Workers in the Jacksonville Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $21.70 in May 2016, about 9 percent below the nationwide average of $23.86, 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 lower than their respective national averages in 13 of  the 22 major occupational groups, including construction and extraction; legal; and computer and mathematical. Nine groups had wages that were not significantly different from their respective national averages, including transportation and material moving; management; and sales and related.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 8 of the 22 occupational groups, including office and administrative support; business and financial operations; and sales and related. Conversely, 10 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including production; management; and education, training, and library. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

One occupational group—office and administrative support—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Jacksonville had 118,830 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 18.4 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 15.7-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $16.78, significantly below the national wage of $17.91.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included customer service representatives (20,840); secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (11,990); and general office clerks (11,790). Among the higher paying jobs were first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers and cargo and freight agents, with mean hourly wages of $26.71 and $23.08, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($10.53) and stock clerks and order fillers ($12.54). (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_27260.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 Jacksonville Metropolitan Statistical Area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, loan interviewers and clerks were employed at 3.5 times the national rate in Jacksonville, and bill and account collectors, at 2.5 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks had a location quotient of 1.0 in Jacksonville, 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.

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. 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 2016 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2016, November 2015, May 2015, November 2014, May 2014, and November 2013. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 73 percent based on establishments and 69 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The unweighted employment of sampled establishments across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 58 percent of total national employment. The sample in the Jacksonville Metropolitan Statistical Area included 3,879 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 May 2016 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 Jacksonville, Fla. Metropolitan Statistical Area  includes Baker, Clay, Duval, Nassau, and St. Johns 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/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, Jacksonville Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2016

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	118,830	1.2	$16.78	$34,890
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	7,960	1.2	26.71	55,550
Switchboard operators, including answering service	500	1.2	11.95	24,860
Bill and account collectors	3,420	2.5	14.74	30,650
Billing and posting clerks	3,180	1.4	16.00	33,270
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	7,020	1.0	18.32	38,100
Gaming cage workers	50	0.6	10.59	22,030
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	470	0.6	19.49	40,530
Procurement clerks	260	0.8	19.89	41,360
Tellers	3,040	1.3	14.73	30,640
Financial clerks, all other	530	3.3	18.48	38,440
Brokerage clerks	390	1.4	25.77	53,590
Correspondence clerks	(5)	(5)	17.03	35,430
Court, municipal, and license clerks	250	0.4	17.73	36,880
Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks	310	1.8	15.35	31,940
Customer service representatives	20,840	1.7	15.56	32,360
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	(5)	(5)	21.22	44,140
File clerks	1,540	2.6	13.45	27,970
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	1,350	1.2	10.53	21,900
Interviewers, except eligibility and loan	640	0.8	15.89	33,060
Library assistants, clerical	300	0.7	12.43	25,850
Loan interviewers and clerks	3,570	3.5	20.75	43,150
Order clerks	440	0.5	14.78	30,730
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	700	1.1	17.59	36,600
Receptionists and information clerks	5,050	1.1	13.25	27,560
Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks	430	0.6	18.52	38,530
Information and record clerks, all other	1,490	2.0	17.01	35,380
Cargo and freight agents	640	1.6	23.08	48,000
Couriers and messengers	210	0.6	13.93	28,980
Police, fire, and ambulance dispatchers	410	0.9	16.44	34,190
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	1,080	1.2	17.86	37,140
Postal service clerks	230	0.6	24.32	50,590
Postal service mail carriers	1,250	0.8	25.19	52,400
Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators	1,080	2.1	25.06	52,120
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	1,100	0.7	22.74	47,300
Shipping, receiving, and traffic clerks	2,680	0.9	16.73	34,790
Stock clerks and order fillers	10,000	1.1	12.54	26,090
Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping	330	1.0	14.51	30,180
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	3,160	1.1	23.80	49,510
Legal secretaries	770	0.9	19.71	41,000
Medical secretaries	1,530	0.6	15.20	31,620
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	11,990	1.1	15.75	32,770
Computer operators	200	1.0	22.15	46,060
Data entry keyers	1,540	1.7	14.53	30,230
Word processors and typists	220	0.7	15.31	31,840
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks	2,140	1.7	16.70	34,730
Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service	570	1.4	14.03	29,170
Office clerks, general	11,790	0.9	14.03	29,190
Office machine operators, except computer	270	1.0	13.31	27,690
Office and administrative support workers, all other	870	0.9	17.79	37,010
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Jacksonville, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_27260.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.