Workers in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $29.81 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 ($64.14), legal ($51.22), and computer and mathematical ($49.20). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($16.67), building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($17.02), and personal care and service ($17.83). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Tampa area included office and administrative support (14.2 percent), sales and related (10.3 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 (0.7 percent) and both architecture and engineering and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (1.2 percent each). (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 201,260 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 14.2 percent of local area employment, compared to the 12.2-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $22.17, 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 (39,060) and general office clerks (28,220). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers, postal service clerks, and postal service mail carriers with mean hourly wages of $32.22, $28.98, and $28.49, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale was hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($15.48). (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_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, medical secretaries and administrative assistants were employed at 2.0 times the national rate in Tampa, and bill and account collectors, at 1.9 times the U.S. average. Reception and information clerks had a location quotient of 1.0 in Tampa, 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 Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area included 6,106 establishments with a response rate of 65 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 Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Hernando County, Hillsborough County, Pasco County, and Pinellas 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, Tampa metropolitan area, May 2023

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages ($)
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	201,260	1.2	22.17	46,120
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	15,650	1.1	32.22	67,020
Switchboard operators, including answering service	510	1.3	16.63	34,590
Bill and account collectors	3,430	1.9	21.79	45,320
Billing and posting clerks	4,460	1.1	21.67	45,080
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	15,850	1.1	23.52	48,910
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	1,790	1.2	24.53	51,020
Procurement clerks	570	1.0	21.27	44,240
Tellers	1,760	0.6	20.44	42,510
Financial clerks, all other	580	1.4	25.99	54,060
Brokerage clerks	970	2.2	26.36	54,820
Court, municipal, and license clerks	850	0.6	20.79	43,230
Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks	190	1.4	23.68	49,260
Customer service representatives	39,060	1.5	19.99	41,580
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	720	0.5	18.72	38,940
File clerks	840	1.1	18.94	39,400
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	2,570	1.1	15.48	32,210
Interviewers, except eligibility and loan	1,000	0.7	19.51	40,570
Library assistants, clerical	390	0.5	16.82	34,990
Loan interviewers and clerks	2,920	1.5	24.01	49,940
New accounts clerks	110	0.3	24.74	51,460
Order clerks	970	1.1	21.08	43,840
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	930	1.0	22.72	47,250
Receptionists and information clerks	9,420	1.0	16.53	34,380
Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks	1,770	1.6	22.96	47,750
Information and record clerks, all other	1,610	1.1	21.15	44,000
Cargo and freight agents	700	0.7	26.57	55,270
Couriers and messengers	970	1.5	17.16	35,690
Public safety telecommunicators	630	0.7	23.19	48,240
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	2,360	1.2	20.79	43,250
Meter readers, utilities	180	1.0	22.80	47,430
Postal service clerks	660	0.9	28.98	60,280
Postal service mail carriers	3,300	1.1	28.49	59,270
Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators	1,160	1.1	26.76	55,660
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	3,190	0.9	25.90	53,880
Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks	6,520	0.8	19.38	40,320
Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping	440	0.9	20.03	41,650
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	3,940	0.9	(5)	(5)
Legal secretaries and administrative assistants	1,480	1.0	26.33	54,770
Medical secretaries and administrative assistants	13,700	2.0	19.54	40,640
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	14,190	0.9	20.50	42,640
Data entry keyers	2,420	1.7	17.37	36,120
Word processors and typists	110	0.3	16.87	35,090
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks	4,550	2.0	23.08	48,000
Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service	470	0.8	17.32	36,030
Office clerks, general	28,220	1.2	20.82	43,300
Office machine operators, except computer	270	1.1	16.44	34,200
Proofreaders and copy markers	60	1.2	18.86	39,220
Statistical assistants	40	0.6	21.03	43,740
Office and administrative support workers, all other	2,510	1.6	21.48	44,680
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.