Workers in the Jacksonville, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $28.55 in May 2023, compared to the nationwide average of $31.48, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Victoria G. Lee noted that higher paying major occupational groups included management ($60.74), legal ($48.29), computer and mathematical ($47.54), and healthcare practitioners and technical ($46.50). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($15.92), personal care and service ($16.92), building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($17.41), and healthcare support ($18.63). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Jacksonville area included office and administrative support (14.4 percent), transportation and material moving (10.6 percent), sales and related (9.8 percent), and food preparation and serving related (9.6 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included life, physical, and social science (0.5 percent) and legal (0.9 percent). (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. Jacksonville had 106,430 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 14.4 percent of local area employment, compared to the 12.2-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $21.93, compared to the national wage of $23.05.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included customer service representatives (20,530) and general office clerks (13,530). 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 $32.97 and $30.17, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale was hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($14.76). (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, postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators were employed at 2.4 times the national rate in Jacksonville, and loan interviewers and clerks, at 2.1 times the U.S. average. Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks had a location quotient of 1.0 in Jacksonville, indicating that this particular occupation’s local and national employment shares were similar.

The statistics in this release are from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, a cooperative effort between BLS and the State Workforce Agencies (SWAs). BLS funds the survey and provides the procedures and technical support. State Workforce Agencies collect most of the data: 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. Full OEWS data tables are available online.

Additional information about the OEWS estimates and methodology are available in the national Technical Notes. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 65.8 percent based on establishments and 64.3 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Jacksonville, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area included 4,096 establishments with a response rate of 71 percent.

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 County, Clay County, Duval County, Nassau County, and St. Johns County.

For more information

Answers to frequently asked questions about the OEWS data, as well as general program documentation, are available on the OEWS website.

Information in this release will be made available to individuals with sensory impairments upon request. Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; Telecommunications Relay Service: 7-1-1.

Table 1. Employment and wage data for office and administrative support occupations, Jacksonville metropolitan area, May 2023

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages ($)
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	106,430	1.2	21.93	45,620
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	7,800	1.1	32.97	68,580
Switchboard operators, including answering service	200	0.9	16.16	33,610
Communications equipment operators, all other	30	5.1	24.23	50,390
Bill and account collectors	1,900	2.0	20.73	43,120
Billing and posting clerks	1,980	0.9	21.12	43,940
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	8,480	1.2	22.79	47,390
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	910	1.2	23.50	48,890
Procurement clerks	310	1.0	22.80	47,420
Tellers	1,510	0.9	19.45	40,460
Financial clerks, all other	290	1.3	27.52	57,230
Brokerage clerks	440	1.9	24.98	51,950
Court, municipal, and license clerks	590	0.8	19.60	40,770
Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks	60	0.8	24.50	50,970
Customer service representatives	20,530	1.5	20.26	42,140
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	1,060	1.4	23.14	48,140
File clerks	450	1.1	17.91	37,250
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	1,400	1.1	14.76	30,700
Interviewers, except eligibility and loan	490	0.6	19.66	40,880
Library assistants, clerical	250	0.6	16.07	33,420
Loan interviewers and clerks	2,080	2.1	25.50	53,040
New accounts clerks	130	0.6	22.44	46,660
Order clerks	500	1.1	21.73	45,190
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	500	1.0	22.02	45,790
Receptionists and information clerks	5,380	1.1	16.91	35,170
Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks	390	0.7	21.54	44,800
Information and record clerks, all other	750	1.0	22.05	45,870
Cargo and freight agents	990	1.9	25.14	52,290
Couriers and messengers	500	1.4	16.59	34,510
Public safety telecommunicators	320	0.7	22.24	46,260
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	1,340	1.3	22.23	46,230
Meter readers, utilities	50	0.5	22.67	47,140
Postal service clerks	230	0.6	28.21	58,680
Postal service mail carriers	1,350	0.8	28.97	60,260
Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators	1,360	2.4	27.05	56,260
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	2,020	1.1	25.21	52,440
Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks	4,190	1.0	20.13	41,860
Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping	230	0.9	21.47	44,660
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	1,790	0.8	30.17	62,750
Legal secretaries and administrative assistants	520	0.7	25.07	52,140
Medical secretaries and administrative assistants	7,290	2.0	19.34	40,230
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	7,690	0.9	20.75	43,150
Data entry keyers	900	1.2	18.80	39,100
Word processors and typists	120	0.7	17.39	36,170
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks	1,510	1.3	21.88	45,510
Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service	200	0.6	17.19	35,750
Office clerks, general	13,530	1.1	20.38	42,390
Office machine operators, except computer	180	1.3	20.34	42,300
Proofreaders and copy markers	50	1.8	18.59	38,670
Office and administrative support workers, all other	1,660	2.0	21.41	44,530
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.