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News Release Information

18-1106-DAL
Friday, June 29, 2018

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

Occupational Employment and Wages in Beaumont-Port Arthur, May 2017

Workers in the Beaumont-Port Arthur Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $23.03 in May 2017, about 5 percent below the nationwide average of $24.34, 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 12 of the 22 major occupational groups including education, training, and library; personal care and service; and computer and mathematical. Beaumont average wage levels were higher than the national average in three groups, including production and architecture and engineering. Local wages in the remaining occupational groups were similar to the national average.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local 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; computer and mathematical; 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 Beaumont-Port Arthur Metropolitan Statistical Area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2017
Major occupational groupPercent of total employmentMean hourly wage
United StatesBeaumontUnited StatesBeaumontPercent difference (1)

Total, all occupations

100.0100.0$24.34$23.03*-5

Management

5.13.5*57.6554.90*-5

Business and financial operations

5.23.0*36.7035.92-2

Computer and mathematical

3.00.9*43.1834.36*-20

Architecture and engineering

1.82.9*41.4447.42*14

Life, physical, and social science

0.81.135.7636.061

Community and social service

1.51.0*23.1021.61*-6

Legal

0.80.6*51.6244.13*-15

Education, training, and library

6.15.826.6720.06*-25

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.40.7*28.3422.14*-22

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.06.438.8333.72*-13

Healthcare support

2.92.0*15.0514.06-7

Protective service

2.43.1*22.6922.720

Food preparation and serving related

9.39.211.8810.43*-12

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

3.12.6*13.9111.14*-20

Personal care and service

3.63.413.1110.31*-21

Sales and related

10.29.719.5618.71-4

Office and administrative support

15.414.5*18.2416.93*-7

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.30.1*13.8718.46*33

Construction and extraction

4.08.2*24.0122.92*-5

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.95.6*23.0224.105

Production

6.39.5*18.3029.36*60

Transportation and material moving

7.06.0*17.8218.001

Footnotes:
(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in the Beaumont-Port Arthur Metropolitan Statistical Area is above the national mean wage, while a negative difference reflects a lower wage.
* 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-Port Arthur had 15,240 jobs in production, accounting for 9.5 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 6.3-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $29.36, significantly above the national wage of $18.30.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included petroleum pump system operators, refinery operators, and gaugers (2,180), welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers (1,980), and first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (1,590). Among the higher-paying jobs were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers and chemical plant and system operators, with mean hourly wages of $47.65 and $41.12, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were pressers, textile, garment, and related materials ($9.62) and sewing machine operators ($10.55). (Detailed occupational data for production are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to 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-Port Arthur Metropolitan Statistical Area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, petroleum pump system operators, refinery operators, and gaugers were employed at 50.1 times the national rate in Beaumont, and chemical equipment operators and tenders, at 18.2 times the U.S. average. Both Beaumont 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 1.2 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.

Notes on Occupational Employment Statistics Data

With the release of the May 2017 estimates, the OES program has replaced 21 detailed occupations found in the 2010 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) with 10 new aggregations of those occupations. In addition, selected 4- and 5-digit North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) industries previously published by OES will no longer be published separately. Some of the 4-digit NAICS industries that are no longer being published separately will instead be published as OES-specific industry aggregations. More information about the new occupational and industry aggregations is available at www.bls.gov/oes/changes_2017.htm.

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 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 2017 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2017, November 2016, May 2016, November 2015, May 2015, and November 2014. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 72 percent based on establishments and 68 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The unweighted sample employment of 82 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 58 percent of total national employment. The sample in the Beaumont-Port Arthur Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,850 establishments with a response rate of 55 percent. For more information about OES concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_tec.htm.

The May 2017 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 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: (800) 877-8339.

Table 1. Employment and wage data from the Occupational Employment Statistics survey, by occupation, Beaumont-Port Arthur Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2017
Occupation (1)EmploymentMean wages
Level (2)Location
quotient (3)
HourlyAnnual (4)

Production occupations

15,2401.5$29.36$61,070

First-line supervisors of production and operating workers

1,5902.347.6599,110

Electrical, electronic, and electromechanical assemblers, except coil winders, tapers, and finishers

800.314.3429,830

Structural metal fabricators and fitters

3003.422.2246,220

Assemblers and fabricators, all other, including team assemblers

4200.313.5328,150

Bakers

(5)(5)11.2223,340

Butchers and meat cutters

700.513.4828,040

Computer-controlled machine tool operators, metal and plastic

1801.119.7841,140

Forging machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

(5)(5)18.2838,020

Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

2801.318.1437,730

Machinists

6701.627.7557,730

Multiple machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

400.315.2831,770

Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers

1,9804.727.8257,870

Layout workers, metal and plastic

(5)(5)21.8745,480

Printing press operators

500.319.1339,790

Laundry and dry-cleaning workers

2901.213.3627,790

Pressers, textile, garment, and related materials

601.29.6220,000

Sewing machine operators

800.510.5521,950

Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters

700.615.3531,940

Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing

1701.913.6628,400

Power plant operators

501.3(5)(5)

Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators

2602.018.6938,880

Chemical plant and system operators

(5)(5)41.1285,520

Petroleum pump system operators, refinery operators, and gaugers

2,18050.139.7882,740

Chemical equipment operators and tenders

1,59018.237.4577,900

Grinding and polishing workers, hand

501.511.0422,970

Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders

1801.2(5)(5)

Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers

8001.326.7055,540

Dental laboratory technicians

(5)(5)14.5830,340

Ophthalmic laboratory technicians

(5)(5)11.6524,230

Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders

2000.526.1654,410

Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders

2402.517.6636,730

Painters, transportation equipment

1001.725.1452,300

Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders

1701.6(5)(5)

Helpers--production workers

8301.815.6632,570

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Beaumont-Port Arthur Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_13140.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) Estimate not released.

 

Last Modified Date: Friday, June 29, 2018