Workers in the Macon, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $20.46 in May 2019, about 20 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, 1 of the 22 major occupational groups had an average wage in the local area that was significantly higher than its respective national average. Twenty groups had significantly lower wages than their respective national averages, including life, physical, and social science; construction and extraction; and legal.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Macon area employment was more highly concentrated in 5 of the 22 occupational groups, including office and administrative support, healthcare practitioners and technical, and healthcare support. Eight groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including production, computer and mathematical, 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. Macon had 15,250 jobs in office and administrative support occupations, accounting for 15.4 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 13.3-percent share nationally. The local average hourly wage for this occupational group was $17.86, 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 (3,330); secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (1,620); and general office clerks (1,620). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants, and first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers, with mean hourly wages of $30.60 and $28.15, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($9.95) and couriers and messengers ($11.80). (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_31420.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 Macon area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance, were employed at 5.3 times the national rate in Macon, and medical secretaries and administrative assistants, at 1.8 times the U.S. average. Receptionists and information clerks had a location quotient of 1.0 in Macon, 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 Georgia Department of Labor.

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 Macon, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,255 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.

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 Macon, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Bibb, Crawford, Jones, Monroe, and Twiggs 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, Macon, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2019

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	15,250	1.2	$17.86	$37,140
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	1,140	1.1	28.15	58,550
Switchboard operators, including answering service	50	1.0	13.31	27,690
Bill and account collectors	270	1.7	18.80	39,090
Billing and posting clerks	410	1.3	18.60	38,690
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	810	0.8	18.97	39,460
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	90	0.9	18.80	39,110
Procurement clerks	30	0.7	16.29	33,880
Tellers	260	0.9	14.48	30,110
Court, municipal, and license clerks	180	1.7	16.25	33,800
Customer service representatives	3,330	1.7	18.33	38,120
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	80	0.8	16.41	34,140
File clerks	60	0.8	13.78	28,660
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	240	1.3	9.95	20,700
Loan interviewers and clerks	120	0.9	17.71	36,840
Order clerks	40	0.5	23.06	47,970
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	60	0.7	15.99	33,260
Receptionists and information clerks	680	1.0	13.94	29,000
Information and record clerks, all other	60	0.5	17.47	36,330
Couriers and messengers	60	1.3	11.80	24,550
Public safety telecommunicators	130	2.1	14.83	30,840
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	710	5.3	15.38	31,980
Meter readers, utilities	40	1.7	25.38	52,800
Postal service clerks	50	1.0	25.22	52,450
Postal service mail carriers	250	1.1	24.55	51,070
Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators	170	2.5	24.30	50,550
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	60	0.3	23.08	48,010
Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks	360	0.8	15.29	31,800
Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping	160	4.0	16.08	33,440
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	140	0.4	30.60	63,640
Legal secretaries and administrative assistants	110	1.0	19.33	40,210
Medical secretaries and administrative assistants	720	1.8	16.61	34,550
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	1,620	1.2	15.39	32,010
Data entry keyers	50	0.5	12.69	26,400
Office clerks, general	1,620	0.8	14.67	30,510
Office and administrative support workers, all other	180	1.4	16.10	33,490
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Macon, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_31420.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.