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News Release Information

18-1109-DAL
Friday, June 29, 2018

Contacts Technical information: Media contact:
  • (972) 850-4800

Occupational Employment and Wages in Laredo – May 2017

Workers in the Laredo Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $17.82 in May 2017, about 27 percent below the nationwide average of $24.34, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Assistant Commissioner for Regional Operations Stanley W. Suchman noted that, after testing for statistical significance, 18 of 22 major occupational groups in the local area had significantly lower wages than their respective national averages, including computer and mathematical; personal care and service; and construction and extraction. Three local groups had wage levels that were similar to their respective national averages: protective service; business and financial operations; and healthcare practitioners and technical.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 7 of the 22 occupational groups, including office and administrative support; personal care and service; and transportation and material moving. Conversely, 13 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including production; healthcare practitioners and technical; and computer and mathematical. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Laredo Metropolitan Statistical Area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2017
Major occupational groupPercent of total employmentMean hourly wage
United StatesLaredoUnited StatesLaredoPercent difference (1)

Total, all occupations

100.0100.0$24.34$17.82*-27

Management

5.12.8*57.6544.97*-22

Business and financial operations

5.23.4*36.7035.37-4

Computer and mathematical

3.00.7*43.1828.52*-34

Architecture and engineering

1.80.4*41.4433.65*-19

Life, physical, and social science

0.80.3*35.7629.66*-17

Community and social service

1.51.1*23.1020.37*-12

Legal

0.80.3*51.6237.36*-28

Education, training, and library

6.18.2*26.6724.42*-8

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.40.6*28.3420.57*-27

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.03.6*38.8337.26-4

Healthcare support

2.92.715.0512.30*-18

Protective service

2.44.7*22.6924.538

Food preparation and serving related

9.310.3*11.8810.14*-15

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

3.12.6*13.9111.03*-21

Personal care and service

3.68.3*13.119.27*-29

Sales and related

10.210.9*19.5614.39*-26

Office and administrative support

15.421.1*18.2414.51*-20

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.3(2)13.87(2)

Construction and extraction

4.02.6*24.0117.32*-28

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.93.2*23.0218.61*-19

Production

6.31.2*18.3015.04*-18

Transportation and material moving

7.011.2*17.8215.75*-12

Footnotes:
(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in the Laredo Metropolitan Statistical Area is above the national mean wage, while a negative difference reflects a lower wage.
(2) Estimate not released
* 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. Laredo had 20,540 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 21.1 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 15.4-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $14.51, significantly below the national wage of $18.24.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included office clerks, general (3,840), customer service representatives (2,890), and stock clerks and order fillers (1,560). Among the higher-paying jobs were executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants, as well as first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers, with mean hourly wages of $25.04 and $24.25, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($9.30) and receptionists and information clerks ($9.84). (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_29700.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 Laredo Metropolitan Statistical Area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, cargo and freight agents were employed at 13.9 times the national rate in Laredo, and dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance, at 5.0 times the U.S. average. Both Laredo location quotients were among the highest in all metropolitan areas for these particular occupations. On the other hand, stock clerks and order fillers had a location quotient of 1.1 in Laredo, 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.

Notes on Occupational Employment Statistics Data

With the release of the May 2017 estimates, the OES program has replaced 21 detailed occupations found in the 2010 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) with 10 new aggregations of those occupations. In addition, selected 4- and 5-digit North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) industries previously published by OES will no longer be published separately. Some of the 4-digit NAICS industries that are no longer being published separately will instead be published as OES-specific industry aggregations. More information about the new occupational and industry aggregations is available at www.bls.gov/oes/changes_2017.htm.

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 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 Laredo Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,139 establishments with a response rate of 63 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 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 Laredo Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Webb County 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, Laredo Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2017
Occupation (1)EmploymentMean wages
Level (2)Location
quotient (3)
HourlyAnnual (4)

Office and administrative support occupations

20,5401.4$14.51$30,190

First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers

1,3201.324.2550,440

Bill and account collectors

1400.815.3932,000

Billing and posting clerks

5101.613.2627,570

Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks

1,1001.115.8733,010

Payroll and timekeeping clerks

700.718.8339,170

Tellers

6602.012.1325,230

Court, municipal, and license clerks

1601.818.8139,120

Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks

301.315.2631,740

Customer service representatives

2,8901.512.1225,210

Eligibility interviewers, government programs

1701.817.4136,210

File clerks

801.011.9224,800

Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks

2201.39.3019,340

Library assistants, clerical

1101.713.7828,670

Loan interviewers and clerks

500.320.0941,800

Order clerks

1201.114.2229,570

Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping

1101.215.3231,860

Receptionists and information clerks

3800.69.8420,460

Information and record clerks, all other

2302.117.7937,010

Cargo and freight agents

86013.917.1135,590

Couriers and messengers

1001.910.0320,860

Police, fire, and ambulance dispatchers

400.616.1033,480

Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance

6805.015.8532,960

Postal service mail carriers

1600.723.7149,310

Production, planning, and expediting clerks

3201.416.5234,360

Shipping, receiving, and traffic clerks

1,5303.312.6126,230

Stock clerks and order fillers

1,5601.111.1723,240

Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping

(5)(5)12.9927,020

Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants

1200.325.0452,080

Legal secretaries

800.614.9831,160

Medical secretaries

7501.913.1427,330

Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive

1,5201.014.9431,070

Computer operators

301.113.2027,460

Data entry keyers

1901.510.9022,680

Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service

(5)(5)12.6426,300

Office clerks, general

3,8401.913.8928,890

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Laredo Metropolitan Statistical Area see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_29700.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: Friday, June 29, 2018