Workers in the Lake Havasu City - Kingman Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $17.92 in May 2013, about 20 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, no wages in the local area were significantly higher than their respective national averages in 22 major occupational groups. Seventeen groups had significantly lower wages than their respective national averages, including management, architecture and engineering, and business and financial operations.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 4 of the 22 occupational groups, including sales and related; and installation, maintenance, and repair. Conversely, 10 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including business and financial operations, computer and mathematical, 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 Lake Havasu City - Kingman Metropolitan Statistical Area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2013

Major occupational group	Percent of total employment		Mean hourly wage
	United States	Lake Havasu City	United States	Lake Havasu City	Percent difference (1)
Total, all occupations	100.0%	100.0%	$22.33	$17.92*	-20
Management	4.9	3.7*	53.15	39.46*	-26
Business and financial operations	5.0	2.1*	34.14	24.49*	-28
Computer and mathematical	2.8	1.0*	39.43	31.93*	-19
Architecture and engineering	1.8	0.8*	38.51	27.26*	-29
Life, physical, and social science	0.9	0.5*	33.37	24.55*	-26
Community and social services	1.4	1.0*	21.50	18.36*	-15
Legal	0.8	0.5*	47.89	40.26*	-16
Education, training, and library	6.3	6.4	24.76	18.77*	-24
Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media	1.3	0.6*	26.72	18.54*	-31
Healthcare practitioner and technical	5.8	7.6*	35.93	35.41	-1
Healthcare support	3.0	3.4	13.61	13.44	-1
Protective service	2.5	3.7*	20.92	18.20*	-13
Food preparation and serving related	9.0	10.6	10.38	10.15	-2
Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance	3.2	3.2	12.51	11.18*	-11
Personal care and service	3.0	2.1*	11.88	10.88*	-8
Sales and related	10.6	14.3*	18.37	13.06*	-29
Office and administrative support	16.2	16.8	16.78	14.43*	-14
Farming, fishing, and forestry	0.3	(2)	11.70
Construction and extraction	3.8	4.0	21.94	20.00*	-9
Installation, maintenance, and repair	3.9	6.3*	21.35	19.46*	-9
Production	6.6	5.0*	16.79	15.18*	-10
Transportation and material moving	6.8	6.6	16.28	15.85	-3
Footnotes: (1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in Lake Havasu City is above the national mean wage, while a negative difference reflects a lower wage. (2) Estimate not released * 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—installation, maintenance, and repair—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Lake Havasu City - Kingman had 2,760 jobs in installation, maintenance, and repair, accounting for 6.3 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 3.9-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $19.46, measurably below the national wage of $21.35.

Some of the largest detailed occupations within the installation, maintenance, and repair group included general maintenance and repair workers (550), automotive service technicians and mechanics (460), and first-line supervisors of mechanics, installers, and repairers (230). Among the higher paying jobs were aircraft mechanics and service technicians, and control and valve installers and repairers (except mechanical door), with mean hourly wages of $30.60 and $28.79, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were helpers of installation, maintenance, and repair workers ($10.38) and tire repairers and changers ($11.49). (Detailed occupational data for installation, maintenance, and repair are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/2013/may/oes_29420.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 Lake Havasu City - Kingman Metropolitan Statistical Area, above average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the installation, maintenance, and repair group. For instance, motorboat mechanics and service technicians were employed at 16.7 times the national rate in Lake Havasu City, and telecommunications equipment installers and repairers, except line installers, at 2.9 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, general maintenance and repair workers had a location quotient of 1.3 in Lake Havasu City, 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 Arizona Department of Commerce.

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 Lake Havasu City - Kingman Metropolitan Statistical Area included 856 establishments with a response rate of 79 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 Lake Havasu City - Kingman, Ariz. Metropolitan Statistical Area  includes Mohave 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, Lake Havasu City - Kingman Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2013

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual(4)
Installation, Maintenance, and Repair Occupations	2,760	1.6	$19.46	$40,480
First-Line Supervisors of Mechanics, Installers, and Repairers	230	1.6	28.16	58,560
Telecommunications Equipment Installers and Repairers, Except Line Installers	200	2.9	27.97	58,170
Security and Fire Alarm Systems Installers	(5)	(5)	17.41	36,200
Aircraft Mechanics and Service Technicians	70	1.9	30.60	63,640
Automotive Body and Related Repairers	40	0.9	23.46	48,800
Automotive Service Technicians and Mechanics	460	2.3	16.81	34,970
Bus and Truck Mechanics and Diesel Engine Specialists	140	1.8	17.50	36,410
Mobile Heavy Equipment Mechanics, Except Engines	50	1.2	23.15	48,140
Motorboat Mechanics and Service Technicians	110	16.7	20.73	43,120
Tire Repairers and Changers	(5)	(5)	11.49	23,900
Control and Valve Installers and Repairers, Except Mechanical Door	60	4.5	28.79	59,880
Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers	100	1.2	20.72	43,110
Industrial Machinery Mechanics	60	0.5	25.64	53,330
Maintenance and Repair Workers, General	550	1.3	15.91	33,100
Helpers--Installation, Maintenance, and Repair Workers	30	0.7	10.38	21,600
Installation, Maintenance, and Repair Workers, All Other	230	5.1	18.06	37,560
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in Lake Havasu City - Kingman, AZ, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_29420.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) Estimate not released.