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Thursday, July 06, 2017
Workers in the El Paso Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $18.00 in May 2016, about 25 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 19 of the 22 major occupational groups, including construction and extraction; computer and mathematical; and personal care and service. Local wages in the three remaining occupational groups were not statistically different from their respective national averages.
When compared to the nationwide distribution, El Paso employment was more highly concentrated in 6 of the 22 occupational groups including office and administrative support; sales and related; and education, training, and library. Conversely, 11 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including management; business and financial operations; 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 | El Paso | United States | El Paso | Percent difference (1) | |
Total, all occupations | 100.0 | 100.0 | $23.86 | $18.00* | -25 |
Management | 5.1 | 2.7* | 56.74 | 49.43* | -13 |
Business and financial operations | 5.2 | 3.6* | 36.09 | 30.22* | -16 |
Computer and mathematical | 3.0 | 1.5* | 42.25 | 29.73* | -30 |
Architecture and engineering | 1.8 | 0.9* | 40.53 | 34.97* | -14 |
Life, physical, and social science | 0.8 | 0.4* | 35.06 | 29.54* | -16 |
Community and social service | 1.4 | 1.2* | 22.69 | 22.04 | -3 |
Legal | 0.8 | 0.5* | 50.95 | 46.23 | -9 |
Education, training, and library | 6.2 | 8.0* | 26.21 | 22.24* | -15 |
Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media | 1.4 | 0.9* | 28.07 | 20.21* | -28 |
Healthcare practitioners and technical | 5.9 | 5.5 | 38.06 | 33.10* | -13 |
Healthcare support | 2.9 | 2.9 | 14.65 | 12.81* | -13 |
Protective service | 2.4 | 3.7* | 22.03 | 21.96 | 0 |
Food preparation and serving related | 9.2 | 10.7* | 11.47 | 9.63* | -16 |
Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance | 3.2 | 2.9* | 13.47 | 10.70* | -21 |
Personal care and service | 3.2 | 4.7* | 12.74 | 9.29* | -27 |
Sales and related | 10.4 | 12.2* | 19.50 | 14.81* | -24 |
Office and administrative support | 15.7 | 18.0* | 17.91 | 14.76* | -18 |
Farming, fishing, and forestry | 0.3 | 0.1* | 13.37 | 10.61* | -21 |
Construction and extraction | 4.0 | 3.8 | 23.51 | 16.10* | -32 |
Installation, maintenance, and repair | 3.9 | 3.9 | 22.45 | 17.78* | -21 |
Production | 6.5 | 5.0* | 17.88 | 13.74* | -23 |
Transportation and material moving | 6.9 | 7.1 | 17.34 | 14.68* | -15 |
Footnotes: |
One occupational group – office and administrative support – was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. El Paso had 53,450 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 18.0 percent of local employment, significantly higher than the 15.7-percent national share. However, the local wage for this occupational group was significantly below the U.S. average. At $14.76 an hour, the mean wage for El Paso office and administrative support workers was about 18 percent below the $17.91 national average.
Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included general office clerks (10,580), customer service representatives (8,510), and stock clerks and order fillers (4,170). Among the higher-paying jobs were executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants, as well as first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers, with mean hourly wages of $25.15 and $24.88, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were data entry keyers ($10.24) and receptionists and information clerks ($10.74). (Detailed occupational data for the office and administrative support group are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations go to table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/2016/may/oes_21340.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 El Paso metropolitan area, above average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, data entry keyers were employed at 2.5 times the national average in El Paso, one of the highest location quotients for this job in all metropolitan areas, and medical secretaries, at 1.9 times the national rate. On the other hand, stock clerks and order fillers had a location quotient of 1.0 in El Paso, indicating that this particular 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. 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 El Paso Metropolitan Statistical Area included 2,477 establishments with a response rate of 63 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 El Paso Metropolitan Statistical Area includes El Paso County 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.
Occupation (1) | Employment | Mean wages | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Level (2) | Location quotient (3) | Hourly | Annual (4) | |
Office and administrative support occupations | 53,450 | 1.1 | $14.76 | $30,700 |
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers | 3,040 | 1.0 | 24.88 | 51,760 |
Switchboard operators, including answering service | 120 | 0.6 | 11.89 | 24,720 |
Bill and account collectors | (5) | (5) | 13.92 | 28,950 |
Billing and posting clerks | 1,080 | 1.1 | 13.95 | 29,010 |
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks | 2,830 | 0.9 | 15.68 | 32,620 |
Payroll and timekeeping clerks | 490 | 1.4 | 16.90 | 35,160 |
Procurement clerks | 250 | 1.7 | 18.17 | 37,790 |
Tellers | 1,290 | 1.2 | 11.79 | 24,520 |
Financial clerks, all other | (5) | (5) | 16.94 | 35,230 |
Court, municipal, and license clerks | 230 | 0.8 | 18.27 | 38,010 |
Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks | 60 | 0.8 | 17.40 | 36,190 |
Customer service representatives | 8,510 | 1.5 | 13.78 | 28,660 |
Eligibility interviewers, government programs | 610 | 2.1 | 16.65 | 34,630 |
File clerks | 410 | 1.5 | 12.20 | 25,380 |
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks | 380 | 0.7 | 9.48 | 19,720 |
Interviewers, except eligibility and loan | 190 | 0.5 | 15.63 | 32,500 |
Library assistants, clerical | 150 | 0.7 | 12.23 | 25,440 |
Loan interviewers and clerks | 240 | 0.5 | 22.44 | 46,680 |
New accounts clerks | 170 | 2.0 | 12.81 | 26,650 |
Order clerks | 440 | 1.2 | 14.26 | 29,660 |
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping | 400 | 1.4 | 15.91 | 33,090 |
Receptionists and information clerks | 1,210 | 0.6 | 10.74 | 22,330 |
Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks | 180 | 0.6 | 20.64 | 42,940 |
Information and record clerks, all other | 730 | 2.1 | 16.90 | 35,140 |
Cargo and freight agents | 230 | 1.2 | 26.66 | 55,440 |
Couriers and messengers | 320 | 2.0 | 10.90 | 22,660 |
Police, fire, and ambulance dispatchers | 220 | 1.1 | 17.35 | 36,080 |
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance | 610 | 1.5 | 14.52 | 30,200 |
Meter readers, utilities | 60 | 0.8 | 15.98 | 33,230 |
Postal service clerks | 100 | 0.6 | 23.81 | 49,530 |
Postal service mail carriers | 530 | 0.8 | 23.67 | 49,230 |
Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators | 160 | 0.7 | 23.62 | 49,120 |
Production, planning, and expediting clerks | 590 | 0.9 | 18.02 | 37,490 |
Shipping, receiving, and traffic clerks | 2,040 | 1.4 | 11.74 | 24,420 |
Stock clerks and order fillers | 4,170 | 1.0 | 10.85 | 22,570 |
Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping | 300 | 1.9 | 12.92 | 26,880 |
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants | 540 | 0.4 | 25.15 | 52,320 |
Legal secretaries | 400 | 1.0 | 18.01 | 37,450 |
Medical secretaries | 2,250 | 1.9 | 12.23 | 25,430 |
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive | 4,150 | 0.9 | 13.83 | 28,760 |
Computer operators | 100 | 1.0 | 16.50 | 34,310 |
Data entry keyers | 1,030 | 2.5 | 10.24 | 21,300 |
Word processors and typists | 40 | 0.3 | 17.67 | 36,750 |
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks | 370 | 0.6 | 17.60 | 36,600 |
Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service | 240 | 1.2 | 13.81 | 28,720 |
Office clerks, general | 10,580 | 1.7 | 14.58 | 30,330 |
Office machine operators, except computer | 100 | 0.8 | 12.29 | 25,550 |
Office and administrative support workers, all other | 140 | 0.3 | 18.16 | 37,760 |
Footnotes: |
Last Modified Date: Thursday, July 06, 2017