
New accounts clerks	120	0.3	17.58	36,560
Order clerks	5,460	3.8	16.76	34,860
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	1,220	1.1	17.67	36,760
Receptionists and information clerks	12,900	1.4	13.53	28,140
Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks	1,950	1.6	18.14	37,740
Information and record clerks, all other	1,690	1.2	18.73	38,950
Cargo and freight agents	770	0.9	21.19	44,080
Couriers and messengers	650	1.0	16.97	35,300
Police, fire, and ambulance dispatchers	570	0.7	19.21	39,960
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	1,690	0.9	17.07	35,510
Meter readers, utilities	280	0.9	17.02	35,390
Postal service clerks	630	0.9	25.31	52,650
Postal service mail carriers	3,280	1.1	25.00	52,010
Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators	880	0.9	25.33	52,690
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	2,170	0.7	21.54	44,810
Shipping, receiving, and traffic clerks	4,640	0.8	15.63	32,500
Stock clerks and order fillers	19,710	1.1	12.68	26,370
Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping	610	1.0	15.15	31,520
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	4,480	0.9	24.77	51,510
Legal secretaries	1,300	0.8	22.91	47,650
Medical secretaries	4,070	0.8	16.05	33,380
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	21,050	1.1	16.90	35,150
Computer operators	290	0.9	18.21	37,870
Data entry keyers	2,440	1.5	15.08	31,360
Word processors and typists	280	0.6	15.35	31,930
Desktop publishers	50	0.6	16.70	34,740
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks	5,250	2.1	18.95	39,420
Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service	1,110	1.4	13.09	27,240
Office clerks, general	27,580	1.0	16.00	33,280
Office machine operators, except computer	310	0.7	14.42	29,990
Proofreaders and copy markers	50	0.5	16.49	34,290
Statistical assistants	(5)	(5)	22.47	46,740
Office and administrative support workers, all other	1,490	0.8	21.73	45,200
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.