Workers in the Huntsville, AL Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $28.24 in May 2020, compared to the nationwide average of $27.07, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Janet S. Rankin noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were higher than their respective national averages in 3 of the 22 major occupational groups: architecture and engineering, business and financial operations, and computer and mathematical. Seventeen groups had significantly lower wages than their respective national averages, including food preparation and serving related, transportation and material moving, and sales and related.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Huntsville area employment was more highly concentrated in 4 of the 22 occupational groups, including architecture and engineering and computer and mathematical. Sixteen groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including transportation and material moving, educational instruction and library, and office and administrative support. (See table A.)

One occupational group—architecture and engineering—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Huntsville had 18,860 jobs in architecture and engineering occupations, accounting for 8.2 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 1.8-percent national share. The local average hourly wage for this occupational group was $49.62, significantly higher than the national average of $43.41.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the architecture and engineering group included aerospace engineers (3,010), electrical engineers (1,960), and industrial engineers (1,540). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were electronics engineers, except computer, and aerospace engineers, with mean hourly wages of $59.32 and $58.32, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were surveying and mapping technicians ($19.24) and civil engineering technologists and technicians ($23.79). (Detailed data for the architecture and engineering occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations, go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_26620.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 Huntsville area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the architecture and engineering group. For instance, aerospace engineers were employed at 29.9 times the national rate in Huntsville, and computer hardware engineers, at 8.6 times the U.S. average. Surveying and mapping technicians had a location quotient of 1.2 in Huntsville, indicating that this particular occupation’s local and national employment shares were similar.

These statistics are from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, a federal-state cooperative program between BLS and State Workforce Agencies, in this case, the Alabama Department of Labor.

Technical Note

The Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey is a semiannual survey measuring occupational employment and wage rates for wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments in the United States. The OEWS 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. OEWS data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm.

The OEWS 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. OEWS estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.1 million establishments. Each year, two semiannual panels of approximately 180,000 to 185,000 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 2020 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2020, November 2019, May 2019, November 2018, May 2018, and November 2017. The unweighted sample employment of 83 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 56 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 69 percent based on establishments and 66 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Huntsville, AL Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,886 establishments with a response rate of 74 percent. For more information about OEWS 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.

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 Huntsville, AL Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Limestone and Madison Counties.

For more information

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

Information in this release will be made available to individuals with sensory impairments upon request. Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; Federal Relay Service: (800) 877-8339.

Table 1. Employment and wage data for architecture and engineering occupations, Huntsville metropolitan area, May 2020 

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Architecture and engineering occupations	18,860	4.5	$49.62	$103,200
Architects, except landscape and naval	120	0.7	40.31	83,850
Surveyors	(5)	(5)	24.92	51,830
Aerospace engineers	3,010	29.9	58.32	121,300
Chemical engineers	(5)	(5)	53.35	110,970
Civil engineers	(5)	(5)	51.61	107,350
Computer hardware engineers	930	8.6	56.63	117,790
Electrical engineers	1,960	6.4	51.86	107,880
Electronics engineers, except computer	970	4.8	59.32	123,390
Environmental engineers	110	1.3	45.86	95,390
Health and safety engineers, except mining safety engineers and inspectors	250	6.2	50.50	105,040
Industrial engineers	1,540	3.2	49.52	102,990
Materials engineers	330	8.2	51.21	106,510
Mechanical engineers	1,400	2.9	48.74	101,380
Engineers, all other	3,010	11.9	61.11	127,110
Architectural and civil drafters	170	1.1	25.88	53,820
Electrical and electronics drafters	60	1.6	26.26	54,610
Mechanical drafters	120	1.4	28.08	58,410
Aerospace engineering and operations technologists and technicians	400	20.3	30.89	64,260
Civil engineering technologists and technicians	440	3.9	23.79	49,480
Electrical and electronic engineering technologists and technicians	1,410	7.4	29.73	61,830
Industrial engineering technologists and technicians	230	2.2	26.66	55,450
Mechanical engineering technologists and technicians	190	2.9	30.26	62,940
Surveying and mapping technicians	110	1.2	19.24	40,010
Calibration technologists and technicians and engineering technologists and technicians, except drafters, all other	350	2.3	34.58	71,920
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Huntsville, AL Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_26620.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.