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News Release Information

18-726-DAL
Thursday, May 03, 2018

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

Occupational Employment and Wages in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington – May 2017

Workers in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $24.64 in May 2017, compared to 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 higher than their respective national averages in 8 of the 22 major occupational groups, including community and social service; sales and related; and management. Seven groups had wages that were measurably lower than their respective national averages, including construction and extraction; personal care and service; and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington area employment was more highly concentrated in 7 of the 22 occupational groups including office and administrative support; transportation and material moving; and computer and mathematical. Conversely, 13 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including management; personal care and service; and production. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington Metropolitan Statistical Area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2017
Major occupational groupPercent of total employmentMean hourly wage
United
States
Dallas-
Fort Worth
United
States
Dallas-
Fort Worth
Percent
difference(1)

Total, all occupations

100.0100.0$24.34$24.641

Management

5.14.2*57.6563.51*10

Business and financial operations

5.25.6*36.7038.61*5

Computer and mathematical

3.04.1*43.1844.24*2

Architecture and engineering

1.81.841.4445.27*9

Life, physical, and social science

0.80.4*35.7636.502

Community and social service

1.50.8*23.1025.63*11

Legal

0.80.7*51.6254.52*6

Education, training, and library

6.15.4*26.6725.36*-5

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.41.2*28.3426.17*-8

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.05.4*38.8338.03-2

Healthcare support

2.92.5*15.0515.282

Protective service

2.42.1*22.6921.65-5

Food preparation and serving related

9.39.211.8811.62-2

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

3.12.7*13.9112.82*-8

Personal care and service

3.62.7*13.1111.83*-10

Sales and related

10.210.9*19.5621.70*11

Office and administrative support

15.417.9*18.2418.58*2

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.30.1*13.8712.11*-13

Construction and extraction

4.04.2*24.0120.36*-15

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.94.1*23.0222.75-1

Production

6.35.5*18.3017.44*-5

Transportation and material moving

7.08.2*17.82(2)(2)

Footnotes:
(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington Metropolitan Statistical Area is above the national mean wage, while a negative difference reflects a lower wage.
(2) Estimates not released.

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. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington had 625,360 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 17.9 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 15.4-percent national share. The local average hourly wage for this occupational group was $18.58, measurably higher than the national average of $18.24.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included general office clerks (99,470), customer service representatives (88,560), and stock clerks and order fillers (51,320). 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 $30.57 and $29.31, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($11.06) and stock clerks and order fillers ($13.20). (Detailed occupational data for the office and administrative support group are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_19100.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 Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metropolitan area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks were employed at 2.6 times the national rate in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and insurance claims and policy processing clerks, at 2.2 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, stock clerks and order fillers had a location quotient of 1.0 in the greater Dallas-Fort Worth area, 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.

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 Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington Metropolitan Statistical Area included 14,090 establishments with a response rate of 47 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 2017 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 2017 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 Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Hood, Hunt, Johnson, Kaufman, Parker, Rockwall, Somervell, Tarrant, and Wise 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, Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2017
Occupation (1)EmploymentMean wages
Level (2)Location
quotient (3)
HourlyAnnual (4)

Office and administrative support occupations

625,3601.2$18.58$38,650

First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers

36,3201.030.5763,580

Switchboard operators, including answering service

1,5000.813.9128,920

Telephone operators

700.5(5)(5)

Bill and account collectors

11,3201.720.6642,960

Billing and posting clerks

13,1801.118.0637,570

Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks

39,8601.121.1043,880

Payroll and timekeeping clerks

4,1601.122.7147,240

Procurement clerks

1,6901.020.6242,880

Tellers

14,3801.213.3027,670

Financial clerks, all other

7701.021.8745,480

Brokerage clerks

1,9101.326.3454,790

Correspondence clerks

3202.118.8139,120

Court, municipal, and license clerks

2,1700.720.1341,880

Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks

1,8002.219.8041,180

Customer service representatives

88,5601.317.5936,580

Eligibility interviewers, government programs

2,2100.619.8641,310

File clerks

3,9301.417.0035,360

Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks

5,2500.911.0623,010

Interviewers, except eligibility and loan

3,6300.816.3834,070

Library assistants, clerical

1,3900.612.9827,000

Loan interviewers and clerks

11,4302.122.9247,660

New accounts clerks

1,4901.516.7734,890

Order clerks

7,5101.817.2635,900

Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping

3,6301.119.9141,420

Receptionists and information clerks

18,4200.713.3827,820

Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks

9,5102.620.5642,770

Information and record clerks, all other

3,6800.919.3640,270

Cargo and freight agents

2,9901.423.1648,160

Couriers and messengers

1,9901.114.0029,120

Police, fire, and ambulance dispatchers

1,7700.820.4642,550

Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance

5,8901.219.8641,300

Meter readers, utilities

6000.716.3634,030

Postal service clerks

1,2900.625.1152,230

Postal service mail carriers

6,6700.824.4450,830

Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators

3,2201.225.0352,060

Production, planning, and expediting clerks

10,8801.323.3748,600

Shipping, receiving, and traffic clerks

24,0401.515.0031,210

Stock clerks and order fillers

51,3201.013.2027,460

Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping

2,1301.214.6330,430

Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants

10,3600.729.3160,970

Legal secretaries

4,7201.023.9049,700

Medical secretaries

29,5702.116.3133,920

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

45,9000.817.9937,420

Computer operators

1,4301.421.5144,750

Data entry keyers

6,6101.514.9431,080

Word processors and typists

6000.418.6838,840

Desktop publishers

4101.422.3046,390

Insurance claims and policy processing clerks

15,1402.219.8841,350

Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service

2,3201.114.6130,380

Office clerks, general

99,4701.417.2635,900

Office machine operators, except computer

2,3001.716.5434,390

Proofreaders and copy markers

1200.418.8239,150

Statistical assistants

1600.728.3659,000

Office and administrative support workers, all other

3,3500.719.6040,780

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_19100.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: Thursday, May 03, 2018