Workers in the Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $23.19 in May 2017, about 5 percent below the nationwide average of $24.34, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Regional Commissioner Janet S. Rankin noted that, after testing for statistical significance, 16 groups had significantly lower wages than their respective national averages, including legal; sales and related; and construction and extraction. The remaining six occupational groups had average wages similar to those of the nation.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 8 of the 22 occupational groups, including architecture and engineering; computer and mathematical; and sales and related. Conversely, 10 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including transportation and material moving; production; and education, training, and library. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

One occupational group—architecture and engineering—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville had 8,930 jobs in architecture and engineering occupations, accounting for 4.3 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 1.8-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $42.79, compared to the national wage of $41.44.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the architecture and engineering group included electrical engineers (960), mechanical engineers (910), and industrial engineers (840). Among the higher paying jobs in this group were aerospace engineers and electrical engineers, with mean hourly wages of $52.95 and $51.83, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were cartographers and photogrammetrists ($17.23) and surveying and mapping technicians ($18.31). (Detailed data for architecture and engineering occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available, go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_37340.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 Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville Metropolitan Statistical Area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the architecture and engineering group. For instance, aerospace engineering and operations technicians were employed at 14.1 times the national rate in Palm Bay, and aerospace engineers, at 8.4 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, mechanical engineering technicians had a location quotient of 1.2 in Palm Bay, 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 2017 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2017, November 2016, May 2016, November 2015, May 2015, and November 2014. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 72 percent based on establishments and 68 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The unweighted sample employment of 82 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 58 percent of total national employment. The sample in the Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville Metropolitan Statistical Area included 2,111 establishments with a response rate of 78 percent. For more information about OES concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_tec.htm.

The May 2017 OES estimates are based on the 2010 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system and the 2017 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 2017 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 Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Brevard County in Florida.

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, Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2017

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Architecture and engineering occupations	8,930	2.5	$42.79	$89,010
Architects, except landscape and naval	80	0.5	43.72	90,950
Cartographers and photogrammetrists	(5)	(5)	17.23	35,840
Surveyors	90	1.4	31.68	65,900
Aerospace engineers	800	8.4	52.95	110,150
Civil engineers	820	1.9	39.96	83,110
Computer hardware engineers	580	6.0	43.43	90,330
Electrical engineers	960	3.6	51.83	107,810
Electronics engineers, except computer	500	2.6	48.24	100,330
Environmental engineers	(5)	(5)	51.48	107,080
Health and safety engineers, except mining safety engineers and inspectors	80	2.0	47.91	99,660
Industrial engineers	840	2.2	42.01	87,380
Materials engineers	70	1.8	46.87	97,490
Mechanical engineers	910	2.2	47.24	98,250
Engineers, all other	1,090	5.7	52.29	108,770
Architectural and civil drafters	130	0.9	25.20	52,420
Electrical and electronics drafters	(5)	(5)	29.10	60,530
Mechanical drafters	100	1.1	24.60	51,170
Aerospace engineering and operations technicians	240	14.1	29.07	60,460
Civil engineering technicians	180	1.8	25.83	53,730
Electrical and electronics engineering technicians	660	3.6	29.09	60,510
Electro-mechanical technicians	(5)	(5)	23.80	49,500
Industrial engineering technicians	160	1.7	24.18	50,280
Mechanical engineering technicians	80	1.2	29.95	62,300
Engineering technicians, except drafters, all other	180	1.7	31.91	66,370
Surveying and mapping technicians	120	1.6	18.31	38,090
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_37340.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.