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15-645-DAL
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
Workers in the Beaumont-Port Arthur Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $20.79 in May 2014, about 8 percent below the nationwide average of $22.71, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Regional Commissioner Stanley W. Suchman noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were higher than their respective national averages in 4 of the 22 major occupational groups, including production; architecture and engineering; and installation, maintenance, and repair. Twelve groups had wages that were measurably lower than their respective national averages; included in this grouping were legal and personal care and service.
When compared to the nationwide distribution, Beaumont employment was more highly concentrated in 5 of the 22 occupational groups, including construction and extraction; production; and installation, maintenance, and repair. Conversely, 11 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including business and financial operations; office and administrative support; and computer and mathematical. (See table A and box note at end of release.)
Major occupational group | Percent of total employment | Mean hourly wage | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
United States | Beaumont- Port Arthur | United States | Beaumont- Port Arthur | Percent difference(1) | |||
Total, all occupations | 100.0% | 100.0% | $22.71 | $20.79 | * | -8 | |
Management | 5.0 | 3.8 | * | 54.08 | 48.08 | * | -11 |
Business and financial operations | 5.1 | 2.7 | * | 34.81 | 33.70 | -3 | |
Computer and mathematical | 2.8 | 0.9 | * | 40.37 | 34.41 | * | -15 |
Architecture and engineering | 1.8 | 2.5 | * | 39.19 | 45.43 | * | 16 |
Life, physical, and social science | 0.8 | 0.8 | 33.69 | 31.92 | -5 | ||
Community and social service | 1.4 | 0.9 | * | 21.79 | 19.51 | * | -10 |
Legal | 0.8 | 0.5 | * | 48.61 | 36.28 | * | -25 |
Education, training, and library | 6.2 | 5.6 | 25.10 | 19.77 | * | -21 | |
Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media | 1.3 | 0.6 | * | 26.82 | 20.46 | * | -24 |
Healthcare practitioners and technical | 5.8 | 4.8 | * | 36.54 | 32.78 | * | -10 |
Healthcare support | 2.9 | 2.0 | * | 13.86 | 13.17 | -5 | |
Protective service | 2.4 | 3.1 | * | 21.14 | 20.51 | -3 | |
Food preparation and serving related | 9.1 | 8.8 | 10.57 | 9.14 | * | -14 | |
Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance | 3.2 | 2.5 | * | 12.68 | 10.83 | * | -15 |
Personal care and service | 3.1 | NA | 12.01 | 9.13 | * | -24 | |
Sales and related | 10.5 | 10.9 | 18.59 | 17.12 | * | -8 | |
Office and administrative support | 16.0 | 14.0 | * | 17.08 | 15.61 | * | -9 |
Farming, fishing, and forestry | 0.3 | 0.1 | * | 12.09 | 18.16 | * | 50 |
Construction and extraction | 3.9 | 8.8 | * | 22.40 | 21.98 | -2 | |
Installation, maintenance, and repair | 3.9 | 5.0 | * | 21.74 | 23.40 | * | 8 |
Production | 6.6 | 10.6 | * | 17.06 | 23.78 | * | 39 |
Transportation and material moving | 6.8 | 6.7 | 16.57 | 16.39 | -1 | ||
(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in Beaumont-Port Arthur is above the national mean wage, while a negative difference reflects a lower wage. | |||||||
Note: * The percent share of employment or mean hourly wage for this area is significantly different from the national average of all areas at the 90-percent confidence level. |
One occupational group – production – was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Beaumont had 16,710 jobs in production, accounting for 10.6 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the national share of 6.6 percent. The local average hourly wage for this occupational group was $23.78, nearly 40 percent above the national average of $17.06.
With employment of 1,990, the occupation of petroleum pump system operators, refinery operators, and gaugers was among the largest within the production group, as were welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers (1,870) and first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (1,760). Among the higher paying jobs were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers, as well as chemical plant and system operators, with mean hourly wages of $40.93 and $32.55, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were bakers ($9.98) and team assemblers ($13.85). (Detailed occupational data for production workers are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of all occupations see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_13140.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 Beaumont metropolitan area, above average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, local petroleum pump system operators, refinery operators, and gaugers were employed at 40.9 times the U.S. average, while chemical plant and system operators were employed at 23.2 times the national rate. Both location quotients were among the highest in all metropolitan areas for these particular occupations. On the other hand, laundry and dry-cleaning workers had a location quotient of 0.9 in Beaumont, indicating that this occupation’s local and national employment shares were similar.
These statistics are from the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey, a federal-state cooperative program between BLS and State Workforce Agencies, in this case, the Texas Workforce Commission.
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.
The Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey is a semiannual mail survey measuring occupational employment and wage rates for wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments in the United States. Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands are also surveyed, but their data are not included in the national estimates. OES estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.2 million establishments. Forms are mailed to approximately 200,000 sampled establishments in May and November each year. May 2014 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2014, November 2013, May 2013, November 2012, May 2012, and November 2011. The overall national response rate for the six panels is 74.3 percent based on establishments and 70.5 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The unweighted employment of sampled establishments across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 57.1 percent of total national employment. (Response rates are slightly lower for these estimates due to the federal shutdown in October 2013.) The sample in the Beaumont-Port Arthur Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,851 establishments with a response rate of 70 percent. For more information about OES concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.tn.htm.
The OES survey provides estimates of employment and hourly and annual wages for wage and salary workers in 22 major occupational groups and 821 detailed occupations for the nation, states, metropolitan statistical areas, metropolitan divisions, and nonmetropolitan areas. In addition, employment and wage estimates for 94 minor groups and 458 broad occupations are available in the national data. OES data by state and metropolitan/nonmetropolitan area are available from www.bls.gov/oes/current/oessrcst.htm and www.bls.gov/oes/current/oessrcma.htm, respectively.
The May 2014 OES estimates are based on the 2010 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system and the 2012 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). Information about the 2010 SOC is available on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/soc and information about the 2012 NAICS is available at www.bls.gov/bls/naics.htm.
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 Beaumont-Port Arthur Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Hardin, Jefferson, and Orange Counties in Texas.
Additional information
OES data are available on our regional web page at www.bls.gov/regions/southwest. Answers to frequently asked questions about the OES data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_ques.htm. Detailed technical information about the OES survey is available in our Survey Methods and Reliability Statement on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/oes/current/methods_statement.pdf.
Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: 202-691-5200; Federal Relay Service: 1-800-877-8339.
Occupation(1) | Employment | Mean wages | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Level(2) | Location quotient(3) | Hourly | Annual(4) | |
| 16,710 | 1.6 | $23.78 | $49,470 |
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers | 1,760 | 2.6 | 40.93 | 85,140 |
Electrical and electronic equipment assemblers | (5) | (5) | 15.09 | 31,390 |
Structural metal fabricators and fitters | 260 | 2.9 | 20.05 | 41,710 |
Fiberglass laminators and fabricators | (5) | (5) | 13.27 | 27,610 |
Team assemblers | 670 | 0.5 | 13.85 | 28,820 |
Assemblers and fabricators, all other | 120 | 0.4 | 13.02 | 27,080 |
Bakers | 270 | 1.3 | 9.98 | 20,760 |
Butchers and meat cutters | 100 | 0.7 | 14.43 | 30,010 |
Food batchmakers | 60 | 0.5 | 13.16 | 27,360 |
Food processing workers, all other | 50 | 0.9 | 11.17 | 23,240 |
Computer-controlled machine tool operators, metal & plastic | (5) | (5) | 20.65 | 42,950 |
Computer numerically controlled machine tool programmers, metal & plastic | 30 | 1.1 | 21.20 | 44,100 |
Forging machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal & plastic | 40 | 1.7 | 22.13 | 46,040 |
Cutting, punching, & press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal & plastic | 130 | 0.6 | 16.03 | 33,350 |
Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal & plastic | 40 | 0.5 | 18.61 | 38,700 |
Lathe and turning machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal & plastic | (5) | (5) | 14.73 | 30,650 |
Machinists | 530 | 1.2 | 22.88 | 47,600 |
Multiple machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal & plastic | 140 | 1.2 | 18.90 | 39,310 |
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers | 1,870 | 4.4 | 21.49 | 44,700 |
Welding, soldering, and brazing machine setters, operators, and tenders | 260 | 4.0 | 21.28 | 44,260 |
Heat treating equipment setters, operators, and tenders, metal & plastic | 70 | 2.9 | 22.73 | 47,280 |
Layout workers, metal & plastic | 290 | 19.3 | 22.32 | 46,430 |
Plating and coating machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal & plastic | (5) | (5) | 16.65 | 34,630 |
Printing press operators | 60 | 0.3 | 13.68 | 28,460 |
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers | 200 | 0.9 | 12.00 | 24,960 |
Pressers, textile, garment, and related materials | 120 | 2.1 | 8.87 | 18,460 |
Sewing machine operators | 60 | 0.3 | 10.11 | 21,020 |
Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters | 90 | 0.9 | 14.87 | 30,940 |
Sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood | 90 | 1.7 | 11.25 | 23,400 |
Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing | 230 | 2.8 | 11.40 | 23,720 |
Power distributors and dispatchers | 40 | 3.2 | 42.82 | 89,070 |
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators | 200 | 1.5 | 18.31 | 38,080 |
Chemical plant and system operators | 1,010 | 23.2 | 32.55 | 67,700 |
Petroleum pump system operators, refinery operators, and gaugers | 1,990 | 40.9 | 32.36 | 67,310 |
Chemical equipment operators and tenders | 720 | 9.6 | 28.88 | 60,080 |
Separating, filtering, clarifying, precipitating, and still machine setters, operators, and tenders | 130 | 2.7 | 27.57 | 57,350 |
Crushing, grinding, and polishing machine setters, operators, and tenders | 50 | 1.4 | 13.32 | 27,700 |
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders | 250 | 1.8 | 20.32 | 42,270 |
Extruding, forming, pressing, & compacting machine setters, operators, & tenders | 30 | 0.4 | 23.00 | 47,830 |
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers | 830 | 1.5 | 24.26 | 50,450 |
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders | 680 | 6.5 | 17.00 | 35,370 |
Painters, transportation equipment | 80 | 1.4 | 22.22 | 46,210 |
Photographic process workers and processing machine operators | (5) | (5) | 8.64 | 17,970 |
Helpers-production workers | 960 | 2.0 | 15.31 | 31,840 |
Production workers, all other | (5) | (5) | 10.58 | 22,000 |
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Beaumont-Port Arthur MSA, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_13140.htm. |
Last Modified Date: Tuesday, April 14, 2015