Workers in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $24.89 in May 2020, about 8 percent below 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, 17 of the 22 major occupational groups had average wages in the local area that were significantly lower than their respective national averages, including legal; construction and extraction; and arts design, entertainment, sports, and media. Three groups had wages that were not significantly different from their respective national averages—building and grounds cleaning and maintenance, sales and related, and protective service.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Tampa area employment was more highly concentrated in 8 of the 22 occupational groups, including office and administrative support, sales and related, and business and financial operations. Ten groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including production, transportation and material moving, and educational instruction and library. (See table A.)

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 had 206,640 jobs in office and administrative support occupations, accounting for 15.9 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 13.3-percent national share. The local average hourly wage for this occupational group was $19.16, significantly lower than the national average of $20.38.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included customer service representatives (49,590); general office clerks (29,070); and secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (17,810). 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 $29.24 and $25.87, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($12.17) and clerical library assistants ($13.03). (Detailed data for the office and administrative support occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations, 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 area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, customer service representatives were employed at 1.9 times the national rate in Tampa, and file clerks, at 1.8 times the U.S. average. Loan interviewers and clerks 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 and Wage Statistics (OEWS) 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 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 Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area included 5,851 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 Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Hernando, Hillsborough, Pasco, and Pinellas 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. Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; Federal Relay Service: (800) 877-8339.

Table 1. Employment and wage data for office and administrative support occupations, Tampa metropolitan area, May 2020

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	206,640	1.2	$19.16	$39,850
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	16,480	1.2	29.24	60,810
Switchboard operators, including answering service	700	1.3	13.63	28,340
Telephone operators	(5)	(5)	16.25	33,800
Bill and account collectors	2,690	1.3	18.96	39,430
Billing and posting clerks	4,930	1.2	18.25	37,950
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	16,900	1.3	20.88	43,430
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	1,370	1.1	21.08	43,850
Procurement clerks	510	0.9	19.44	40,430
Tellers	3,310	0.8	18.64	38,770
Financial clerks, all other	380	1.3	19.83	41,250
Brokerage clerks	470	1.1	23.59	49,080
Court, municipal, and license clerks	750	0.5	19.85	41,280
Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks	500	2.2	20.80	43,260
Customer service representatives	49,590	1.9	17.32	36,020
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	830	0.6	16.61	34,540
File clerks	1,500	1.8	15.93	33,120
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	2,400	1.2	12.17	25,310
Interviewers, except eligibility and loan	2,190	1.4	15.92	33,120
Library assistants, clerical	300	0.4	13.03	27,110
Loan interviewers and clerks	1,910	1.0	21.14	43,970
New accounts clerks	70	0.2	17.96	37,360
Order clerks	1,120	1.0	16.89	35,120
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	920	0.9	19.22	39,990
Receptionists and information clerks	10,150	1.1	14.49	30,140
Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks	1,690	1.6	20.49	42,630
Information and record clerks, all other	1,240	0.9	20.64	42,930
Cargo and freight agents	710	0.8	22.48	46,750
Couriers and messengers	800	1.2	19.91	41,410
Public safety telecommunicators	570	0.7	19.10	39,720
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	2,160	1.2	17.56	36,530
Meter readers, utilities	250	1.0	16.71	34,760
Postal service clerks	680	0.8	25.73	53,510
Postal service mail carriers	3,190	1.0	25.84	53,750
Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators	940	1.0	25.03	52,060
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	2,980	0.9	24.26	50,460
Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks	5,400	0.8	16.61	34,550
Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping	340	0.6	17.81	37,050
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	3,400	0.7	25.87	53,800
Legal secretaries and administrative assistants	1,160	0.8	22.70	47,230
Medical secretaries and administrative assistants	5,250	0.9	17.43	36,260
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	17,810	1.0	17.85	37,130
Data entry keyers	1,810	1.3	15.32	31,870
Word processors and typists	130	0.3	17.01	35,370
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks	3,220	1.4	19.65	40,870
Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service	930	1.3	14.35	29,840
Office clerks, general	29,070	1.1	17.66	36,730
Office machine operators, except computer	230	0.6	15.08	31,360
Office and administrative support workers, all other	2,190	1.3	21.09	43,870
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 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.