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News Release Information

17-706-SAN
Thursday, May 25, 2017

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

Occupational Employment and Wages in Tacoma-Lakewood — May 2016

Workers in the Tacoma-Lakewood Metropolitan Division had an average (mean) hourly wage of $23.73 in May 2016, near the nationwide average of $23.86, 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 higher than their respective national averages in 12 of the 22 major occupational groups, including protective service; production; and construction and extraction. Six groups had significantly lower wages than their respective national averages, including legal; management; and computer and mathematical.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 6 of the 22 occupational groups, including transportation and material moving; construction and extraction; and food preparation and serving related. Conversely, nine groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including computer and mathematical; production; and management. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Tacoma-Lakewood Metropolitan Division, and measures of statistical significance, May 2016
Major occupational groupPercent of total employmentMean hourly wage
United StatesTacomaUnited StatesTacomaPercent difference (1)

Total, all occupations

100.0100.0$23.86$23.73-1

Management

5.13.9*56.7451.01*-10

Business and financial operations

5.24.7*36.0933.12*-8

Computer and mathematical

3.01.5*42.2538.19*-10

Architecture and engineering

1.81.0*40.5340.22-1

Life, physical, and social science

0.80.7*35.0634.33-2

Community and social service

1.42.1*22.6923.433

Legal

0.80.7*50.9542.27*-17

Education, training, and library

6.26.326.2124.85*-5

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.41.0*28.0725.01*-11

Healthcare practitioners and technical

5.96.338.0640.28*6

Healthcare support

2.93.214.6517.05*16

Protective service

2.42.522.0328.05*27

Food preparation and serving related

9.210.6*11.4712.78*11

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

3.23.5*13.4715.75*17

Personal care and service

3.23.312.7415.04*18

Sales and related

10.410.019.5019.681

Office and administrative support

15.715.217.9119.21*7

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.30.2*13.3718.08*35

Construction and extraction

4.05.3*23.5126.83*14

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.94.5*22.4525.05*12

Production

6.55.1*17.8821.64*21

Transportation and material moving

6.98.6*17.3419.29*11

Footnotes:
(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in the Tacoma-Lakewood Metropolitan Division 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—transportation and material moving—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Tacoma-Lakewood had 24,430 jobs in transportation and material moving, accounting for 8.6 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 6.9-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $19.29, significantly above the national wage of $17.34.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the transportation and material moving group included laborers and freight, stock, and material movers by hand (7,270), heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers (5,030), and light truck or delivery services drivers (1,860). Among the higher paying jobs were crane and tower operators and first-line supervisors of transportation and material-moving machine and vehicle operators, with mean hourly wages of $31.16 and $30.99, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were parking lot attendants ($12.02) and cleaners of vehicles and equipment ($13.57). (Detailed occupational data for transportation and material moving are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/2016/may/oes_45104.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 Tacoma-Lakewood Metropolitan Division, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the transportation and material moving group. For instance, industrial truck and tractor operators were employed at 1.7 times the national rate in Tacoma, and cleaners of vehicles and equipment, at 1.5 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, light truck or delivery services drivers had a location quotient of 1.1 in Tacoma, 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.

Notes on Occupational Employment Statistics Data

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. 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 2016 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2016, November 2015, May 2015, November 2014, May 2014, and November 2013. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 73 percent based on establishments and 69 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The unweighted employment of sampled establishments across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 58 percent of total national employment. The sample in the Tacoma-Lakewood Metropolitan Division included 2,473 establishments with a response rate of 77 percent. For more information about OES concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.tn.htm.

The May 2016 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 Tacoma-Lakewood, Wash. Metropolitan Division  includes Pierce County.

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/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, Tacoma-Lakewood Metropolitan Division, May 2016
Occupation (1)EmploymentMean wages
Level (2)Location quotient (3)HourlyAnnual (4)

Transportation and material moving occupations

24,4301.2$19.29$40,110

First-line supervisors of helpers, laborers, and material movers, hand

5001.325.2552,510

First-line supervisors of transportation and material-moving machine and vehicle operators

5501.330.9964,460

Commercial pilots

(5)(5)(5)88,070

Bus drivers, school or special client

1,4101.317.9937,420

Driver/sales workers

1,2201.414.6030,370

Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers

5,0301.523.6649,210

Light truck or delivery services drivers

1,8601.122.2646,290

Taxi drivers and chauffeurs

2200.613.7228,540

Motor vehicle operators, all other

800.822.4746,730

Parking lot attendants

1000.312.0225,010

Automotive and watercraft service attendants

1000.514.7130,600

Conveyor operators and tenders

400.718.1737,790

Crane and tower operators

1601.831.1664,810

Excavating and loading machine and dragline operators

300.323.7449,380

Industrial truck and tractor operators

1,8201.718.2137,870

Cleaners of vehicles and equipment

1,0601.513.5728,230

Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand

7,2701.416.2533,810

Machine feeders and offbearers

1200.716.7634,860

Packers and packagers, hand

1,6701.213.8528,800

Refuse and recyclable material collectors

3401.426.4354,970

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Tacoma-Lakewood  Metropolitan Division, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_45104.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, May 25, 2017