Workers in the San Antonio-New Braunfels Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $20.13 in May 2014, about 11 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 lower than their respective national averages in 18 of the 22 major occupational groups, including construction and extraction; personal care and service; and protective service. No major occupational group in the local area had wages that were measurably higher than their respective national averages.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, San Antonio employment was more highly concentrated in 4 of the 22 occupational groups including office and administrative support; food preparation and serving related; and personal care and service. Conversely, 9 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including production; transportation and material moving; and management. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the San Antonio-New Braunfels Metropolitan Statistical Area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2014

Major occupational group	Percent of total employment			Mean hourly wage
	United States	San Antonio-New Braunfels		United States	San Antonio-New Braunfels		Percent difference(1)
Total, all occupations	100.0%	100.0%		$22.71	$20.13	*	-11
Management	5.0	3.8	*	54.08	50.33	*	-7
Business and financial operations	5.1	5.1		34.81	33.11	*	-5
Computer and mathematical	2.8	2.7		40.37	36.52	*	-10
Architecture and engineering	1.8	1.3	*	39.19	33.82	*	-14
Life, physical, and social science	0.8	0.6	*	33.69	32.03		-5
Community and social service	1.4	1.0	*	21.79	22.01		1
Legal	0.8	0.7	*	48.61	42.98	*	-12
Education, training, and library	6.2	6.3		25.10	24.75		-1
Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media	1.3	1.0	*	26.82	21.11	*	-21
Healthcare practitioners and technical	5.8	6.0		36.54	33.78	*	-8
Healthcare support	2.9	2.9		13.86	13.23	*	-5
Protective service	2.4	2.5		21.14	17.46	*	-17
Food preparation and serving related	9.1	11.1	*	10.57	9.87	*	-7
Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance	3.2	3.2		12.68	11.06	*	-13
Personal care and service	3.1	4.4	*	12.01	9.75	*	-19
Sales and related	10.5	11.1	*	18.59	17.36	*	-7
Office and administrative support	16.0	18.2	*	17.08	16.00	*	-6
Farming, fishing, and forestry	0.3	0.1	*	12.09	11.19		-7
Construction and extraction	3.9	3.9		22.40	18.37	*	-18
Installation, maintenance, and repair	3.9	4.0		21.74	19.74	*	-9
Production	6.6	4.3	*	17.06	15.60	*	-9
Transportation and material moving	6.8	5.8	*	16.57	14.59	*	-12
(1)A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in San Antonio-New Braunfels 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 – office and administrative support – was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. San Antonio had 166,770 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 18.2 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 16.0-percent national share. However, at $16.00 per hour, the local average hourly wage for this occupational group was about 6 percent below the national average of $17.08.

With employment of 28,360, customer service representatives was one of the largest occupations within the office and administrative support group, as were general office clerks (24,970), and secretaries and administrative assistants, excluding legal, medical, and executive (13,470). Among the higher paying jobs were first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers, as well as executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants, with mean hourly wages of $26.43 and $24.04, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($10.40) and receptionists and information clerks ($11.89). (Detailed occupational data for the office and administrative support group are shown in table 1; for a listing of all occupations see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_41700.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 San Antonio metropolitan area, above average concentrations of employment were found in many of the detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks were employed at 3.1 times the national average in San Antonio, one of the higher location quotients among all metropolitan areas for this particular occupation. Additionally, medical secretaries were employed at 2.0 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks had a location quotient of 1.0 in San Antonio, 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.

Technical Note

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 San Antonio-New Braunfels Metropolitan Statistical Area included 4,971 establishments with a response rate of 60 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 San Antonio-New Braunfels Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Atascosa, Bandera, Bexar, Comal, Guadalupe, Kendall, Medina, and Wilson 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: 800-877-8339.

Table 1. Employment and wage data from the Occupational Employment Statistics survey, by occupation, San Antonio-New Braunfels Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2014

Occupation(1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level(2)	Location quotient(3)	Hourly	Annual(4)
Office and administrative support occupations	166,770	1.1	$16.00	$33,270
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	9,920	1.0	26.43	54,980
Switchboard operators, including answering service	900	1.2	11.94	24,830
Telephone operators	50	0.7	25.78	53,630
Bill and account collectors	3,690	1.6	16.76	34,870
Billing and posting clerks	4,290	1.3	15.53	32,290
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	10,730	1.0	17.96	37,350
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	1,130	1.0	17.48	36,350
Procurement clerks	830	1.7	20.55	42,750
Tellers	2,940	0.9	12.45	25,900
Financial clerks, all other	230	0.9	16.26	33,810
Brokerage clerks	430	1.1	24.23	50,390
Court, municipal, and license clerks	750	0.9	14.75	30,680
Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks	970	3.1	15.74	32,750
Customer service representatives	28,360	1.7	14.27	29,670
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	1,010	1.2	15.95	33,170
File clerks	1,220	1.2	15.58	32,400
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	1,900	1.2	10.40	21,640
Interviewers, except eligibility and loan	850	0.7	14.84	30,870
Library assistants, clerical	450	0.7	12.38	25,750
Loan interviewers and clerks	2,960	2.1	18.61	38,710
New accounts clerks	580	1.7	14.95	31,100
Order clerks	1,160	0.9	14.05	29,220
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	1,200	1.3	18.08	37,610
Receptionists and information clerks	4,890	0.7	11.89	24,720
Information and record clerks, all other	1,440	1.2	17.78	36,980
Cargo and freight agents	140	0.3	20.62	42,890
Couriers and messengers	570	1.2	15.35	31,920
Police, fire, and ambulance dispatchers	390	0.6	15.74	32,730
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	1,450	1.1	18.02	37,490
Meter readers, utilities	160	0.7	17.46	36,320
Postal service clerks	290	0.6	24.03	49,990
Postal service mail carriers	1,560	0.8	25.09	52,180
Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators	610	0.7	24.14	50,210
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	1,970	1.0	20.79	43,240
Shipping, receiving, and traffic clerks	4,120	0.9	13.54	28,160
Stock clerks and order fillers	12,480	1.0	12.05	25,060
Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping	500	1.1	13.10	27,250
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	3,480	0.7	24.04	50,010
Legal secretaries	1,680	1.2	19.14	39,810
Medical secretaries	6,820	2.0	14.05	29,220
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	13,470	0.9	15.32	31,870
Computer operators	500	1.3	14.94	31,080
Data entry keyers	1,770	1.3	13.93	28,980
Word processors and typists	210	0.4	16.83	35,000
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks	(5)	(5)	15.86	33,000
Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service	620	0.9	13.37	27,820
Office clerks, general	24,970	1.3	15.01	31,220
Office machine operators, except computer	780	1.7	13.21	27,480
Office and administrative support workers, all other	550	0.4	18.75	38,990
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the San Antonio-New Braunfels MSA, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_41700.htm. (2) Estimates for detailed occupations do not sum to the totals because the totals include occupations 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) Estimates not released.