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News Release Information

15-623-DAL
Monday, April 13, 2015

Contacts Technical information: Media contact:
  • (972) 850-4800

Occupational Employment and Wages in San Antonio–New Braunfels, May 2014

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 groupPercent of total employmentMean hourly wage
United StatesSan Antonio-New BraunfelsUnited StatesSan Antonio-New BraunfelsPercent difference(1)

Total, all occupations

100.0%100.0% $22.71$20.13*-11

Management

5.03.8*54.0850.33*-7

Business and financial operations

5.15.1 34.8133.11*-5

Computer and mathematical

2.82.7 40.3736.52*-10

Architecture and engineering

1.81.3*39.1933.82*-14

Life, physical, and social science

0.80.6*33.6932.03 -5

Community and social service

1.41.0*21.7922.01 1

Legal

0.80.7*48.6142.98*-12

Education, training, and library

6.26.3 25.1024.75 -1

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.31.0*26.8221.11*-21

Healthcare practitioners and technical

5.86.0 36.5433.78*-8

Healthcare support

2.92.9 13.8613.23*-5

Protective service

2.42.5 21.1417.46*-17

Food preparation and serving related

9.111.1*10.579.87*-7

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

3.23.2 12.6811.06*-13

Personal care and service

3.14.4*12.019.75*-19

Sales and related

10.511.1*18.5917.36*-7

Office and administrative support

16.018.2*17.0816.00*-6

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.30.1*12.0911.19 -7

Construction and extraction

3.93.9 22.4018.37*-18

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.94.0 21.7419.74*-9

Production

6.64.3*17.0615.60*-9

Transportation and material moving

6.85.8*16.5714.59*-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.

Note

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.


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)EmploymentMean wages
Level(2)Location
quotient(3)
HourlyAnnual(4)

 

Office and administrative support occupations
166,7701.1$16.00$33,270

First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers

9,9201.026.4354,980

Switchboard operators, including answering service

9001.211.9424,830

Telephone operators

500.725.7853,630

Bill and account collectors

3,6901.616.7634,870

Billing and posting clerks

4,2901.315.5332,290

Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks

10,7301.017.9637,350

Payroll and timekeeping clerks

1,1301.017.4836,350

Procurement clerks

8301.720.5542,750

Tellers

2,9400.912.4525,900

Financial clerks, all other

2300.916.2633,810

Brokerage clerks

4301.124.2350,390

Court, municipal, and license clerks

7500.914.7530,680

Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks

9703.115.7432,750

Customer service representatives

28,3601.714.2729,670

Eligibility interviewers, government programs

1,0101.215.9533,170

File clerks

1,2201.215.5832,400

Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks

1,9001.210.4021,640

Interviewers, except eligibility and loan

8500.714.8430,870

Library assistants, clerical

4500.712.3825,750

Loan interviewers and clerks

2,9602.118.6138,710

New accounts clerks

5801.714.9531,100

Order clerks

1,1600.914.0529,220

Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping

1,2001.318.0837,610

Receptionists and information clerks

4,8900.711.8924,720

Information and record clerks, all other

1,4401.217.7836,980

Cargo and freight agents

1400.320.6242,890

Couriers and messengers

5701.215.3531,920

Police, fire, and ambulance dispatchers

3900.615.7432,730

Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance

1,4501.118.0237,490

Meter readers, utilities

1600.717.4636,320

Postal service clerks

2900.624.0349,990

Postal service mail carriers

1,5600.825.0952,180

Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators

6100.724.1450,210

Production, planning, and expediting clerks

1,9701.020.7943,240

Shipping, receiving, and traffic clerks

4,1200.913.5428,160

Stock clerks and order fillers

12,4801.012.0525,060

Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping

5001.113.1027,250

Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants

3,4800.724.0450,010

Legal secretaries

1,6801.219.1439,810

Medical secretaries

6,8202.014.0529,220

Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive

13,4700.915.3231,870

Computer operators

5001.314.9431,080

Data entry keyers

1,7701.313.9328,980

Word processors and typists

2100.416.8335,000

Insurance claims and policy processing clerks

(5)(5)15.8633,000

Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service

6200.913.3727,820

Office clerks, general

24,9701.315.0131,220

Office machine operators, except computer

7801.713.2127,480

Office and administrative support workers, all other

5500.418.7538,990

(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.

 

Last Modified Date: Monday, April 13, 2015