Workers in the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $21.77 in May 2011, nearly identical to the nationwide average of $21.74, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Sheila Watkins, the Bureau’s regional commissioner, noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were significantly lower than their respective national averages in 11 of the 22 major occupational groups, including construction and extraction and healthcare practitioners and technical. Three other groups had wages that were measurably higher than their respective national averages, including sales and related. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Richmond employment was more highly concentrated in 9 of the 22 occupational groups including business and financial operations, protective service, and healthcare practitioners and technical. Conversely, 10 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation; these groups included production, food preparation and serving, and management.

One occupational group—business and financial operations—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Richmond had 40,040 jobs in business and financial operations, accounting for 6.8 percent of local area employment, significantly above the 4.8-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $31.96, which was significantly below the national average of $33.05.

With employment of 6,720, accountants and auditors was the largest occupation within the business and financial operations group, followed by management analysts (5,220). Among the higher-paying jobs were management analysts with a mean hourly wages of $41.45 and financial analysts and logisticians, each with a wage of $37.65. At the lower end of the wage scale were tax examiners and collectors, and revenue agents ($22.90) and insurance underwriters ($25.87). (Detailed occupational data for the business and financial operations group are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_40060.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 as it does nationally. In Richmond, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the business and financial operations group. For instance, management analysts and logisticians were employed at more than twice the national rate in Richmond, and financial examiners at four times the U.S. average. On the other hand, personal financial advisors had a location quotient of 0.9 in Richmond, 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 Virginia Employment Commission. The OES survey provides estimates of employment and hourly and annual wages for wage and salary workers in 22 major occupational groups and about 800 detailed occupations for the nation, states, metropolitan statistical areas, metropolitan divisions, and nonmetropolitan areas.