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Friday, May 04, 2018
Workers in the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $26.60 in May 2017, about 9 percent above the nationwide average of $24.34, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Assistant Commissioner for Regional Operations Richard Holden noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were higher than their respective national averages in 14 of the 22 major occupational groups, including healthcare practitioners and technical; education, training, and library; and healthcare support. Three groups had significantly lower wages than their respective national averages: legal; life, physical, and social science; and management.
When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 8 of the 22 occupational groups, including management; architecture and engineering; and computer and mathematical. Conversely, 10 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including office and administrative support; transportation and material moving; and healthcare practitioners and technical. (See table A and box note at end of release.)
Major occupational group | Percent of total employment | Mean hourly wage | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
United States | Portland | United States | Portland | Percent difference (1) | |
Total, all occupations | 100.0 | 100.0 | $24.34 | $26.60* | 9 |
Management | 5.1 | 6.7* | 57.65 | 55.19* | -4 |
Business and financial operations | 5.2 | 5.8* | 36.70 | 36.08 | -2 |
Computer and mathematical | 3.0 | 3.8* | 43.18 | 43.26 | 0 |
Architecture and engineering | 1.8 | 3.1* | 41.44 | 43.95 | 6 |
Life, physical, and social science | 0.8 | 0.9* | 35.76 | 32.88* | -8 |
Community and social service | 1.5 | 1.8* | 23.10 | 24.71* | 7 |
Legal | 0.8 | 0.7* | 51.62 | 45.35* | -12 |
Education, training, and library | 6.1 | 5.6* | 26.67 | 29.98* | 12 |
Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media | 1.4 | 1.9* | 28.34 | 28.50 | 1 |
Healthcare practitioners and technical | 6.0 | 5.2* | 38.83 | 44.07* | 13 |
Healthcare support | 2.9 | 2.5* | 15.05 | 18.24* | 21 |
Protective service | 2.4 | 1.7* | 22.69 | 24.07 | 6 |
Food preparation and serving related | 9.3 | 9.2 | 11.88 | 13.04* | 10 |
Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance | 3.1 | 2.7* | 13.91 | 15.27* | 10 |
Personal care and service | 3.6 | 3.8 | 13.11 | 14.18* | 8 |
Sales and related | 10.2 | 9.9* | 19.56 | 20.43* | 4 |
Office and administrative support | 15.4 | 14.5* | 18.24 | 19.38* | 6 |
Farming, fishing, and forestry | 0.3 | 0.3 | 13.87 | 16.89* | 22 |
Construction and extraction | 4.0 | 4.4* | 24.01 | 26.90* | 12 |
Installation, maintenance, and repair | 3.9 | 3.3* | 23.02 | 24.34* | 6 |
Production | 6.3 | 6.2 | 18.30 | 19.19* | 5 |
Transportation and material moving | 7.0 | 6.2* | 17.82 | 19.38* | 9 |
Footnotes: |
One occupational group—architecture and engineering—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro had 36,270 jobs in architecture and engineering, accounting for 3.1 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 1.8-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $43.95, compared to the national wage of $41.44.
Some of the larger detailed occupations within the architecture and engineering group included mechanical engineers (3,560), industrial engineers (3,520), and civil engineers (3,370). Among the higher paying jobs were aerospace engineers and industrial engineers, with mean hourly wages of $53.20 and $50.41, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were mechanical engineering technicians ($25.88) and surveying and mapping technicians ($26.61). (Detailed occupational data for architecture and engineering are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_38900.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 Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro Metropolitan Statistical Area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the architecture and engineering group. For instance, electronics engineers, except computer, were employed at 2.1 times the national rate in Portland, and industrial engineers, at 1.6 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, industrial engineering technicians had a location quotient of 1.3 in Portland, 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.
With the release of the May 2017 estimates, the OES program has replaced 21 detailed occupations found in the 2010 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) with 10 new aggregations of those occupations. In addition, selected 4- and 5-digit North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) industries previously published by OES will no longer be published separately. Some of the 4-digit NAICS industries that are no longer being published separately will instead be published as OES-specific industry aggregations. More information about the new occupational and industry aggregations is available at www.bls.gov/oes/changes_2017.htm .
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.
The Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey is a semiannual survey measuring occupational employment and wage rates for wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments in the United States. The OES data available from BLS include cross-industry occupational employment and wage estimates for the nation; over 650 areas, including states and the District of Columbia, metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), metropolitan divisions, nonmetropolitan areas, and territories; national industry-specific estimates at the NAICS sector, 3-, 4-, and selected 5- and 6-digit industry levels, and national estimates by ownership across all industries and for schools and hospitals. OES data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm.
OES estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.2 million establishments. Each year, two semiannual panels of approximately 200,000 sampled establishments are contacted, one panel in May and the other in November. Responses are obtained by mail, Internet or other electronic means, email, telephone, or personal visit. The May 2017 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2017, November 2016, May 2016, November 2015, May 2015, and November 2014. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 72 percent based on establishments and 68 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The unweighted sample employment of 82 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 58 percent of total national employment. The sample in the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro Metropolitan Statistical Area included 7,352 establishments with a response rate of 75 percent. For more information about OES concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_tec.htm.
The May 2017 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.
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 Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, Ore. Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Clackamas, Columbia, Multnomah, Washington, and Yamhill Counties of Oregon and Clark and Skamania Counties of Washington.
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/current/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.
Occupation (1) | Employment | Mean wages | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Level (2) | Location quotient (3) | Hourly | Annual (4) | |
Architecture and engineering occupations | 36,270 | 1.8 | $43.95 | $91,420 |
Architects, except landscape and naval | 1,360 | 1.6 | 40.37 | 83,970 |
Landscape architects | (5) | (5) | 30.22 | 62,860 |
Cartographers and photogrammetrists | 280 | 3.0 | 29.83 | 62,040 |
Surveyors | 420 | 1.2 | 35.47 | 73,780 |
Aerospace engineers | 50 | 0.1 | 53.20 | 110,650 |
Biomedical engineers | 290 | 1.8 | 44.55 | 92,660 |
Chemical engineers | 170 | 0.6 | 48.64 | 101,180 |
Civil engineers | 3,370 | 1.4 | 42.61 | 88,640 |
Electrical engineers | 2,380 | 1.6 | 46.42 | 96,550 |
Electronics engineers, except computer | 2,330 | 2.1 | 42.96 | 89,370 |
Environmental engineers | 540 | 1.3 | 44.99 | 93,570 |
Health and safety engineers, except mining safety engineers and inspectors | 130 | 0.6 | 40.08 | 83,370 |
Industrial engineers | 3,520 | 1.6 | 50.41 | 104,850 |
Marine engineers and naval architects | 30 | 0.4 | 47.92 | 99,680 |
Mechanical engineers | 3,560 | 1.5 | 43.86 | 91,220 |
Engineers, all other | 2,060 | 1.9 | 48.90 | 101,720 |
Architectural and civil drafters | 1,030 | 1.3 | 28.35 | 58,970 |
Electrical and electronics drafters | 410 | 1.9 | 30.32 | 63,070 |
Mechanical drafters | 450 | 1.0 | 29.44 | 61,240 |
Drafters, all other | 790 | 6.3 | 25.64 | 53,330 |
Civil engineering technicians | 480 | 0.8 | 30.39 | 63,210 |
Environmental engineering technicians | 170 | 1.2 | 26.89 | 55,930 |
Industrial engineering technicians | 660 | 1.3 | 30.19 | 62,790 |
Mechanical engineering technicians | 420 | 1.2 | 25.88 | 53,830 |
Engineering technicians, except drafters, all other | 990 | 1.6 | 27.35 | 56,890 |
Surveying and mapping technicians | 440 | 1.1 | 26.61 | 55,360 |
Footnotes: |
Last Modified Date: Friday, May 04, 2018