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News Release Information

24-1350-SAN
Thursday, July 11, 2024

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

Occupational Employment and Wages in Fresno — May 2023

Workers in the Fresno, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $29.05 in May 2023, compared to the nationwide average of $31.48, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Chris Rosenlund noted that higher paying major occupational groups included management ($59.76), legal ($59.18), and healthcare practitioners and technical ($59.02). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($17.96), healthcare support ($18.18), and personal care and service ($19.42). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Fresno area included office and administrative support (11.4 percent), transportation and material moving (10 percent), and healthcare support (8.7 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.6 percent); arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (0.9 percent); and architecture and engineering (0.9 percent). (See table A.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Fresno metropolitan area, May 2023
Major occupational groupPercent of total employmentMean hourly wage ($)
United StatesFresnoUnited StatesFresno

Total, all occupations

100.0100.031.4829.05

Management

6.94.966.2359.76

Business and financial operations

6.64.643.5538.14

Computer and mathematical

3.41.154.3944.38

Architecture and engineering

1.70.947.6447.60

Life, physical, and social science

0.90.942.2440.71

Community and social service

1.62.228.3630.83

Legal

0.80.664.3459.18

Educational instruction and library

5.87.831.9234.44

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.40.936.3130.56

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.15.949.0759.02

Healthcare support

4.78.718.3718.18

Protective service

2.32.427.7432.42

Food preparation and serving related

8.78.216.5817.96

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.92.618.4319.63

Personal care and service

2.01.718.4819.42

Sales and related

8.87.425.6223.91

Office and administrative support

12.211.423.0523.73

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.35.219.2217.43

Construction and extraction

4.13.829.5732.43

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.93.628.1329.19

Production

5.85.122.9021.72

Transportation and material moving

9.110.022.4521.18

One occupational group—healthcare support—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Fresno had 35,500 jobs in healthcare support, accounting for 8.7 percent of local area employment, compared to the 4.7-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $18.18, compared to the national wage of $18.37.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the healthcare support group included home health and personal care aides (25,750), medical assistants (2,930), and nursing assistants (2,900). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were physical therapist assistants and occupational therapy assistants, with mean hourly wages of $37.25 and $35.37, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were home health and personal care aides ($16.61) and physical therapist aides ($17.30). (Detailed data for the healthcare support occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_23420.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 Fresno area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the healthcare support group. For instance, home health and personal care aides were employed at 2.6 times the national rate in Fresno, and medical assistants, at 1.4 times the U.S. average. Phlebotomists had a location quotient of 0.9 in Fresno, indicating that this particular occupation’s local and national employment shares were similar.

The statistics in this release are from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, a cooperative effort between BLS and the State Workforce Agencies (SWAs). BLS funds the survey and provides the procedures and technical support. State Workforce Agencies collect most of the data: in this case, the California Employment Development Department.


Technical Note

The Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey is a semiannual survey measuring occupational employment and wage rates for wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments in the United States. The OEWS data available from BLS include cross-industry occupational employment and wage estimates for the nation; over 580 areas, including states and the District of Columbia, metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), nonmetropolitan areas, and territories; national industry-specific estimates at the NAICS sector, 3-digit, most 4-digit, and selected 5- and 6-digit industry levels; and national estimates by ownership across all industries and for schools and hospitals. Full OEWS data tables are available online.

Additional information about the OEWS estimates and methodology are available in the national Technical Notes. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 65.8 percent based on establishments and 64.3 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Fresno, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area included 2,754 establishments with a response rate of 63 percent.

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 Fresno, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Fresno County.

For more information

Answers to frequently asked questions about the OEWS data, as well as general program documentation, are available on the OEWS website.

Information in this release will be made available to individuals with sensory impairments upon request. Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; Telecommunications Relay Service: 7-1-1.

Table 1. Employment and wage data for healthcare support occupations, Fresno metropolitan area, May 2023
Occupation (1)EmploymentMean wages ($)
Level (2)Location quotient (3)HourlyAnnual (4)

Healthcare support occupations

35,5001.918.1837,810

Home health and personal care aides

25,7502.616.6134,540

Nursing assistants

2,9000.820.1641,930

Orderlies

1901.419.6340,830

Occupational therapy assistants

500.435.3773,560

Physical therapist assistants

2500.937.2577,470

Physical therapist aides

1701.517.3035,970

Massage therapists

2200.929.1960,710

Dental assistants

1,1801.223.9349,770

Medical assistants

2,9301.422.3346,440

Medical equipment preparers

2301.325.3252,660

Medical transcriptionists

2401.720.8943,440

Pharmacy aides

2001.722.6647,130

Veterinary assistants and laboratory animal caretakers

2400.818.6638,820

Phlebotomists

3400.922.6247,060

Healthcare support workers, all other

5602.023.2948,430

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Fresno, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_23420.htm.
(2) Estimates for detailed occupations may not sum to the totals due to rounding, and because the totals may include occupations that are 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: Thursday, July 11, 2024