Workers in the Port St. Lucie, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $27.41 in May 2024, compared to the nationwide average of $32.66, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Victoria G. Lee noted that higher paying major occupational groups included management ($54.26), legal ($49.08), and healthcare practitioners and technical ($45.03). Lower paying occupational groups included food preparation and serving related ($17.09), personal care and service ($17.49), and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($18.17). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Port St. Lucie area included office and administrative support (12.0 percent), food preparation and serving related (11.4 percent), and sales and related (10.0 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included life, physical, and social science (0.5 percent); legal (0.8 percent); arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (0.9 percent); and architecture and engineering (0.9 percent).

One occupational group—construction and extraction—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Port St. Lucie had 10,470 jobs in construction and extraction, accounting for 6.2 percent of local area employment, compared to the 4.1-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $24.46, compared to the national wage of $30.73.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the construction and extraction group included construction laborers (1,920), first-line supervisors of construction trades and extraction workers (1,340), carpenters (1,060), and electricians (1,020). Among the higher paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of construction trades and extraction workers ($34.79) and construction and building inspectors ($34.01). At the lower end of the wage scale were helpers of electricians ($18.65) and helpers of carpenters ($18.75). (Detailed data for the construction and extraction occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0038940.)

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 2.00 indicates that an occupation accounts for twice the share of employment in the area than it does nationally. In the Port St. Lucie area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the construction and extraction group. For instance, roofers were employed at 6.44 times the national rate in Port St. Lucie, and construction and maintenance painters, at 2.14 times the U.S. average. Construction and building inspectors had a location quotient of 1.08 in Port St. Lucie, 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 Commerce.

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 530 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 is 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 65.7 percent based on establishments and 65.9 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Port St. Lucie, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,837 establishments with a response rate of 69 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 Port St. Lucie, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Martin County and St. Lucie 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 construction and extraction occupations, Port St. Lucie metropolitan area, May 2024

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages ($)
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Construction and extraction occupations	10,470	1.51	24.46	50,880
First-line supervisors of construction trades and extraction workers	1,340	1.53	34.79	72,360
Brickmasons and blockmasons	80	1.40	24.93	51,850
Carpenters	1,060	1.40	24.25	50,440
Floor layers, except carpet, wood, and hard tiles	(5)	(5)	24.89	51,780
Tile and stone setters	120	2.88	24.60	51,170
Cement masons and concrete finishers	340	1.51	23.36	48,580
Construction laborers	1,920	1.67	20.31	42,250
Paving, surfacing, and tamping equipment operators	60	1.29	22.58	46,970
Operating engineers and other construction equipment operators	570	1.13	24.20	50,340
Drywall and ceiling tile installers	120	1.31	22.12	46,010
Electricians	1,020	1.27	26.36	54,830
Painters, construction and maintenance	520	2.14	21.39	44,490
Pipelayers	90	2.38	22.56	46,910
Plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters	460	0.92	24.91	51,800
Roofers	960	6.44	21.31	44,330
Sheet metal workers	240	1.85	24.10	50,120
Structural iron and steel workers	50	0.66	23.54	48,960
Helpers--carpenters	100	3.59	18.75	39,000
Helpers--electricians	200	2.87	18.65	38,800
Helpers--pipelayers, plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters	60	1.32	19.22	39,980
Helpers, construction trades, all other	30	1.09	17.84	37,110
Construction and building inspectors	160	1.08	34.01	70,740
Fence erectors	50	1.84	24.98	51,970
Excavating and loading machine and dragline operators, surface mining	50	1.25	25.56	53,170
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Port St. Lucie, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area, see https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0038940. (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.