U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Releases Report on Local Employment and Wages

Information courtesy of the Dallas office of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Occupational Employment and Wages in College Station-Bryan, May 2011

 This report contains employment and wage information for 22 major occupational groups and 300 detailed jobs in the greater College Station metropolitan area. You may examine average wages by major occupational group, such as life, physical, and social science occupations, or review wages for detailed jobs within those groups, including physicists and chemists.

Similar data are available for much larger occupational groups such as office and administrative support, which accounts for nearly 15% of total employment in the College Station area. The mean wage for all occupations in the College Station area was $19.46 per hour in May 2011, about 10 percent below the U.S. average of $21.74. Local wages for the 22 major groups ranged from $8.92 per hour in food preparation and serving related jobs to $44.27 in management occupations.

Regional Commissioner Stanley Suchman noted these points regarding the College Station-Bryan results: 

  • After testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were measurably higher than their respective national averages in only one of the 22 major occupational groups: education, training, and library.
  • Wages were below the national average in 16 of the 22 major groups, including architecture and engineering, computer and mathematical, and life, physical and social science.
  • Among the higher-paying jobs in the life, physical, and social science group were economists and geoscientists, with mean hourly wages of $36.31 and $31.55, respectively.
  • Local employment was more highly concentrated than the national average in 5 of 22 occupational groups including: education, training, and library; life, physical and social science; and construction and extraction. For instance, within the life, physical, and social science group, physicists were employed at 20.8 times the national rate in College Station, and chemists, at 7.4 times the U.S. average.
  • Conversely, local employment shares were significantly below the U.S average in nine groups, including production, business and financial operations, and office and administrative support.

To see the full report click HERE.

To see a national listing of metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas click HERE.

BLS’s Cheryl Abbot visits with WTAW’s Chelsea Reber