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News Release Information

15-777-SAN
Thursday, April 30, 2015

Contacts Technical information: Media contact:
  • (415) 625-2270

Occupational Employment and Wages in Kennewick-Pasco-Richland, May 2014

Workers in the Kennewick-Pasco-Richland Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $23.84 in May 2014, about 5 percent above the nationwide average of $22.71, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Regional Commissioner Richard J. Holden noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were higher than their respective national averages in 12 of the 22 major occupational groups, including life, physical, and social science; architecture and engineering; and protective service. Four groups had significantly lower wages than their respective national averages, including legal; and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 6 of the 22 occupational groups, including architecture and engineering; life, physical, and social science; and construction and extraction. Conversely, nine groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including office and administrative support; production; 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 Kennewick-Pasco-Richland Metropolitan Statistical Area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2014
Major occupational groupPercent of total employmentMean hourly wage
United StatesKennewickUnited StatesKennewickPercent difference (1)

Total, all occupations

100.0%100.0%$22.71$23.845

Management

5.05.054.0854.811

Business and financial operations

5.14.734.8133.73-3

Computer and mathematical

2.81.8*40.3738.75-4

Architecture and engineering

1.84.8*39.1947.02*20

Life, physical, and social science

0.82.6*33.6941.68*24

Community and social services

1.41.0*21.7922.89*5

Legal

0.80.3*48.6135.48*-27

Education, training, and library

6.27.0*25.1023.14*-8

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.31.1*26.8220.72*-23

Healthcare practitioner and technical

5.84.936.5439.80*9

Healthcare support

2.92.5*13.8615.09*9

Protective service

2.42.221.1424.53*16

Food preparation and serving related

9.18.4*10.5711.47*9

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

3.23.312.6813.335

Personal care and service

3.12.3*12.0113.00*8

Sales and related

10.511.918.5915.17*-18

Office and administrative support

16.012.7*17.0817.321

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.31.3*12.0914.25*18

Construction and extraction

3.95.6*22.4024.92*11

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.94.4*21.7423.47*8

Production

6.64.7*17.0619.09*12

Transportation and material moving

6.87.516.5716.40-1

Footnotes:
(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in Kennewick 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—architecture and engineering—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Kennewick-Pasco-Richland had 4,750 jobs in architecture and engineering, accounting for 4.8 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 1.8-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $47.02, significantly above the national wage of $39.19.

Some of the largest detailed occupations within the architecture and engineering group included mechanical engineers (550), electrical engineers (350), and health and safety engineers, except mining safety engineers and inspectors (200). Among the higher paying jobs were environmental engineers and chemical engineers, with mean hourly wages of $53.52 and $50.71, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were surveying and mapping technicians ($21.83) and architectural and civil drafters ($26.81). (Detailed occupational data for architecture and engineering are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/2014/may/oes_28420.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 Kennewick-Pasco-Richland Metropolitan Statistical Area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the architecture and engineering group. For instance, health and safety engineers, except mining safety engineers and inspectors, were employed at 11.0 times the national rate in Kennewick, and chemical engineers, at 7.8 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, industrial engineers had a location quotient of 1.1 in Kennewick, 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 Washington Employment Security Department.

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 Kennewick-Pasco-Richland Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,375 establishments with a response rate of 76 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 Kennewick-Pasco-Richland, Wash. Metropolitan Statistical Area  includes Benton and Franklin Counties.

Additional information

OES data are available on our regional web page at www.bls.gov/regions/west. 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, Kennewick-Pasco-Richland Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2014
Occupation (1)EmploymentMean wages
Level (2)Location quotient (3)HourlyAnnual (4)

Architecture and Engineering Occupations

4,7502.7$47.02$97,800

Architects, Except Landscape and Naval

400.742.1087,570

Surveyors

602.033.1568,950

Chemical Engineers

1907.850.71105,490

Civil Engineers

(5)(5)49.98103,960

Electrical Engineers

3502.750.27104,560

Electronics Engineers, Except Computer

500.541.8487,030

Environmental Engineers

1604.253.52111,310

Health and Safety Engineers, Except Mining Safety Engineers and Inspectors

20011.049.91103,800

Industrial Engineers

1901.150.08104,170

Mechanical Engineers

5502.748.81101,530

Engineers, All Other

4504.952.23108,630

Architectural and Civil Drafters

500.826.8155,760

Mechanical Drafters

501.130.2662,940

Drafters, All Other

303.030.2762,970

Civil Engineering Technicians

801.528.4759,220

Electrical and Electronics Engineering Technicians

1801.834.8672,500

Environmental Engineering Technicians

302.433.9570,610

Mechanical Engineering Technicians

401.230.2662,930

Engineering Technicians, Except Drafters, All Other

1202.424.0850,080

Surveying and Mapping Technicians

300.921.8345,400

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in Kennewick-Pasco-Richland, WA, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_28420.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: Thursday, April 30, 2015