Workers in the San Antonio-New Braunfels Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $22.21 in May 2017, about 9 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 legal; construction and extraction; and personal care and service. The remaining 10 major occupational groups in the local area had wages that were similar to their respective national averages.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, San Antonio employment was more highly concentrated in 4 of the 22 occupational groups: office and administrative support; food preparation and serving related; personal care and service; and sales and related. Conversely, nine groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including production; management; and transportation and material moving. (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 2017

Major occupational group	Percent of total employment			Mean hourly wage
	United States	San Antonio- New Braunfels		United States	San Antonio- New Braunfels		Percent difference(1)
Total, all occupations	100.0	100.0		$24.34	$22.21	*	-9
Management	5.1	3.6	*	57.65	57.31		-1
Business and financial operations	5.2	5.4		36.70	35.39	*	-4
Computer and mathematical	3.0	2.9		43.18	42.43		-2
Architecture and engineering	1.8	1.4	*	41.44	40.32		-3
Life, physical, and social science	0.8	0.5	*	35.76	36.16		1
Community and social service	1.5	1.2	*	23.10	21.28	*	-8
Legal	0.8	0.7	*	51.62	40.95	*	-21
Education, training, and library	6.1	6.2		26.67	25.45		-5
Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media	1.4	1.2	*	28.34	23.76	*	-16
Healthcare practitioners and technical	6.0	6.4		38.83	37.12		-4
Healthcare support	2.9	3.1		15.05	14.92		-1
Protective service	2.4	2.5		22.69	21.06		-7
Food preparation and serving related	9.3	10.8	*	11.88	11.53		-3
Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance	3.1	2.9		13.91	12.21	*	-12
Personal care and service	3.6	4.3	*	13.11	10.95	*	-16
Sales and related	10.2	10.9	*	19.56	18.20	*	-7
Office and administrative support	15.4	17.7	*	18.24	17.29	*	-5
Farming, fishing, and forestry	0.3	0.1	*	13.87	12.54	*	-10
Construction and extraction	4.0	4.1		24.01	19.58	*	-18
Installation, maintenance, and repair	3.9	4.0		23.02	20.94	*	-9
Production	6.3	4.1	*	18.30	17.53		-4
Transportation and material moving	7.0	5.8	*	17.82	16.71	*	-6
Footnotes: (1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in the San Antonio-New Braunfels 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 – office and administrative support – was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. San Antonio had 177,700 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 17.7 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 15.4-percent national share. The local average hourly wage for this occupational group was $17.29, significantly lower than the national average of $18.24.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included customer service representatives (30,630), general office clerks (27,960), and stock clerks and order fillers (15,690). 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 $27.81 and $27.50, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($10.68) and receptionists and information clerks ($12.36). (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 a number of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks were employed at 2.2 times the national average in San Antonio, and medical secretaries at 2.1 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.

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 San Antonio-New Braunfels Metropolitan Statistical Area included 4,969 establishments with a response rate of 52 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 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 2017

Occupation(1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level(2)	Location quotient(3)	Hourly	Annual(4)
Office and administrative support occupations	177,700	1.2	$17.29	$35,970
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	10,140	1.0	27.81	57,840
Switchboard operators, including answering service	540	1.0	12.38	25,760
Bill and account collectors	2,160	1.1	18.11	37,660
Billing and posting clerks	4,320	1.3	16.71	34,750
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	10,750	1.0	18.51	38,500
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	1,040	1.0	18.78	39,070
Procurement clerks	1,030	2.1	20.06	41,720
Tellers	4,420	1.3	13.44	27,960
Financial clerks, all other	90	0.4	21.62	44,970
Brokerage clerks	590	1.4	26.82	55,790
Court, municipal, and license clerks	820	0.9	17.32	36,030
Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks	320	1.3	18.03	37,510
Customer service representatives	30,630	1.6	15.63	32,510
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	890	0.9	16.77	34,880
File clerks	1,240	1.5	15.75	32,770
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	1,850	1.0	10.68	22,210
Interviewers, except eligibility and loan	600	0.5	16.29	33,870
Library assistants, clerical	460	0.7	12.46	25,910
Loan interviewers and clerks	3,220	2.0	20.33	42,290
New accounts clerks	430	1.5	17.22	35,820
Order clerks	1,300	1.1	16.92	35,190
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	1,500	1.6	18.62	38,730
Receptionists and information clerks	4,580	0.6	12.36	25,710
Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks	2,330	2.2	19.59	40,750
Information and record clerks, all other	1,790	1.6	17.95	37,330
Cargo and freight agents	260	0.4	26.77	55,680
Couriers and messengers	210	0.4	14.79	30,760
Police, fire, and ambulance dispatchers	610	0.9	18.92	39,360
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	1,210	0.9	18.70	38,890
Meter readers, utilities	290	1.2	18.17	37,790
Postal service clerks	340	0.6	23.53	48,930
Postal service mail carriers	1,900	0.8	23.97	49,860
Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators	590	0.8	24.70	51,370
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	2,980	1.3	20.14	41,880
Shipping, receiving, and traffic clerks	4,340	0.9	14.69	30,540
Stock clerks and order fillers	15,690	1.1	13.05	27,140
Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping	330	0.6	15.04	31,280
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	3,290	0.8	27.50	57,200
Legal secretaries	1,270	1.0	16.90	35,140
Medical secretaries	8,390	2.1	15.75	32,760
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	13,670	0.9	16.55	34,420
Computer operators	300	1.0	21.19	44,070
Data entry keyers	1,680	1.3	15.22	31,670
Word processors and typists	210	0.5	17.09	35,550
Desktop publishers	50	0.6	20.13	41,860
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks	3,640	1.9	19.33	40,200
Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service	360	0.6	14.09	29,300
Office clerks, general	27,960	1.3	17.01	35,370
Office machine operators, except computer	320	0.8	14.63	30,430
Statistical assistants	(5)	(5)	21.28	44,270
Office and administrative support workers, all other	570	0.4	21.86	45,460
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the San Antonio-New Braunfels Metropolitan Statistical Area, 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.