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News Release Information

15-1111-ATL
Wednesday, July 15, 2015

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

Occupational Employment and Wages in Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater – May 2014

Workers in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $20.88 in May 2014, about 8 percent below 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 2 of the 22 major occupational groups: management, and sales and related. Sixteen groups had significantly lower wages than their respective national averages, including construction and extraction; legal; and architecture and engineering.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 8 of the 22 occupational groups, including office and administrative support; sales and related; and business and financial operations. Conversely, 11 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including production; transportation and material moving; and management. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater Metropolitan Statistical Area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2014
Major occupational groupPercent of total employmentMean hourly wage
United StatesTampaUnited StatesTampaPercent difference (1)

Total, all occupations

100.0%100.0%$22.71$20.88*-8

Management

5.03.6*54.0856.10*4

Business and financial operations

5.16.2*34.8131.72*-9

Computer and mathematical

2.83.1*40.3735.65*-12

Architecture and engineering

1.81.3*39.1933.32*-15

Life, physical, and social science

0.80.5*33.6929.74*-12

Community and social services

1.41.1*21.7920.32*-7

Legal

0.81.2*48.6139.84*-18

Education, training, and library

6.25.4*25.1020.71*-17

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.31.0*26.8224.77*-8

Healthcare practitioner and technical

5.86.5*36.5435.50-3

Healthcare support

2.93.113.8613.24*-4

Protective service

2.42.221.1419.15*-9

Food preparation and serving related

9.19.8*10.5710.530

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

3.23.212.6811.15*-12

Personal care and service

3.12.6*12.0111.77-2

Sales and related

10.512.6*18.5919.18*3

Office and administrative support

16.018.9*17.0815.89*-7

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.30.2*12.0910.92-10

Construction and extraction

3.93.6*22.4017.14*-23

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.94.1*21.7418.96*-13

Production

6.64.3*17.0616.04*-6

Transportation and material moving

6.85.4*16.5714.14*-15

Footnotes:
(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in Tampa 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. Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater had 222,860 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 18.9 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 16.0-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $15.89, significantly below the national wage of $17.08.

Some of the largest detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included customer service representatives (40,160), secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (24,840), and general office clerks (20,570). Among the higher paying jobs were first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers, and executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants, with mean hourly wages of $25.26 and $22.64, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($10.35) and stock clerks and order fillers ($11.33). (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/2014/may/oes_45300.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 Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater Metropolitan Statistical Area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, file clerks were employed at 2.1 times the national rate in Tampa, and data entry keyers, at 1.9 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks had a location quotient of 1.0 in Tampa, 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 Florida Department of Economic Opportunity.

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 Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater Metropolitan Statistical Area included 5,723 establishments with a response rate of 73 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 Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Fla. Metropolitan Statistical Area  includes Hernando, Hillsborough, Pasco, and Pinellas 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, Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2014
Occupation (1)EmploymentMean wages
Level (2)Location quotient (3)HourlyAnnual (4)

Office and Administrative Support Occupations

222,8601.2$15.89$33,040

First-Line Supervisors of Office and Administrative Support Workers

14,8501.225.2652,530

Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service

8000.812.3225,620

Telephone Operators

(5)(5)10.9622,800

Communications Equipment Operators, All Other

502.617.3236,010

Bill and Account Collectors

5,0001.716.3233,950

Billing and Posting Clerks

5,0601.216.1033,500

Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks

14,3001.016.0733,420

Gaming Cage Workers

400.310.4021,630

Payroll and Timekeeping Clerks

8800.618.9539,420

Procurement Clerks

6401.017.4636,330

Tellers

4,7801.114.5330,220

Financial Clerks, All Other

4701.422.0445,840

Brokerage Clerks

7801.620.9943,660

Correspondence Clerks

1001.416.0233,330

Court, Municipal, and License Clerks

7100.617.3035,990

Credit Authorizers, Checkers, and Clerks

9602.416.3934,080

Customer Service Representatives

40,1601.815.2431,700

Eligibility Interviewers, Government Programs

4400.417.3436,060

File Clerks

2,6602.113.8128,710

Hotel, Motel, and Resort Desk Clerks

1,8400.910.3521,540

Interviewers, Except Eligibility and Loan

1,6601.015.4332,100

Library Assistants, Clerical

5800.712.5626,130

Loan Interviewers and Clerks

3,4501.918.9839,480

New Accounts Clerks

3100.717.0235,390

Order Clerks

1,8701.113.4627,990

Human Resources Assistants, Except Payroll and Timekeeping

1,2201.017.5536,500

Receptionists and Information Clerks

12,0001.413.0827,200

Reservation and Transportation Ticket Agents and Travel Clerks

(5)(5)17.5536,500

Information and Record Clerks, All Other

2,1401.417.6536,700

Cargo and Freight Agents

1,0101.518.1337,700

Couriers and Messengers

4500.712.7426,500

Police, Fire, and Ambulance Dispatchers

7400.917.5136,420

Dispatchers, Except Police, Fire, and Ambulance

1,3400.819.0139,540

Meter Readers, Utilities

2700.914.5030,160

Postal Service Clerks

5800.924.5651,090

Postal Service Mail Carriers

2,8301.125.1252,240

Postal Service Mail Sorters, Processors, and Processing Machine Operators

1,2001.123.7949,480

Production, Planning, and Expediting Clerks

2,0300.819.3840,300

Shipping, Receiving, and Traffic Clerks

5,2600.913.4928,050

Stock Clerks and Order Fillers

17,1001.011.3323,560

Weighers, Measurers, Checkers, and Samplers, Recordkeeping

7501.212.6226,240

Executive Secretaries and Executive Administrative Assistants

7,0801.122.6447,100

Legal Secretaries

1,8301.019.7040,970

Medical Secretaries

2,3600.514.8030,790

Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive

24,8401.314.8530,880

Computer Operators

4500.915.6732,590

Data Entry Keyers

3,5001.913.1427,320

Word Processors and Typists

5000.713.1827,420

Desktop Publishers

1501.314.6630,480

Insurance Claims and Policy Processing Clerks

3,4401.616.7834,910

Mail Clerks and Mail Machine Operators, Except Postal Service

9401.112.7026,410

Office Clerks, General

20,5700.813.3127,680

Office Machine Operators, Except Computer

5000.912.5826,160

Proofreaders and Copy Markers

700.814.0429,200

Statistical Assistants

500.4(5)(5)

Office and Administrative Support Workers, All Other

1,7800.911.8424,620

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_45300.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: Wednesday, July 15, 2015