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News Release Information

17-995-DAL
Tuesday, July 18, 2017

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

Occupational Employment and Wages in Albuquerque, May 2016

Workers in the Albuquerque Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $22.08 in May 2016, about 7 percent below the nationwide average of $23.86, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Assistant Commissioner for Regional Operations Stanley W. Suchman noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were lower than their respective national averages in 15 of the 22 major occupational groups, including legal; construction and extraction; and management. Albuquerque’s architecture and engineering group, with average hourly wages of $44.67, was the only local group to have wages that were significantly higher than the corresponding national average of $40.53.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 9 of the 22 occupational groups, including architecture and engineering; personal care and service; and healthcare practitioners and technical. Conversely, employment shares were significantly below their national representation in six groups, including production; transportation and material moving; and computer and mathematical. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Albuquerque, NM Metropolitan Statistical Area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2016
Major occupational groupPercent of total employmentMean hourly wage
United
States
Albuquerque,
NM
United
States
Albuquerque,
NM
Percent
difference(1)

Total, all occupations

100.0100.0 $23.86$22.08*-7

Management

5.15.0 56.7447.38*-16

Business and financial operations

5.25.1 36.0931.82*-12

Computer and mathematical

3.02.4*42.2537.06*-12

Architecture and engineering

1.83.4*40.5344.67*10

Life, physical, and social science

0.81.0*35.0635.10 0

Community and social service

1.41.6*22.6921.24*-6

Legal

0.80.9*50.9535.85*-30

Education, training, and library

6.25.7*26.2124.97 -5

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.41.4 28.0723.89 -15

Healthcare practitioners and technical

5.96.9*38.0638.30 1

Healthcare support

2.93.7*14.6513.93*-5

Protective service

2.42.8 22.0318.51*-16

Food preparation and serving related

9.29.8*11.4710.35*-10

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

3.23.1 13.4711.31*-16

Personal care and service

3.24.6*12.7411.35*-11

Sales and related

10.410.1 19.5016.33*-16

Office and administrative support

15.715.8 17.9116.94*-5

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.30.1*13.3713.05 -2

Construction and extraction

4.04.7*23.5119.05*-19

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.93.6*22.4520.48*-9

Production

6.53.0*17.8816.52*-8

Transportation and material moving

6.95.4*17.3416.44 -5

Footnotes:
(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in the Albuquerque, NM Metropolitan Statistical Area 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–architecture and engineering–was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Albuquerque had 12,970 jobs in architecture and engineering, accounting for 3.4 percent of local area employment, nearly double the 1.8-percent national share. As noted, the local average hourly wage for this occupational group was $44.67, significantly above the national average of $40.53.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the architecture and engineering group included electrical engineers (1,730), mechanical engineers (970), and electrical and electronics engineering technicians (790). Among the higher-paying jobs were electronics engineers, except computer, as well as mechanical engineers, with mean hourly wages of $54.88 and $53.95, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were civil engineering technicians ($20.37) and surveying and mapping technicians  ($21.68). (Detailed occupational data for the architecture and engineering group are presented in table 1: for a complete listing of all occupations go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_10740.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 Albuquerque metropolitan area, above average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the architecture and engineering group. For instance, aerospace engineering and operations technicians were employed at 5.2 times the national rate in Albuquerque, and nuclear engineers, at 4.6 times the U.S. average. Local electrical engineers also had a high location quotient, at 3.5 times the national rate. The Albuquerque location quotients for these three particular occupations were among the highest in all metropolitan areas in the nation. On the other hand, civil engineering technicians had a location quotient of 1.0 in Albuquerque, 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 New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions.

Notes

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. The OES data available from BLS include cross-industry occupational employment and wage estimates for the nation; over 650 areas, including states and the District of Columbia, metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), metropolitan divisions, nonmetropolitan areas, and territories; national industry-specific estimates at the NAICS sector, 3-, 4-, and selected 5- and 6-digit industry levels, and national estimates by ownership across all industries and for schools and hospitals. OES data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm.

OES estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.2 million establishments. Each year, two semiannual panels of approximately 200,000 sampled establishments are contacted, one panel in May and the other in November. Responses are obtained by mail, Internet or other electronic means, email, telephone, or personal visit. The May 2016 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2016, November 2015, May 2015, November 2014, May 2014, and November 2013. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 73 percent based on establishments and 69 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The unweighted employment of sampled establishments across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 58 percent of total national employment. The sample in the Albuquerque Metropolitan Statistical Area included 2,984 establishments with a response rate of 77 percent. For more information about OES concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.tn.htm.

The May 2016 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.

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 Albuquerque Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) includes Bernalillo, Sandoval, Torrance, and Valencia Counties in New Mexico.

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, Albuquerque, NM Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2016
Occupation(1)EmploymentMean wages
Level(2)Location
quotient(3)
HourlyAnnual(4)

Architecture and engineering occupations

12,9701.9$44.67$92,900

Architects, except landscape and naval

3501.333.2269,100

Landscape architects

(5)(5)18.1437,740

Cartographers and photogrammetrists

401.232.7168,030

Surveyors

1301.131.5165,550

Aerospace engineers

5503.052.73109,670

Biomedical engineers

(5)(5)48.56101,000

Chemical engineers

700.853.76111,830

Civil engineers

7200.943.0389,510

Electrical engineers

1,7303.546.6196,950

Electronics engineers, except computer

6901.954.88114,150

Environmental engineers

2701.945.7895,230

Health and safety engineers, except mining safety engineers and inspectors

901.340.0583,300

Industrial engineers

(5)(5)44.2091,950

Mechanical engineers

9701.353.95112,210

Nuclear engineers

2204.6(5)(5)

Engineers, all other

1,1303.451.63107,380

Architectural and civil drafters

3101.224.5551,060

Electrical and electronics drafters

1902.734.4471,630

Mechanical drafters

700.429.4061,160

Aerospace engineering and operations technicians

1705.229.7361,850

Civil engineering technicians

2001.020.3742,360

Electrical and electronics engineering technicians

7902.227.0256,190

Environmental engineering technicians

601.423.2248,290

Industrial engineering technicians

(5)(5)27.0256,210

Mechanical engineering technicians

600.533.0968,830

Engineering technicians, except drafters, all other

9604.832.9668,550

Surveying and mapping technicians

1801.221.6845,100

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Albuquerque, NM Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_10740.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: Tuesday, July 18, 2017