Workers in the Jacksonville Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $19.89 in May 2011, about 9 percent below the nationwide average of $21.74, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Regional Commissioner Janet S. Rankin noted that, after testing for statistical significance, 14 groups had significantly lower wages than their respective national averages, including construction and extraction, protective service, and business and financial operations.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, 11 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including production, management, and construction and extraction. Conversely, local employment was more highly concentrated in 5 of the 22 occupational groups, including office and administrative support, sales and related, and transportation and material moving. (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. Jacksonville had 115,400 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 20.1 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 16.7-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $15.58, measurably below the national wage of $16.40.

With employment of 17,330, customer service representatives was the largest occupation within the office and administrative support group, followed by general office clerks (11,660) and secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (10,920). Among the higher paying jobs were postal service mail carriers, and first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers, with mean hourly wages of $24.92 and $24.27, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were stock clerks and order fillers ($11.64) and general office clerks ($13.06). (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/2011/may/oes_27260.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 Jacksonville Metropolitan Statistical Area, above average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, insurance claims and policy processing clerks were employed at 2.6 times the national rate in Jacksonville, and customer service representatives at 1.8 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks had a location quotient of 1.0 in Jacksonville, 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 Florida Department of Economic Opportunity. 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 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 Jacksonville Metropolitan Statistical Area included 3,701 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 2011 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.

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.

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 Jacksonville, Fla. Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Baker, Clay, Duval, Nassau, and St. Johns Counties.

Table 1. Employment and wage data from the Occupational Employment Statistics survey, by occupation, Jacksonville Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2011

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and Administrative Support Occupations	115,400	1.2	$15.58	$32,410
First-Line Supervisors of Office and Administrative Support Workers	6,750	1.1	24.27	50,480
Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service	500	0.9	11.19	23,280
Telephone Operators	60	0.9	13.35	27,770
Bill and Account Collectors	5,240	3.0	15.16	31,530
Billing and Posting Clerks	2,280	1.1	14.67	30,510
Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks	7,060	1.0	16.24	33,780
Payroll and Timekeeping Clerks	560	0.7	18.27	38,000
Procurement Clerks	300	0.9	18.63	38,750
Tellers	2,370	1.0	13.70	28,490
Brokerage Clerks	550	2.0	18.80	39,110
Correspondence Clerks	110	2.9	14.50	30,160
Credit Authorizers, Checkers, and Clerks	570	2.5	19.83	41,250
Customer Service Representatives	17,330	1.8	15.00	31,200
File Clerks	1,210	1.6	12.70	26,420
Hotel, Motel, and Resort Desk Clerks	1,330	1.3	10.31	21,440
Interviewers, Except Eligibility and Loan	840	0.9	15.15	31,520
Library Assistants, Clerical	520	1.1	11.34	23,590
Loan Interviewers and Clerks	2,720	3.3	18.29	38,050
New Accounts Clerks	390	1.4	15.55	32,350
Order Clerks	1,130	1.2	13.73	28,560
Human Resources Assistants, Except Payroll and Timekeeping	660	1.0	16.78	34,890
Receptionists and Information Clerks	5,130	1.2	12.75	26,530
Reservation and Transportation Ticket Agents and Travel Clerks	200	0.4	17.09	35,540
Information and Record Clerks, All Other	1,210	1.4	17.48	36,360
Cargo and Freight Agents	700	1.9	18.92	39,350
Couriers and Messengers	460	1.2	11.75	24,450
Police, Fire, and Ambulance Dispatchers	380	0.9	17.30	35,990
Dispatchers, Except Police, Fire, and Ambulance	950	1.2	20.53	42,710
Meter Readers, Utilities	40	0.2	16.81	34,960
Postal Service Clerks	240	0.8	25.59	53,220
Postal Service Mail Carriers	1,190	0.8	24.92	51,840
Postal Service Mail Sorters, Processors, and Processing Machine Operators	1,130	1.8	24.64	51,240
Production, Planning, and Expediting Clerks	1,310	1.1	20.68	43,020
Shipping, Receiving, and Traffic Clerks	3,010	1.0	14.10	29,320
Stock Clerks and Order Fillers	9,460	1.2	11.64	24,200
Weighers, Measurers, Checkers, and Samplers, Recordkeeping	290	0.9	11.97	24,900
Executive Secretaries and Executive Administrative Assistants	4,750	1.1	19.36	40,270
Legal Secretaries	660	0.7	18.18	37,810
Medical Secretaries	1,170	0.5	13.48	28,050
Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive	10,920	1.3	14.83	30,840
Computer Operators	170	0.5	20.30	42,230
Data Entry Keyers	1,800	1.9	13.39	27,850
Word Processors and Typists	240	0.6	13.08	27,210
Desktop Publishers	40	0.5	14.73	30,640
Insurance Claims and Policy Processing Clerks	2,580	2.6	15.45	32,130
Mail Clerks and Mail Machine Operators, Except Postal Service	670	1.3	12.77	26,570
Office Clerks, General	11,660	0.9	13.06	27,160
Office Machine Operators, Except Computer	510	1.7	12.46	25,910
Proofreaders and Copy Markers	(5)	(5)	17.07	35,510
Office and Administrative Support Workers, All Other	910	0.8	15.96	33,200
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in Jacksonville, FL, see www.bls.gov/oes/2011/may/oes_27260.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: July 19, 2012