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News Release Information

18-665-SAN
Thursday, April 26, 2018

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

Occupational Employment and Wages in Tucson — May 2017

Workers in the Tucson Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $22.18 in May 2017, about 9 percent below 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 lower than their respective national averages in 13 of the 22 major occupational groups, including management; legal; and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media. Two groups had significantly higher wages than their respective national averages: architecture and engineering; and food preparation and serving related.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 10 of the 22 occupational groups, including office and administrative support; food preparation and serving related; and personal care and service. Conversely, five groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including production; transportation and material moving; and business and financial operations. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Tucson Metropolitan Statistical Area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2017
Major occupational groupPercent of total employmentMean hourly wage
United StatesTucsonUnited StatesTucsonPercent difference (1)

Total, all occupations

100.0100.0$24.34$22.18*-9

Management

5.15.7*57.6543.95*-24

Business and financial operations

5.24.2*36.7031.21*-15

Computer and mathematical

3.03.3*43.1838.78*-10

Architecture and engineering

1.82.2*41.4446.58*12

Life, physical, and social science

0.81.2*35.7631.46*-12

Community and social service

1.52.1*23.1019.85*-14

Legal

0.80.751.6238.57*-25

Education, training, and library

6.16.326.6724.79-7

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.41.328.3422.08*-22

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.06.6*38.8337.98-2

Healthcare support

2.93.015.0514.90-1

Protective service

2.43.2*22.6922.901

Food preparation and serving related

9.310.5*11.8812.39*4

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

3.13.113.9112.95*-7

Personal care and service

3.64.5*13.1112.70-3

Sales and related

10.29.4*19.5615.61*-20

Office and administrative support

15.417.0*18.2416.50*-10

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.30.1*13.8713.42-3

Construction and extraction

4.03.824.0119.39*-19

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.94.023.0221.35*-7

Production

6.33.1*18.3018.330

Transportation and material moving

7.04.7*17.8215.97*-10

Footnotes:
(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in the Tucson Metropolitan Statistical Area 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—office and administrative support—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Tucson had 61,960 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 17.0 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 15.4-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $16.50, significantly below the national wage of $18.24.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included customer service representatives (14,580), general office clerks (7,000), and secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (6,080). Among the higher paying jobs were postal service clerks and first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers, with mean hourly wages of $24.65 and $24.48, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($11.55) and interviewers, except eligibility and loan ($12.41). (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/current/oes_46060.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 Tucson Metropolitan Statistical Area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, customer service representatives were employed at 2.1 times the national rate in Tucson. On the other hand, production, planning, and expediting clerks had a location quotient of 1.0 in Tucson, 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 Administration.

Notes on Occupational Employment Statistics Data

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.


Technical Note

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 Tucson Metropolitan Statistical Area included 2,687 establishments with a response rate of 66 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 Tucson, Ariz. Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Pima 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/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.

Table 1. Employment and wage data from the Occupational Employment Statistics survey, by occupation, Tucson Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2017
Occupation (1)EmploymentMean wages
Level (2)Location quotient (3)HourlyAnnual (4)

Office and administrative support occupations

61,9601.1$16.50$34,320

First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers

4,6101.224.4850,920

Switchboard operators, including answering service

1900.912.9827,000

Bill and account collectors

5700.817.2135,800

Billing and posting clerks

1,0400.917.0635,480

Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks

2,7400.718.7639,020

Payroll and timekeeping clerks

3300.917.9037,230

Procurement clerks

2801.519.7040,970

Tellers

1,0300.814.2629,650

Brokerage clerks

1300.822.4546,690

Court, municipal, and license clerks

3601.116.4234,150

Customer service representatives

14,5802.114.0029,130

Eligibility interviewers, government programs

2400.720.6742,990

File clerks

2400.815.2431,710

Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks

6801.111.5524,030

Interviewers, except eligibility and loan

3100.612.4125,820

Library assistants, clerical

2901.212.9026,830

Loan interviewers and clerks

8001.418.1737,800

New accounts clerks

1001.0(5)(5)

Order clerks

1200.315.8733,000

Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping

4001.217.1335,640

Receptionists and information clerks

3,2201.214.0429,200

Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks

2300.617.4236,220

Information and record clerks, all other

9802.417.3035,990

Cargo and freight agents

1300.616.6034,530

Couriers and messengers

1300.713.0027,040

Police, fire, and ambulance dispatchers

3001.218.9639,440

Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance

5201.016.8635,070

Meter readers, utilities

300.421.0943,860

Postal service clerks

1600.724.6551,260

Postal service mail carriers

9101.124.4650,890

Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators

2100.723.3048,450

Production, planning, and expediting clerks

8501.024.1850,300

Shipping, receiving, and traffic clerks

1,0900.616.2333,760

Stock clerks and order fillers

5,7201.113.0627,160

Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping

1200.715.1831,580

Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants

1,5701.022.0245,810

Legal secretaries

4200.921.0443,760

Medical secretaries

1,4601.016.9135,170

Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive

6,0801.116.3233,940

Computer operators

(5)(5)22.8547,530

Data entry keyers

2600.613.5228,110

Word processors and typists

400.215.8933,040

Insurance claims and policy processing clerks

5700.817.0635,490

Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service

1400.713.8128,730

Office clerks, general

7,0000.916.0633,410

Office machine operators, except computer

1200.816.3333,970

Statistical assistants

301.223.2848,420

Office and administrative support workers, all other

3700.717.3436,070

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in Tucson, AZ see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_46060.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.

 

Last Modified Date: Thursday, April 26, 2018