Workers in the Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $24.60 in May 2019, compared to 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: architecture and engineering. Fifteen groups had significantly lower wages than their respective national averages, including arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media; community and social service; and legal.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Palm Bay area employment was more highly concentrated in 6 of the 22 occupational groups, including architecture and engineering, sales and related, and healthcare practitioners and technical. Eleven groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including transportation and material moving, production, and educational instruction and library. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

One occupational group—architecture and engineering—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Palm Bay had 11,970 jobs in architecture and engineering occupations, accounting for 5.3 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 1.8-percent share nationally. The local average hourly wage for this occupational group was $44.58, significantly higher than the national wage of $42.69.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the architecture and engineering group included industrial engineers (1,400), electrical engineers (1,290), and mechanical engineers (1,070). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were aerospace engineers and computer hardware engineers, with mean hourly wages of $59.24 and $52.28, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were surveying and mapping technicians ($22.11) and industrial engineering technologists and technicians ($25.51). (Detailed data for the architecture and engineering occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_37340.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 Palm Bay area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the architecture and engineering group. For instance, aerospace engineering and operations technologists and technicians were employed at 54.0 times the national rate in Palm Bay, and aerospace engineers, at 10.3 times the U.S. average. Civil engineers had a location quotient of 1.3 in Palm Bay, 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 Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area included 2,160 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 Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Brevard County.

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 architecture and engineering occupations, Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2019

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Architecture and engineering occupations	11,970	3.0	$44.58	$92,720
Architects, except landscape and naval	70	0.4	42.85	89,130
Surveyors	150	2.2	29.66	61,680
Aerospace engineers	990	10.3	59.24	123,220
Civil engineers	600	1.3	46.20	96,090
Computer hardware engineers	940	9.1	52.28	108,740
Electrical engineers	1,290	4.6	51.67	107,470
Electronics engineers, except computer	1,010	5.2	48.52	100,920
Health and safety engineers, except mining safety engineers and inspectors	70	1.9	53.95	112,210
Industrial engineers	1,400	3.1	42.14	87,640
Materials engineers	90	2.1	52.98	110,200
Mechanical engineers	1,070	2.3	47.86	99,550
Engineers, all other	1,280	5.5	55.19	114,800
Architectural and civil drafters	170	1.2	26.64	55,410
Electrical and electronics drafters	50	1.2	28.39	59,040
Mechanical drafters	170	2.0	25.73	53,510
Aerospace engineering and operations technologists and technicians	950	54.0	26.45	55,020
Electrical and electronic engineering technologists and technicians	700	3.8	32.28	67,150
Industrial engineering technologists and technicians	220	2.2	25.51	53,060
Mechanical engineering technologists and technicians	90	1.4	26.42	54,960
Surveying and mapping technicians	150	1.8	22.11	45,990
Calibration technologists and technicians and engineering technologists and technicians, except drafters, all other	190	1.4	32.17	66,920
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_37340.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.