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News Release Information

25-708-ATL
Tuesday, May 06, 2025

Contacts Technical information: Media contact:
  • (404) 893-4220

Occupational Employment and Wages in Port St. Lucie — May 2024

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).

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Port St. Lucie metropolitan area, May 2024
Major occupational group Percent of total employment Mean hourly wage ($)
United States Port St. Lucie United States Port St. Lucie

Total, all occupations

100.0 100.0 32.66 27.41

Management

7.1 6.3 68.15 54.26

Business and financial operations

6.7 4.2 45.04 40.92

Computer and mathematical

3.4 1.3 56.16 43.96

Architecture and engineering

1.7 0.9 49.99 42.81

Life, physical, and social science

0.9 0.5 43.12 36.11

Community and social service

1.7 1.6 30.31 26.21

Legal

0.8 0.8 66.19 49.08

Educational instruction and library

5.8 4.9 31.69 24.72

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.4 0.9 37.04 28.59

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.2 8.6 50.59 45.03

Healthcare support

4.8 4.5 19.06 19.44

Protective service

2.4 2.3 29.33 32.46

Food preparation and serving related

8.8 11.4 17.32 17.09

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.9 3.7 19.01 18.17

Personal care and service

2.0 1.9 18.95 17.49

Sales and related

8.7 10.0 26.00 22.17

Office and administrative support

11.8 12.0 24.12 22.17

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.3 0.4 20.06 16.70

Construction and extraction

4.1 6.2 30.73 24.46

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.9 4.8 29.63 26.80

Production

5.7 4.0 24.08 22.49

Transportation and material moving

8.9 8.7 23.44 20.24

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.

Changes to the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) Data

Effective with the May 2024 OEWS news release, the OEWS program has implemented new metropolitan area definitions based on the 2020 decennial census and delineated by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Bulletin 23-01. This news release does not include data for Colorado and its areas because of quality concerns with Colorado’s Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) data. See the national OEWS news release for more information.


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.

 

Last Modified Date: Tuesday, May 06, 2025