Workers in the Coeur d'Alene Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $18.13 in May 2014, about 20 percent below the nationwide average of $22.71, 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 higher than their respective national averages in 1 of the 22 major occupational groups. Seventeen 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 5 of the 22 occupational groups, including office and administrative support; community and social service; and production. Conversely, eight groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including transportation and material moving; business and financial operations; and computer and mathematical. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

One occupational group—office and administrative support—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Coeur d'Alene had 10,140 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 18.5 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 16.0-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $15.20, significantly below the national wage of $17.08.

Some of the largest detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included general office clerks (1,380), bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks (890), and secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (790). Among the higher paying jobs were postal service mail carriers and postal service clerks, with mean hourly wages of $24.08 and $22.39, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($9.86) and order clerks ($10.75). (Detailed occupational data for office and administrative support are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/2014/may/oes_17660.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 Coeur d'Alene Metropolitan Statistical Area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, legal secretaries were employed at 2.2 times the national rate in Coeur d'Alene, and hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks, at 1.8 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, stock clerks and order fillers had a location quotient of 0.9 in Coeur d'Alene, 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 Idaho Department of Labor.

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. May 2014 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2014, November 2013, May 2013, November 2012, May 2012, and November 2011. The overall national response rate for the six panels is 74.3 percent based on establishments and 70.5 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The unweighted employment of sampled establishments across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 57.1 percent of total national employment. (Response rates are slightly lower for these estimates due to the federal shutdown in October 2013.) The sample in the Coeur d'Alene Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,100 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 2014 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 Coeur d'Alene, Idaho Metropolitan Statistical Area  includes Kootenai County.

Additional information

OES data are available on our regional web page at www.bls.gov/regions/west. 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/2014/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: 800-877-8339.

Table 1. Employment and wage data from the Occupational Employment Statistics survey, by occupation, Coeur d'Alene Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2014

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and Administrative Support Occupations	10,140	1.2	$15.20	$31,610
First-Line Supervisors of Office and Administrative Support Workers	650	1.1	22.26	46,310
Bill and Account Collectors	60	0.4	18.07	37,580
Billing and Posting Clerks	310	1.6	16.08	33,450
Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks	890	1.4	16.08	33,450
Payroll and Timekeeping Clerks	120	1.7	17.41	36,210
Tellers	190	0.9	12.29	25,570
Court, Municipal, and License Clerks	60	1.2	14.53	30,230
Customer Service Representatives	(5)	(5)	14.68	30,540
Eligibility Interviewers, Government Programs	30	0.7	16.67	34,670
File Clerks	70	1.2	13.91	28,920
Hotel, Motel, and Resort Desk Clerks	180	1.8	9.86	20,510
Interviewers, Except Eligibility and Loan	40	0.6	15.98	33,240
Loan Interviewers and Clerks	150	1.8	19.27	40,080
New Accounts Clerks	40	1.8	13.99	29,100
Order Clerks	60	0.8	10.75	22,360
Human Resources Assistants, Except Payroll and Timekeeping	60	1.2	17.17	35,720
Receptionists and Information Clerks	530	1.3	14.00	29,120
Information and Record Clerks, All Other	30	0.5	17.34	36,060
Police, Fire, and Ambulance Dispatchers	40	1.0	18.08	37,620
Dispatchers, Except Police, Fire, and Ambulance	(5)	(5)	18.45	38,370
Postal Service Clerks	30	1.2	22.39	46,570
Postal Service Mail Carriers	140	1.1	24.08	50,080
Production, Planning, and Expediting Clerks	140	1.1	17.12	35,620
Shipping, Receiving, and Traffic Clerks	220	0.8	13.30	27,660
Stock Clerks and Order Fillers	700	0.9	11.19	23,280
Weighers, Measurers, Checkers, and Samplers, Recordkeeping	50	1.7	(5)	(5)
Executive Secretaries and Executive Administrative Assistants	140	0.5	18.44	38,360
Legal Secretaries	190	2.2	15.07	31,340
Medical Secretaries	170	0.8	14.67	30,510
Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive	790	0.9	14.17	29,470
Data Entry Keyers	30	0.4	13.87	28,850
Office Clerks, General	1,380	1.2	13.85	28,820
Office and Administrative Support Workers, All Other	40	0.4	17.43	36,240
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in Coeur d'Alene, ID, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_17660.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.