Workers in the Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $32.51 in May 2025, compared to the nationwide average of $33.54, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Acting Regional Commissioner Jerome Watters noted that higher paying major occupational groups included legal ($69.70), management ($69.09), and architecture and engineering ($54.26). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($14.70), building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($16.74), and healthcare support ($16.83). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment shares in the Houston area included office and administrative support (11.5 percent), transportation and material moving (9.5 percent), and food preparation and serving related (9.4 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.9 percent); arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (0.9 percent); and community and social service (0.9 percent).

One occupational group—construction and extraction—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Houston had 181,540 jobs in construction and extraction, accounting for 5.5 percent of local area employment, compared to the 4.1-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $27.41, compared to the national wage of $31.42.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the construction and extraction group included construction laborers (34,080), first-line supervisors of construction trades and extraction workers (24,570), and electricians (19,730). Among the higher paying jobs in this group were elevator and escalator installers and repairers ($46.19) and oil and gas rotary drill operators ($42.43). At the lower end of the wage scale were painters, paperhangers, plasterers, and stucco masons helpers ($17.00) and roofers helpers ($18.73). (Detailed data for the construction and extraction occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0026420/2025.)

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 2.00 indicates that an occupation accounts for twice the share of employment in the area than it does nationally. In the Houston area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the construction and extraction group. For instance, oil and gas rotary drill operators were employed at 7.88 times the national rate in Houston, and oil and gas derrick operators, at 6.97 times the U.S. average. Construction and maintenance painters had a location quotient of 1.04 in Houston, 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 530 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 is 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 66.2 percent based on establishments and 67.2 percent based on weighted sampled employment. Sample sizes and response rates by metropolitan and nonmetropolitan area are available on the Additional OEWS data sets page.

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 Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Austin County, Brazoria County, Chambers County, Fort Bend County, Galveston County, Harris County, Liberty County, Montgomery County, San Jacinto County, and Waller 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.

If you are deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability, please dial 7-1-1 to access telecommunications relay services.

Table 1. Employment and wage data for construction and extraction occupations, Houston metropolitan area, May 2025

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages ($)
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Construction and extraction occupations	181,540	1.34	27.41	57,020
First-line supervisors of construction trades and extraction workers	24,570	1.43	37.94	78,920
Boilermakers	1,170	5.43	37.10	77,170
Brickmasons and blockmasons	1,090	0.98	26.02	54,130
Stonemasons	120	0.70	22.02	45,810
Carpenters	9,600	0.68	25.48	53,000
Floor layers, except carpet, wood, and hard tiles	380	0.77	21.09	43,880
Cement masons and concrete finishers	7,700	1.76	23.72	49,340
Construction laborers	34,080	1.47	21.08	43,850
Paving, surfacing, and tamping equipment operators	870	0.99	23.83	49,560
Pile driver operators	80	1.54	32.08	66,730
Operating engineers and other construction equipment operators	14,000	1.38	26.64	55,410
Drywall and ceiling tile installers	1,640	0.93	22.80	47,430
Electricians	19,730	1.23	29.55	61,470
Glaziers	1,370	1.11	23.55	48,970
Insulation workers, floor, ceiling, and wall	2,430	2.58	23.78	49,460
Insulation workers, mechanical	1,320	2.43	24.69	51,340
Painters, construction and maintenance	4,970	1.04	22.63	47,070
Pipelayers	1,300	1.86	22.25	46,280
Plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters	10,980	1.11	30.70	63,860
Plasterers and stucco masons	360	0.88	25.31	52,640
Reinforcing iron and rebar workers	1,500	5.13	25.90	53,880
Roofers	1,230	0.43	22.18	46,130
Sheet metal workers	2,610	1.03	27.08	56,330
Structural iron and steel workers	3,000	2.07	28.07	58,380
Solar photovoltaic installers	1,620	2.45	25.44	52,900
Helpers--carpenters	740	1.60	21.08	43,850
Helpers--electricians	1,810	1.35	21.35	44,400
Helpers--painters, paperhangers, plasterers, and stucco masons	470	2.97	17.00	35,360
Helpers--pipelayers, plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters	1,500	1.60	21.59	44,910
Helpers--roofers	150	1.19	18.73	38,960
Helpers, construction trades, all other	1,750	3.34	20.91	43,490
Construction and building inspectors	4,980	1.60	34.92	72,640
Elevator and escalator installers and repairers	540	1.07	46.19	96,060
Hazardous materials removal workers	1,280	1.17	22.76	47,350
Highway maintenance workers	790	0.24	22.78	47,380
Rail-track laying and maintenance equipment operators	180	0.43	25.47	52,970
Septic tank servicers and sewer pipe cleaners	440	0.68	22.46	46,720
Miscellaneous construction and related workers	970	1.62	25.23	52,480
Derrick operators, oil and gas	1,560	6.97	30.81	64,080
Rotary drill operators, oil and gas	2,100	7.88	42.43	88,240
Service unit operators, oil and gas	5,400	5.92	27.69	57,600
Excavating and loading machine and dragline operators, surface mining	890	1.23	25.38	52,790
Earth drillers, except oil and gas	440	1.08	28.42	59,100
Explosives workers, ordnance handling experts, and blasters	180	1.71	28.60	59,490
Roustabouts, oil and gas	5,850	6.15	24.11	50,140
Extraction workers, all other	260	2.19	29.44	61,230
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX Metropolitan Statistical Area, see https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0026420/2025. (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.