Workers in the Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $22.83 in May 2011, 5 percent above the nationwide average of $21.74, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Regional Commissioner Stanley W. Suchman noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were significantly higher than their respective national averages in 9 of the 22 major occupational groups, including architecture and engineering and management. Six other groups had wages that were measurably lower than their respective national averages; included in this grouping were protective service and construction and extraction.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Houston employment was more highly concentrated in 6 of the 22 occupational groups including construction and extraction, architecture and engineering, and production. Conversely, 10 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation; these groups included healthcare practitioners and technical and food preparation and serving related. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

One occupational group – architecture and engineering – was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Houston had 77,820 jobs in architecture and engineering, accounting for 3.0 percent of local area employment, significantly above the national share of 1.8 percent. The average hourly wage for this occupational group was $45.82, nearly 25 percent above the national average of $37.08.

With employment of 11,300, petroleum engineers was the largest occupation within the architecture and engineering group, followed by civil engineers (8,940) and mechanical engineers (6,730). Among the higher paying jobs were petroleum engineers and chemical engineers, with mean hourly wages of $70.00 and $62.02, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were civil engineering technicians ($22.39) and surveying and mapping technicians ($18.55). (Detailed occupational data for the architecture and engineering group are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_26420.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 Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown metropolitan area, above average concentrations of employment were found in many of the detailed occupations within the architecture and engineering group. For instance, chemical engineers were employed at almost 6 times the national rate in Houston, and petroleum engineers, at over 18 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, industrial engineers had a location quotient of 1.0 in Houston, meaning the local employment share in this particular occupation matched the national average.

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. 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 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 are also 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 2011 survey was 77.3 percent based on establishments and 73.3 percent based on employment. May 2011 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2011, November 2010, May 2010, November 2009, May 2009, and November 2008. The sample in the Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown Metropolitan Statistical Area included 9,650 establishments with a response rate of 59 percent. For more information about OES concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.tn.htm.

The May 2011 OES estimates are 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.

The substate area data published in this release reflect the standards and definitions established by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.The Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, Texas, Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) includes Austin, Brazoria, Chambers, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Liberty, Montgomery, San Jacinto, and Waller Counties in Texas.

OES data are available on our regional web page at www.bls.gov/ro6. If you have additional questions, contact the Southwest Information Office at 972-850-4800. Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request – Voice phone: 202-691-5200; TDD message referral phone: 1-800-877-8339.