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News Release Information

14-1048-SAN
Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Contacts Technical information: Media contact:
  • (415) 625-2270

Occupational Employment and Wages in Bend

Workers in the Bend Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $20.03 in May 2013, about 10 percent below the nationwide average of $22.33, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Regional Commissioner Richard J. Holden noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were significantly higher than their respective national averages in 6 of the 22 major occupational groups, including healthcare practitioners and technical, healthcare support, and protective service. Eleven groups had significantly lower wages than their respective national averages, including management, legal, and computer and mathematical.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 8 of the 22 occupational groups, including food preparation and serving related, sales and related, and personal care and service. Conversely, nine groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including production, business and financial operations, 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 Bend Metropolitan Statistical Area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2013
Major occupational groupPercent of total employmentMean hourly wage
United StatesBendUnited StatesBendPercent difference (1)

Total, all occupations

100.0%100.0%$22.33$20.03*-10

Management

4.94.1*53.1540.78*-23

Business and financial operations

5.03.2*34.1427.90*-18

Computer and mathematical

2.81.6*39.4331.99*-19

Architecture and engineering

1.81.2*38.5133.67*-13

Life, physical, and social science

0.91.2*33.3727.51*-18

Community and social services

1.41.9*21.5020.33-5

Legal

0.80.4*47.8938.19*-20

Education, training, and library

6.36.224.7623.01*-7

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.31.226.7219.52*-27

Healthcare practitioner and technical

5.86.5*35.9340.31*12

Healthcare support

3.02.6*13.6116.64*22

Protective service

2.51.7*20.9223.66*13

Food preparation and serving related

9.012.2*10.3810.75*4

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

3.24.2*12.5113.65*9

Personal care and service

3.04.4*11.8812.092

Sales and related

10.612.6*18.3716.80*-9

Office and administrative support

16.216.516.7816.12*-4

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.30.411.7014.54*24

Construction and extraction

3.84.5*21.9422.061

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.93.621.3521.17-1

Production

6.64.4*16.7915.64*-7

Transportation and material moving

6.85.5*16.2815.62-4

Footnotes:
(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in Bend 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—food preparation and serving related—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Bend had 7,630 jobs in food preparation and serving related, accounting for 12.2 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 9.0-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $10.75, measurably above the national wage of $10.38.

Some of the largest detailed occupations within the food preparation and serving related group included waiters and waitresses (1,580), combined food preparation and serving workers, including fast food (1,420), and restaurant cooks (1,070). Among the higher paying jobs were chefs and head cooks, and institution and cafeteria cooks, with mean hourly wages of $18.81 and $14.80, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were dining room and cafeteria attendants and bartender helpers ($9.51) and fast food cooks ($9.66). (Detailed occupational data for food preparation and serving related are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/2013/may/oes_13460.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 Bend Metropolitan Statistical Area, above average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the food preparation and serving related group. For instance, restaurant cooks were employed at 2.1 times the national rate in Bend, and bartenders, at 2.0 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, combined food preparation and serving workers, including fast food had a location quotient of 1.0 in Bend, 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 Oregon Employment Department.

Note

OES wage and employment data for the 22 major occupational groups in the Bend metropolitan statistical area were compared to their respective national averages based on statistical significance testing. Only those occupations with wages or employment shares above or below the national wage or share after testing for significance at the 90-percent confidence level meet the criteria.

NOTE: 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 mail survey measuring occupational employment and wage rates for wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments in the United States. Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands are also surveyed, but their data are not included in the national estimates. OES estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.2 million establishments. Forms are mailed to approximately 200,000 sampled establishments in May and November each year for a 3-year period. May 2013 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected in May 2013, November 2012, May 2012, November 2011, May 2011, and November 2010. The overall national response rate for the six panels is 75.3 percent based on establishments and 71.6 percent based on employment. The sample in the Bend Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,225 establishments with a response rate of 80 percent. For more information about OES concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.tn.htm.

The OES survey provides estimates of employment and hourly and annual wages for wage and salary workers in 22 major occupational groups and 821 detailed occupations for the nation, states, metropolitan statistical areas, metropolitan divisions, and nonmetropolitan areas. In addition, employment and wage estimates for 94 minor groups and 458 broad occupations are available in the national data. OES data by state and metropolitan/nonmetropolitan area are available from www.bls.gov/oes/current/oessrcst.htm and www.bls.gov/oes/current/oessrcma.htm , respectively.

The May 2013 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 .

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 Bend, Ore. Metropolitan Statistical Area  includes Deschutes County.

Additional information

OES data are available on our regional web page at www.bls.gov/regions/west/home.htm. 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/2013/may/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: 1-800-877-8339.

Table 1. Employment and wage data from the Occupational Employment Statistics survey, by occupation, Bend Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2013
Occupation (1)EmploymentMean wages
Level (2)Location quotient (3)HourlyAnnual(4)

Food Preparation and Serving Related Occupations

7,6301.4$10.75$22,370

Chefs and Head Cooks

1001.918.8139,130

First-Line Supervisors of Food Preparation and Serving Workers

5301.312.8026,630

Cooks, Fast Food

3801.69.6620,090

Cooks, Institution and Cafeteria

1000.514.8030,780

Cooks, Restaurant

1,0702.111.5123,940

Cooks, Short Order

901.110.3921,610

Food Preparation Workers

4301.110.7122,280

Bartenders

5202.011.1823,260

Combined Food Preparation and Serving Workers, Including Fast Food

1,4201.09.9520,690

Counter Attendants, Cafeteria, Food Concession, and Coffee Shop

4001.910.9122,700

Waiters and Waitresses

1,5801.410.0420,890

Food Servers, Nonrestaurant

800.710.4021,620

Dining Room and Cafeteria Attendants and Bartender Helpers

2101.19.5119,780

Dishwashers

3901.710.0320,850

Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop

2501.59.8420,470

Food Preparation and Serving Related Workers, All Other

1005.612.5526,090

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in Bend, OR, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_13460.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.
 

 

Last Modified Date: Tuesday, June 10, 2014