Workers in the Beaumont-Port Arthur Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $21.51 in May 2015, about 7 percent below the nationwide average of $23.23, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Regional Commissioner Stanley W. Suchman noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were lower than their respective national averages in 15 of the 22 major occupational groups, including personal care and service; education, training, and library; and computer and mathematical. Three groups had wages that were measurably higher than their respective national averages; included in this grouping were production and architecture and engineering. Wage levels in the four remaining occupational groups were not statistically different from their respective national averages.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Beaumont employment was more highly concentrated in 6 of the 22 occupational groups, including construction and extraction; production; and installation, maintenance, and repair. Conversely, 11 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including business and financial operations; computer and mathematical; and office and administrative support. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Beaumont-Port Arthur Metropolitan Statistical Area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2015

Major occupational group	Percent of total employment			Mean hourly wage
	United States	Beaumont- Port Arthur		United States	Beaumont- Port Arthur		Percent difference(1)
Total, all occupations	100.0%	100.0%		$23.23	$21.51	*	-7
Management	5.0	3.6	*	55.30	50.80	*	-8
Business and financial operations	5.1	2.7	*	35.48	33.71	*	-5
Computer and mathematical	2.9	0.7	*	41.43	32.84	*	-21
Architecture and engineering	1.8	2.5	*	39.89	46.59	*	17
Life, physical, and social science	0.8	0.8		34.24	31.50	*	-8
Community and social service	1.4	0.9	*	22.19	20.21	*	-9
Legal	0.8	0.5	*	49.74	43.94	*	-12
Education, training, and library	6.2	5.3	*	25.48	19.97	*	-22
Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media	1.3	0.5	*	27.39	23.51	*	-14
Healthcare practitioners and technical	5.8	5.5		37.40	34.58	*	-8
Healthcare support	2.9	1.9	*	14.19	13.18	*	-7
Protective service	2.4	2.8	*	21.45	21.61		1
Food preparation and serving related	9.1	8.9		10.98	9.55	*	-13
Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance	3.2	2.5	*	13.02	11.10	*	-15
Personal care and service	3.1	4.2	*	12.33	9.36	*	-24
Sales and related	10.5	10.5		18.90	18.49		-2
Office and administrative support	15.8	14.3	*	17.47	16.19	*	-7
Farming, fishing, and forestry	0.3	0.1	*	12.67	18.43	*	45
Construction and extraction	4.0	8.8	*	22.88	20.82	*	-9
Installation, maintenance, and repair	3.9	5.5	*	22.11	23.12		5
Production	6.6	10.8	*	17.41	25.06	*	44
Transportation and material moving	6.9	6.6		16.90	17.35		3
(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in Beaumont-Port Arthur is above the national mean wage, while a negative difference reflects a lower wage.
Note: * 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 – production – was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Beaumont had 17,830 jobs in production, accounting for 10.8 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the national share of 6.6 percent. The local average hourly wage for this occupational group was $25.06, more than 40 percent above the national average of $17.41.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included petroleum pump system operators, refinery operators, and gaugers (2,320), welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers (2,310), and first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (1,530). Among the higher paying jobs were petroleum pump system operators, refinery operators, and gaugers, as well as chemical plant and system operators, with mean hourly wages of $37.65 and $37.06, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($10.85) and team assemblers ($13.67). (Detailed occupational data for production workers are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of all occupations see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_13140.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 Beaumont metropolitan area, above average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, local petroleum pump system operators, refinery operators, and gaugers were employed at 45.8 times the U.S. average, and chemical plant and system operators, at 20.9 times the national rate. Both location quotients were among the highest in all metropolitan areas for these particular occupations. On the other hand, packaging and filling machine operators and tenders had a location quotient of 1.0 in Beaumont, indicating that this 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 Texas Workforce Commission.

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 program produces employment and wage estimates for over 800 occupations for all industries combined in the nation; the 50 states and the District of Columbia; 432 metropolitan areas and divisions; 167 nonmetropolitan areas; and Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. National estimates are also available by industry for NAICS sectors, 3-, 4-, and selected 5- and 6-digit industries, and 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. Forms are mailed to approximately 200,000 sampled establishments in May and November each year. May 2015 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2015, November 2014, May 2014, November 2013, May 2013, and November 2012. The overall national response rate for the six panels is 73.5 percent based on establishments and 69.6 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The unweighted employment of sampled establishments across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 57.9 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 Beaumont-Port Arthur Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,858 establishments with a response rate of 68 percent. For more information about OES concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.tn.htm.

The May 2015 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 Beaumont-Port Arthur Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Hardin, Jefferson, Newton, and Orange Counties in Texas.

Additional information

OES data are available on our regional web page at www.bls.gov/regions/southwest. 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, Beaumont-Port Arthur Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2015

Occupation(1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level(2)	Location quotient(3)	Hourly	Annual(4)
Production occupations	17,830	1.6	$25.06	$52,130
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers	1,530	2.1	39.69	82,560
Coil winders, tapers, and finishers	(5)	(5)	23.27	48,410
Electrical and electronic equipment assemblers	(5)	(5)	16.12	33,530
Structural metal fabricators and fitters	240	2.5	20.29	42,210
Team assemblers	750	0.6	13.67	28,430
Assemblers and fabricators, all other	60	0.2	11.47	23,860
Bakers	(5)	(5)	9.72	20,210
Butchers and meat cutters	100	0.6	14.22	29,570
Food batchmakers	90	0.5	13.81	28,730
Food processing workers, all other	60	1.0	11.07	23,020
Computer-controlled machine tool operators, metal and plastic	(5)	(5)	20.77	43,210
Forging machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	(5)	(5)	17.47	36,340
Cutting, punching, & press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal & plastic	260	1.1	16.63	34,600
Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	(5)	(5)	17.66	36,730
Machinists	590	1.2	25.50	53,040
Multiple machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	(5)	(5)	17.62	36,640
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers	2,310	5.0	24.51	50,990
Welding, soldering, and brazing machine setters, operators, and tenders	250	3.9	21.92	45,580
Heat treating equipment setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	(5)	(5)	25.08	52,160
Layout workers, metal and plastic	90	6.8	23.56	49,010
Printing press operators	80	0.4	14.63	30,440
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers	240	1.0	10.85	22,560
Pressers, textile, garment, and related materials	(5)	(5)	9.13	18,990
Sewing machine operators	70	0.4	11.36	23,630
Upholsterers	(5)	(5)	13.00	27,040
Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters	110	1.0	12.87	26,770
Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing	(5)	(5)	11.45	23,810
Stationary engineers and boiler operators	30	0.8	23.18	48,210
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators	270	2.0	18.35	38,160
Chemical plant and system operators	880	20.9	37.06	77,090
Petroleum pump system operators, refinery operators, and gaugers	2,320	45.8	37.65	78,310
Chemical equipment operators and tenders	1,080	13.4	31.31	65,120
Separating, filtering, clarifying, precipitating, & still machine setters, operators, & tenders	80	1.4	(5)	(5)
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders	290	1.8	(5)	(5)
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	780	1.3	26.52	55,150
Dental laboratory technicians	50	1.2	15.32	31,860
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders	440	1.0	(5)	(5)
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders	660	6.2	17.20	35,780
Painters, transportation equipment	80	1.3	23.10	48,040
Painting, coating, and decorating workers	(5)	(5)	12.05	25,060
Helpers-production workers	1,060	2.0	15.65	32,540
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Beaumont-Port Arthur MSA, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_13140.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 released.