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News Release Information

14-1977-PHI
Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Contacts Technical information: Media contact:

Occupational Employment and Wages in Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington – May 2013

Workers in the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $24.64 in May 2013, 10 percent above the nationwide average of $22.33, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Sheila Watkins, the Bureau’s regional commissioner, noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were significantly higher than their respective national averages in 16 of the 22 major occupational groups, including management, construction and extraction, and legal. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

 

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington Metropolitan Statistical Area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2013
Major occupational groupPercent of total employmentMean hourly wage
United StatesPhiladelphia-Camden-WilmingtonUnited StatesPhiladelphia-Camden-WilmingtonPercent difference(1)

Total, all occupations

100.0
100.0
$22.33
$24.64*
10

Management

4.9
4.4*
53.15
63.70*
20

Business and financial operations

5.0
6.0*
34.14
35.89*
5

Computer and mathematical

2.8
3.2*
39.43
39.82
1

Architecture and engineering

1.8
1.6*
38.51
39.07
1

Life, physical, and social science

0.9
1.3*
33.37
35.92*
8

Community and social service

1.4
2.1*
21.50
21.40
0

Legal

0.8
1.1*
47.89
53.79*
12

Education, training, and library

6.3
6.8*
24.76
27.77*
12

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.3
1.2*
26.72
27.47
3

Healthcare practitioners and technical

5.8
6.4*
35.93
38.36*
7

Healthcare support

3.0
3.7*
13.61
13.87*
2

Protective service

2.5
2.4
20.92
21.09
1

Food preparation and serving related

9.0
7.9*
10.38
10.90*
5

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

3.2
3.1*
12.51
14.13*
13

Personal care and service

3.0
3.3*
11.88
12.27*
3

Sales and related

10.6
10.7
18.37
21.28*
16

Office and administrative support

16.2
17.2*
16.78
18.05*
8

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.3
0.1*
11.70
13.60*
16

Construction and extraction

3.8
3.0*
21.94
25.63*
17

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.9
3.6*
21.35
22.59*
6

Production

6.6
4.9*
16.79
18.77*
12

Transportation and material moving

6.8
6.1*
16.28
16.17
-1
* 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.

Footnotes:
(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington is above the national mean wage, while a negative percent difference reflects a lower wage.
 

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Philadelphia employment was more highly concentrated in 10 of the 22 occupational groups including office and administrative support, business and financial operations, and healthcare support. Conversely, 10 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation; these groups included production, food preparation and serving related, and construction and extraction.

One occupational group—life, physical, and social science—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Philadelphia had 33,840 jobs in the life, physical, and social science group, accounting for 1.3 percent of local area employment, significantly larger than the 0.9-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $35.92, significantly higher than the national average of $33.37.

With employment of 7,610, chemists was the largest occupation within life, physical, and social science followed by medical scientists, except epidemiologists (4,570). Among the higher-paying jobs were physicists with a mean hourly wages of $55.61 and biochemists and biophysicists with a wage of $49.05. At the lower end of the wage scale were survey researchers ($17.18) and environmental science and protection technicians, including health ($18.54). (Detailed occupational data for life, physical, and social science are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_37980.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 as it does nationally. In the Philadelphia area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in several of the occupations within life, physical, and social science. For instance, survey researchers were employed at over five-and-a-half times the national rate in Philadelphia, and chemists at over four times the U.S. average. On the other hand, social science research assistants had a location quotient of 1.0 in Philadelphia, 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 Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry; the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development; the Delaware Department of Labor; and the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation.

Note

OES wage and employment data for the 22 major occupational groups in the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington Metropolitan Statistical Area were compared to their respective national averages based on statistical significance testing. Only those occupations with wages or employment shares above or below the national wage or share after testing for significance at the 90-percent confidence level meet the criteria.

NOTE: 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 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 Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington Metropolitan Statistical Area included 15,490 establishments with a response rate of 76 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 Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, Pa.-N.J.-Del.-Md. Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Philadelphia Counties in Pennsylvania; Burlington, Camden, Gloucester, and Salem Counties in New Jersey; New Castle County in Delaware; and Cecil County in Maryland.

Additional information

OES data are available on our regional web page at https://www.bls.gov/regions/mid-atlantic. 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, Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2013
Occupation(1)Employment(2)Mean wage
LevelLocation quotient(3)HourlyAnnual(4)

Life, physical, and social science occupations

33,8401.5$35.92$74,720

Food scientists and technologists

1800.633.2869,220

Soil and plant scientists

900.331.2164,910

Biochemists and biophysicists

1,8803.249.05102,030

Microbiologists

7701.935.4073,640

Zoologists and wildlife biologists

(5)(5)25.6553,360

Biological scientists, all other

1800.343.4590,380

Conservation scientists

1700.529.7561,880

Foresters

700.434.0470,790

Epidemiologists

700.738.6080,290

Medical scientists, except epidemiologists

4,5702.248.37100,610

Life scientists, all other

300.241.8987,140

Physicists

2100.655.61115,660

Atmospheric and space scientists

500.238.5380,150

Chemists

7,6104.342.9389,290

Materials scientists

3302.240.1383,470

Environmental scientists and specialists, including health

1,5800.935.2473,300

Geoscientists, except hydrologists and geographers

3700.530.7964,040

Hydrologists

1200.938.2679,580

Physical scientists, all other

2500.549.45102,860

Economists

3200.945.0893,770

Survey researchers

1,9605.617.1835,730

Clinical, counseling, and school psychologists

2,7901.338.2279,500

Psychologists, all other

2201.042.1687,700

Sociologists

2103.934.7372,240

Urban and regional planners

4900.731.7366,010

Historians

400.731.0364,540

Social scientists and related workers, all other

2200.337.2877,530

Agricultural and food science technicians

2200.621.1944,070

Biological technicians

2,6401.823.6949,270

Chemical technicians

3,1102.424.1350,200

Geological and petroleum technicians

500.121.7445,220

Nuclear technicians

1100.832.6367,870

Social science research assistants

5401.020.0041,600

Environmental science and protection technicians, including health

7601.118.5438,560

Forensic science technicians

900.324.1350,190

Life, physical, and social science technicians, all other

1,3601.125.0852,170

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington MSA, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_37980.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) Estimates not available.
 

 

Last Modified Date: Wednesday, October 22, 2014