Workers in the Jacksonville, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $23.21 in May 2019, about 10 percent below the nationwide average of $25.72, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. 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; arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media; and computer and mathematical.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Jacksonville area employment was more highly concentrated in 8 of the 22 occupational groups, including office and administrative support, transportation and material moving, and business and financial operations. Eleven groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including production, educational instruction and library, and healthcare support. (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. Jacksonville had 112,880 jobs in office and administrative support occupations, accounting for 16.1 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 13.3-percent share nationally. The local average hourly wage for this occupational group was $18.65, significantly lower than the national wage of $19.73.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included customer service representatives (28,140), general office clerks (15,150), and first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers (9,680). 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 $27.29 and $25.50, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($11.49) and receptionists and information clerks ($14.04). (Detailed data for the 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_27260.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 Jacksonville area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, bill and account collectors were employed at 2.8 times the national rate in Jacksonville, and insurance claims and policy processing clerks, at 2.0 times the U.S. average. Production, planning, and expediting clerks had a location quotient of 1.0 in Jacksonville, 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 1.1 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 2019 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2019, November 2018, May 2018, November 2017, May 2017, and November 2016. The unweighted sample employment of 83 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 57 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 Jacksonville, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area included 4,050 establishments with a response rate of 75 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 2019 OES estimates are the first set of OES estimates to be based in part on survey data collected using the 2018 SOC. These estimates use a hybrid of the 2010 and 2018 SOC systems. More information on the hybrid classification system is available at www.bls.gov/oes/soc_2018.htm.

The May 2019 OES estimates are based on the 2017 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). More 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 Jacksonville, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Baker, Clay, Duval, Nassau, and St. Johns Counties.

For more information

Answers to frequently asked questions about the OES data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_ques.htm. Detailed information about the OES program is available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_doc.htm.

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 for office and administrative support occupations, Jacksonville, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2019

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	112,880	1.2	$18.65	$38,790
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	9,680	1.4	27.29	56,760
Switchboard operators, including answering service	190	0.6	13.08	27,210
Bill and account collectors	3,160	2.8	16.47	34,260
Billing and posting clerks	2,700	1.2	16.84	35,020
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	6,220	0.9	20.08	41,770
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	420	0.6	20.25	42,110
Procurement clerks	200	0.6	21.00	43,680
Tellers	2,580	1.2	16.48	34,270
Financial clerks, all other	230	1.6	21.13	43,950
Brokerage clerks	360	1.6	28.74	59,780
Court, municipal, and license clerks	500	0.7	18.02	37,490
Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks	70	0.6	19.71	41,000
Customer service representatives	28,140	2.0	17.27	35,930
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	830	1.3	22.83	47,490
File clerks	580	1.2	14.56	30,290
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	1,050	0.8	11.49	23,900
Interviewers, except eligibility and loan	(5)	(5)	15.96	33,200
Library assistants, clerical	340	0.8	14.82	30,830
Loan interviewers and clerks	1,830	1.8	22.24	46,270
Order clerks	730	1.1	16.83	35,000
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	770	1.4	18.94	39,400
Receptionists and information clerks	5,830	1.2	14.04	29,210
Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks	480	0.8	20.65	42,950
Information and record clerks, all other	740	1.0	18.97	39,460
Cargo and freight agents	780	1.7	21.35	44,420
Couriers and messengers	290	0.8	13.67	28,440
Public safety telecommunicators	330	0.7	19.56	40,680
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	710	0.8	18.78	39,060
Meter readers, utilities	220	1.5	24.67	51,310
Postal service clerks	220	0.6	24.45	50,850
Postal service mail carriers	1,320	0.8	25.76	53,570
Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators	1,030	2.1	25.15	52,310
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	1,800	1.0	20.67	43,000
Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks	3,670	1.1	16.94	35,230
Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping	180	0.6	18.31	38,090
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	1,970	0.8	25.50	53,030
Legal secretaries and administrative assistants	770	1.0	22.55	46,900
Medical secretaries and administrative assistants	2,710	0.9	16.65	34,630
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	8,800	0.9	17.56	36,520
Data entry keyers	1,080	1.4	15.98	33,240
Word processors and typists	110	0.5	12.96	26,960
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks	2,420	2.0	19.51	40,580
Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service	310	0.8	14.00	29,120
Office clerks, general	15,150	1.1	16.92	35,200
Office machine operators, except computer	160	0.8	13.78	28,670
Office and administrative support workers, all other	540	0.6	19.39	40,330
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Jacksonville, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_27260.htm. (2) Estimates for detailed occupations may not sum to the totals due to rounding, and because the totals may include occupations that are 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.