Workers in the Brownsville-Harlingen, TX Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $20.97 in May 2023, compared to the nationwide average of $31.48, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Assistant Commissioner for Regional Operations Michael Hirniak noted that higher paying major occupational groups included management ($44.69), architecture and engineering ($41.13), and healthcare practitioners and technical ($40.06). Lower paying occupations included healthcare support ($11.50), food preparation and serving related ($12.05), and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($13.43). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Brownsville area included healthcare support (15.0 percent), office and administrative support (12.6 percent), and food preparation and serving related (10.2 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.4 percent); life, physical, and social science (0.5 percent); and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (0.5 percent).

One occupational group—healthcare support—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Brownsville had 23,130 jobs in healthcare support, accounting for 15.0 percent of local area employment, compared to the 4.7-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $11.50, compared to the national wage of $18.37.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the healthcare support group included home health and personal care aides (19,670), nursing assistants (1,140), and medical assistants (1,110). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were occupational therapy assistants and physical therapist assistants, with mean hourly wages of $32.20 and $31.76, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were home health and personal care aides ($10.66) and physical therapist aides ($11.60). (Detailed data for the healthcare support occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_15180.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 Brownsville area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the healthcare support group. For instance, home health and personal care aides were employed at 5.2 times the national rate in Brownsville, and phlebotomists, at 1.5 times the U.S. average. Dental assistants had a location quotient of 0.9 in Brownsville, indicating that this particular occupation’s local and national employment shares were similar.

The statistics in this release are from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, a cooperative effort between BLS and the State Workforce Agencies (SWAs). BLS funds the survey and provides the procedures and technical support. State Workforce Agencies collect most of the data: in this case, the Texas Workforce Commission.

Technical Note

The Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey is a semiannual survey measuring occupational employment and wage rates for wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments in the United States. The OEWS data available from BLS include cross-industry occupational employment and wage estimates for the nation; over 580 areas, including states and the District of Columbia, metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), nonmetropolitan areas, and territories; national industry-specific estimates at the NAICS sector, 3-digit, most 4-digit, and selected 5- and 6-digit industry levels; and national estimates by ownership across all industries and for schools and hospitals. Full OEWS data tables are available online.

Additional information about the OEWS estimates and methodology are available in the national Technical Notes. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 65.8 percent based on establishments and 64.3 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Brownsville-Harlingen, TX Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,390 establishments with a response rate of 57 percent.

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 Brownsville-Harlingen, TX Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Cameron County.

For more information

Answers to frequently asked questions about the OEWS data, as well as general program documentation, are available on the OEWS website.

Information in this release will be made available to individuals with sensory impairments upon request. Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; Telecommunications Relay Service: 7-1-1.

Table 1. Employment and wage data for healthcare support occupations, Brownsville metropolitan area, May 2023

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages ($)
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Healthcare support occupations	23,130	3.2	11.50	23,930
Home health and personal care aides	19,670	5.2	10.66	22,170
Nursing assistants	1,140	0.8	13.92	28,950
Occupational therapy assistants	70	1.5	32.20	66,970
Physical therapist assistants	140	1.3	31.76	66,050
Physical therapist aides	50	1.2	11.60	24,130
Massage therapists	30	0.3	20.20	42,020
Dental assistants	330	0.9	17.42	36,240
Medical assistants	1,110	1.4	15.36	31,940
Medical transcriptionists	70	1.3	16.62	34,570
Pharmacy aides	50	1.0	16.92	35,190
Phlebotomists	200	1.5	17.13	35,630
Healthcare support workers, all other	100	1.0	19.91	41,420
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Brownsville-Harlingen, TX Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_15180.htm. (2) Estimates for detailed occupations may not sum to the totals due to rounding, and because the totals may include occupations that are 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.