Workers in the Edison-New Brunswick Metropolitan Division had an average (mean) hourly wage of $24.57 in May 2010, roughly 15 percent above the nationwide average of $21.35, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Regional Commissioner Michael L. Dolfman noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were significantly higher than their respective national averages in 19 of the 22 major occupational groups, including management, healthcare practitioners and technical, and protective service. Only one group had an hourly wage significantly lower than its respective national average: transportation and material moving. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Edison-New Brunswick Metropolitan Division, and measures of statistical significance, May 2010

Major occupational group	Percent of total employment		Average hourly wage
	United States	Edison	United States	Edison
Total, all occupations	100.0%	100.0%	$21.35	$24.57*
Management	4.7	5.3*	50.69	62.51*
Business and financial operations	4.8	5.2*	32.54	35.61*
Computer and mathematical	2.6	4.5*	37.13	41.83*
Architecture and engineering	1.8	1.7*	36.32	39.93*
Life, physical, and social science	0.8	1.1*	31.92	36.31*
Community and social services	1.5	1.3*	20.76	24.39*
Legal	0.8	0.7*	46.60	50.06*
Education, training, and library	6.7	7.8*	24.25	25.39*
Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media	1.4	1.0*	25.14	24.47
Healthcare practitioner and technical	5.8	5.4*	34.27	39.94*
Healthcare support	3.1	3.2	12.94	14.13*
Protective service	2.5	2.1*	20.43	25.59*
Food preparation and serving related	8.7	7.1*	10.21	11.18*
Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance	3.3	3.1*	12.16	13.36*
Personal care and service	2.7	3.1*	11.82	13.60*
Sales and related	10.6	11.0*	17.69	20.66*
Office and administrative support	16.9	17.8*	16.09	17.11*
Farming, fishing, and forestry	0.3	0.1*	11.70	11.49
Construction and extraction	4.0	2.7*	21.09	25.67*
Installation, maintenance, and repair	3.9	3.6*	20.58	23.24*
Production	6.5	4.4*	16.24	17.45*
Transportation and material moving	6.7	7.9*	15.70	15.15*
Footnotes: * 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.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 9 of the 22 occupational groups, including computer and mathematical, transportation and material moving, and education, training, and library. Conversely, 12 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including production, food preparation and serving related, and construction and extraction.

One occupational group—computer and mathematical—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Edison-New Brunswick had 43,400 jobs in computer and mathematical, accounting for 4.5 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 2.6-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $41.83, measurably above the national wage of $37.13.

With employment of 9,250, software developers, applications was the largest occupation within the computer and mathematical group, followed by computer systems analysts (8,980) and computer programmers (5,450). Among the higher paying jobs were mathematicians and actuaries, with mean hourly wages of $52.82 and $52.52, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were computer support specialists ($25.98) and network and computer systems administrators ($39.01). (Detailed occupational data for computer and mathematical are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/2010/may/oes_20764.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 Edison-New Brunswick Metropolitan Division, above average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the computer and mathematical group. For instance, software developers, applications were employed at 2.4 times the national rate in Edison, and computer systems analysts, at 2.4 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, computer support specialists had a location quotient of 0.9 in Edison, 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 New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development. The OES survey provides estimates of employment and hourly and annual wages for wage and salary workers in 22 major occupational groups and nearly 800 non-military detailed occupations for the nation, states, metropolitan statistical areas, metropolitan divisions, and nonmetropolitan areas.

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 also are surveyed, but their data are not included in this release. OES estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.2 million establishments. Forms are mailed to approximately 200,000 establishments in May and November of each year for a 3-year period. The nationwide response rate for the May 2010 survey was 78.2 percent based on establishments and 74.4 percent based on employment. May 2010 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2010, November 2009, May 2009, November 2008, May 2008, and November 2007. The sample in the Edison-New Brunswick Metropolitan Division included 6,389 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 2010 OES estimates mark the first set of estimates based in part on data collected using the 2010 Standard Occupational  Classification (SOC) system. Nearly all the occupations in this release are 2010 SOC occupations; however, some are not. The May 2012 OES data will reflect the full set of detailed occupations in the 2010 SOC. For a list of all occupations, including 2010 SOC occupations, and how data collected on two structures were combined, see the OES Frequently Asked Questions online at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_ques.htm#Ques41.

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 Edison-New Brunswick, N.J. Metropolitan Division  includes Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean, and Somerset Counties.

Additional information

OES data are available on our regional web page at www.bls.gov/ro2/home.htm. If you have additional questions, contact the New York Economic Analysis and Information Unit at (646) 264-3600. Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: 202-691-5200; TDD message referral phone number: 1-800-877-8339.

Table 1. Employment and wage data from the Occupational Employment Statistics survey, by occupation, Edison-New Brunswick Metropolitan Division, May 2010

Occupation	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (1)	Location quotient (2)	Hourly	Annual
Computer and mathematical occupations	43,400	1.7	$41.83	$87,010
Computer and information research scientists	450	2.4	48.64	101,160
Computer systems analysts	8,980	2.4	43.50	90,470
Computer programmers	5,450	2.2	41.27	85,850
Software developers, applications	9,250	2.4	43.90	91,300
Software developers, systems software	4,060	1.4	48.49	100,860
Database administrators	990	1.3	40.34	83,920
Network and computer systems administrators*	2,890	1.1	39.01	81,150
Computer support specialists	3,800	0.9	25.98	54,030
Information security analysts, web developers, and computer network architects	3,990	2.2	45.23	94,070
Computer occupations, all other*	2,620	1.9	38.99	81,100
Actuaries	280	2.0	52.52	109,250
Mathematicians	90	4.1	52.82	109,870
Operations research analysts	370	0.8	40.55	84,340
Statisticians	110	0.6	43.59	90,660
Footnotes: (1) 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. (2) 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.
* Occupation titles followed by an asterisk (*) have similar titles, but not necessarily the same content as 2010 SOC occupations.

 

Last Modified Date: November 21, 2011