Workers in the Boise City Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $20.28 in May 2015, about 13 percent below the nationwide average of $23.23, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Assistant Commissioner for Regional Operations Richard Holden noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were lower than their respective national averages in 20 of the 22 major occupational groups, including management; legal; and computer and mathematical. No wages in the local area were higher than their respective national averages.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 7 of the 22 occupational groups, including office and administrative support; construction and extraction; and management. Conversely, six 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—office and administrative support—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Boise City had 49,470 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 17.4 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 15.8-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $15.70, significantly below the national wage of $17.47.

Some of the largest detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included customer service representatives (10,070), general office clerks (6,500), and secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (4,300). Among the higher paying jobs were postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators and postal service mail carriers, with mean hourly wages of $25.52 and $24.26, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($10.25) and clerical library assistants ($10.26). (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/2015/may/oes_14260.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 Boise City Metropolitan Statistical Area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, procurement clerks were employed at 3.0 times the national rate in Boise City, and customer service representatives, at 1.9 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, postal service mail carriers had a location quotient of 1.0 in Boise City, 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 Idaho Department of Labor.

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 Boise City Metropolitan Statistical Area included 2,752 establishments with a response rate of 78 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 Boise City, Idaho Metropolitan Statistical Area  includes Ada, Boise, Canyon, Gem, and Owyhee 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/2015/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, Boise City Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2015

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and Administrative Support Occupations	49,470	1.1	$15.70	$32,660
First-Line Supervisors of Office and Administrative Support Workers	3,230	1.1	23.08	48,010
Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service	250	1.2	13.60	28,280
Bill and Account Collectors	1,150	1.7	16.66	34,640
Billing and Posting Clerks	1,280	1.3	16.41	34,130
Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks	4,030	1.2	17.16	35,700
Payroll and Timekeeping Clerks	340	1.0	17.82	37,060
Procurement Clerks	440	3.0	19.93	41,450
Tellers	1,250	1.2	12.35	25,700
Financial Clerks, All Other	50	0.6	20.07	41,740
Brokerage Clerks	60	0.5	23.84	49,590
Court, Municipal, and License Clerks	230	0.9	16.20	33,700
Credit Authorizers, Checkers, and Clerks	140	1.7	16.63	34,600
Customer Service Representatives	10,070	1.9	13.88	28,870
File Clerks	280	1.0	14.27	29,670
Hotel, Motel, and Resort Desk Clerks	370	0.7	10.25	21,320
Interviewers, Except Eligibility and Loan	550	1.4	15.65	32,550
Library Assistants, Clerical	130	0.6	10.26	21,350
Loan Interviewers and Clerks	710	1.6	18.46	38,400
New Accounts Clerks	220	2.2	18.33	38,130
Order Clerks	510	1.3	20.50	42,630
Human Resources Assistants, Except Payroll and Timekeeping	240	0.8	17.53	36,450
Receptionists and Information Clerks	2,360	1.2	12.82	26,660
Reservation and Transportation Ticket Agents and Travel Clerks	470	1.7	17.24	35,860
Cargo and Freight Agents	40	0.2	17.73	36,870
Couriers and Messengers	280	1.9	11.88	24,720
Police, Fire, and Ambulance Dispatchers	130	0.7	18.17	37,800
Dispatchers, Except Police, Fire, and Ambulance	490	1.2	21.49	44,710
Postal Service Clerks	100	0.6	24.16	50,240
Postal Service Mail Carriers	620	1.0	24.26	50,470
Postal Service Mail Sorters, Processors, and Processing Machine Operators	190	0.8	25.52	53,080
Production, Planning, and Expediting Clerks	690	1.1	19.76	41,090
Shipping, Receiving, and Traffic Clerks	1,530	1.1	13.94	28,990
Stock Clerks and Order Fillers	2,990	0.8	12.27	25,520
Weighers, Measurers, Checkers, and Samplers, Recordkeeping	100	0.7	11.12	23,130
Executive Secretaries and Executive Administrative Assistants	670	0.5	21.26	44,220
Legal Secretaries	210	0.5	19.92	41,440
Medical Secretaries	490	0.5	17.17	35,720
Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive	4,300	0.9	14.78	30,730
Computer Operators	110	1.0	18.17	37,800
Data Entry Keyers	240	0.6	13.12	27,290
Word Processors and Typists	30	0.2	16.65	34,620
Insurance Claims and Policy Processing Clerks	290	0.5	18.56	38,610
Mail Clerks and Mail Machine Operators, Except Postal Service	80	0.4	12.74	26,500
Office Clerks, General	6,500	1.1	14.14	29,420
Office Machine Operators, Except Computer	130	1.0	12.02	25,010
Office and Administrative Support Workers, All Other	340	0.7	15.55	32,350
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in Boise City, ID, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_14260.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.