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News Release Information

15-1129-ATL
Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Contacts Technical information: Media contact:
  • (404) 893-4220

Occupational Employment and Wages in Huntsville – May 2014

Workers in the Huntsville Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $24.87 in May 2014, about 10 percent above the nationwide average of $22.71, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Regional Commissioner Janet S. Rankin noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were higher than their respective national averages in 4 of the 22 major occupational groups, including architecture and engineering; and business and financial operations. Thirteen groups had significantly lower wages than their respective national averages, including construction and extraction; sales and related, and education, training, and library.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 3 of the 22 occupational groups: architecture and engineering; computer and mathematical; and business and financial operations. Conversely, 15 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including office and administrative support; transportation and material moving; and education, training, and library. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Huntsville Metropolitan Statistical Area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2014
Major occupational groupPercent of total employmentMean hourly wage
United StatesHuntsvilleUnited StatesHuntsvillePercent difference (1)

Total, all occupations

100.0%100.0%$22.71$24.8710

Management

5.04.4*54.0858.70*9

Business and financial operations

5.17.5*34.8139.59*14

Computer and mathematical

2.86.5*40.3742.81*6

Architecture and engineering

1.88.3*39.1945.95*17

Life, physical, and social science

0.80.7*33.6935.756

Community and social services

1.40.6*21.7920.63*-5

Legal

0.80.3*48.6149.472

Education, training, and library

6.24.6*25.1021.56*-14

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.31.1*26.8224.16-10

Healthcare practitioner and technical

5.85.5*36.5434.11*-7

Healthcare support

2.92.3*13.8612.52*-10

Protective service

2.41.7*21.1418.68*-12

Food preparation and serving related

9.17.8*10.579.71*-8

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

3.23.212.6810.60*-16

Personal care and service

3.12.3*12.0110.37*-14

Sales and related

10.510.918.5915.53*-16

Office and administrative support

16.013.3*17.0815.82*-7

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.3(2)*12.0913.199

Construction and extraction

3.93.2*22.4018.42*-18

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.93.821.7420.58*-5

Production

6.67.117.0617.251

Transportation and material moving

6.84.9*16.5714.55*-12

Footnotes:
(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in Huntsville is above the national mean wage, while a negative difference reflects a lower wage.
(2) Indicates a value of less than 0.05 percent
* 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—architecture and engineering—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Huntsville had 17,390 jobs in architecture and engineering, accounting for 8.3 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 1.8-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $45.95, significantly above the national wage of $39.19.

Some of the largest detailed occupations within the architecture and engineering group included aerospace engineers (3,040), electrical engineers (2,150), and electrical and electronics engineering technicians (1,220). Among the higher paying jobs were computer hardware engineers and aerospace engineers, with mean hourly wages of $52.89 and $52.31, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were electrical and electronics engineering technicians ($26.79) and industrial engineering technicians ($27.24). (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/2014/may/oes_26620.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 Huntsville Metropolitan Statistical Area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the architecture and engineering group. For instance, aerospace engineers were employed at 28.5 times the national rate in Huntsville, and computer hardware engineers, at 8.9 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, civil engineers had a location quotient of 0.8 in Huntsville, 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 Alabama Department of Labor.

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. 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 Huntsville Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,943 establishments with a response rate of 78 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 Huntsville, Ala. Metropolitan Statistical Area  includes Limestone and Madison Counties.

Additional information

OES data are available on our regional web page at www.bls.gov/regions/southeast. 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, Huntsville Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2014
Occupation (1)EmploymentMean wages
Level (2)Location quotient (3)HourlyAnnual (4)

Architecture and Engineering Occupations

17,3904.7$45.95$95,570

Architects, Except Landscape and Naval

1000.738.2379,510

Cartographers and Photogrammetrists

402.031.4065,320

Surveyors

701.127.8457,910

Aerospace Engineers

3,04028.552.31108,800

Chemical Engineers

2304.542.9989,410

Civil Engineers

3300.836.9176,770

Computer Hardware Engineers

1,0408.952.89110,000

Electrical Engineers

2,1508.047.1197,990

Electronics Engineers, Except Computer

1,1805.750.07104,150

Environmental Engineers

1602.043.0589,550

Health and Safety Engineers, Except Mining Safety Engineers and Inspectors

1704.650.40104,830

Industrial Engineers

1,1403.144.5792,700

Materials Engineers

2105.551.31106,720

Mechanical Engineers

1,1402.743.7290,930

Nuclear Engineers

702.6(5)(5)

Engineers, All Other

3,24016.954.46113,280

Architectural and Civil Drafters

700.524.8551,690

Electrical and Electronics Drafters

2405.435.6074,060

Mechanical Drafters

1601.632.9768,580

Aerospace Engineering and Operations Technicians

1508.529.2760,880

Civil Engineering Technicians

(5)(5)15.8933,040

Electrical and Electronics Engineering Technicians

1,2205.826.7955,720

Electro-Mechanical Technicians

301.526.3754,850

Environmental Engineering Technicians

1103.925.8353,720

Industrial Engineering Technicians

1901.927.2456,670

Mechanical Engineering Technicians

2603.525.9053,860

Engineering Technicians, Except Drafters, All Other

3503.333.4569,570

Surveying and Mapping Technicians

801.018.4038,270

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in Huntsville, AL, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_26620.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: Tuesday, June 16, 2015