New York-New Jersey Information Office

For release: Friday, June 24, 2011

NYLS -7493

Technical information: Martin Kohli (646) 264-3620 • BLSInfoNY@bls.gov • www.bls.gov/ro2
Media contact: Michael L. Dolfman (212) 337-2500



OCCUPATIONAL EMPLOYMENT AND WAGES IN NEW YORK-WHITE PLAINS-WAYNE, MAY 2010


Workers in the New York-White Plains-Wayne Metropolitan Division had an average (mean) hourly wage of $27.49 in May 2010, roughly 30 percent above the nationwide average of $21.35, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) of the U.S. Department of Labor. 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 all of the 22 major occupational groups.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 12 of the 22 occupational groups, including arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media; legal; and personal care and service. Conversely, 10 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including food preparation and serving related, production, and transportation and material moving. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

One occupational group—arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. New York-White Plains-Wayne had 139,740 jobs in arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media, accounting for 2.8 percent of local area employment, double the 1.4-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $35.52, measurably above the national wage of $25.14.

With employment of 16,870, public relations specialists was the largest occupation within the arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media group, followed by graphic designers (15,280) and editors (15,130). Among the higher paying jobs were art directors, and producers and directors, with mean hourly wages of $61.81 and $55.14, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were floral designers ($16.21) and craft artists ($17.45). (Detailed occupational data for arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_35644.htm)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the New York-White Plains-Wayne Metropolitan Division, and measures of statistical significance, May 2010
Major occupational group Percent of total employment Mean hourly wage
United States New York-White Plains-Wayne United States New York-White Plains-Wayne

Total, all occupations

 100.0 100.0 $21.35 $ 27.49*

Management

 4.7 5.4* 50.69 69.24*

Business and financial operations

 4.8 6.1* 32.54 42.92*

Computer and mathematical

 2.6 2.9* 37.13 41.54*

Architecture and engineering

 1.8 0.9* 36.32 38.13*

Life, physical, and social science

 0.8 0.6* 31.92 34.48*

Community and social service

 1.5 2.1* 20.76 23.50*

Legal

 0.8 1.5* 46.60 63.54*

Education, training, and library

 6.7 7.1* 24.25 30.86*

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

 1.4 2.8* 25.14 35.52*

Healthcare practitioners and technical

 5.8 5.2* 34.27 41.50*

Healthcare support

 3.1 4.0* 12.94 13.54*

Protective service

 2.5 3.7* 20.43 23.21*

Food preparation and serving related

 8.7 6.7* 10.21 12.53*

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

 3.3 3.5* 12.16 15.26*

Personal care and service

 2.7 4.2* 11.82 13.47*

Sales and related

 10.6 10.2* 17.69 25.30*

Office and administrative support

 16.9 18.5* 16.09 18.76*

Farming, fishing, and forestry

 0.3 (1)* 11.70 18.45*

Construction and extraction

 4.0 3.1* 21.09 29.52*

Installation, maintenance, and repair

 3.9 3.2* 20.58 23.88*

Production

 6.5 3.0* 16.24 16.64*

Transportation and material moving

 6.7 5.3* 15.70 18.71*

Footnotes:
(1) Indicates a value of less than 0.05 percent.

* The employment share or mean hourly wage for this area is significantly different from the national average of all areas at the 90-percent confidence level.

Another tool that allows us to explore the occupational make-up of a metropolitan area is location quotients, which can determine 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 New York-White Plains division, above average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media group. For instance, producers and directors were employed at more than 4 times the national rate in New York-White Plains, and fashion designers, at over 11 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, radio and television announcers had a location quotient of 1.0 in New York-White Plains, 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 York State Department of Labor and 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.

OES wage and employment data for the 22 major occupational groups in the New York-White Plains-Wayne Metropolitan Division were compared to their respective national averages based on statistical significance testing. Only those occupations with wages or employment shares above or below the national wage or share after testing for significance at the 90-percent confidence level meet the criteria..

NOTE: A value that is statistically different from another does not necessarily mean that the difference has economic or practical significance. Statistical significance is concerned with the ability to make confident statements about a universe based on a sample. It is entirely possible that a large difference between two values is not significantly different statistically, while a small difference is, since both the size and heterogeneity of the sample affect the relative error of the data being tested.

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 New York-White Plains-Wayne Metropolitan Division included 18,158 establishments with a response rate of 69 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.

Metropolitan division definition

The substate area data published in this release reflect the standards and definitions established by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.

New York-White Plains-Wayne, N.Y.-N.J. Metropolitan Division is composed of Bronx, Kings, New York, Putnam, Queens, Richmond, Rockland, and Westchester Counties in New York; and Bergen, Hudson, and Passaic Counties in New Jersey.

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, New York-White Plains-Wayne Metropolitan Division, May 2010
Occupation Employment Mean wage
Level(1) Location quotient(2) Hourly Annual

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media occupations

 139,740 2.1 $35.52 $73,890

Art directors

 4,610 4.0 61.81 128,570

Craft artists

 370 2.0 17.45 36,300

Fine artists, including painters, sculptors, and illustrators

 860 2.1 28.27 58,800

Multimedia artists and animators

 2,410 2.3 32.73 68,090

Artists and related workers, all other

 (3) (3) 34.90 72,580

Commercial and industrial designers

 1,360 1.2 33.17 68,990

Fashion designers

 6,790 11.5 39.16 81,460

Floral designers

 1,550 0.8 16.21 33,730

Graphic designers

 15,280 2.0 29.00 60,320

Interior designers

 2,570 1.6 32.62 67,840

Merchandise displayers and window trimmers

 2,110 0.8 18.46 38,400

Set and exhibit designers

 500 1.6 28.76 59,830

Designers, all other

 800 2.4 26.36 54,840

Actors

 5,710 2.7 27.35 (4)

Producers and directors

 13,710 4.2 55.14 114,680

Coaches and scouts

 4,090 0.6 (4) 45,760

Dancers

 1,540 3.5 25.91 (4)

Choreographers

 70 0.1 34.42 71,590

Music directors and composers

 1,040 1.3 41.23 85,750

Musicians and singers

 6,020 3.5 39.06 (4)

Entertainers and performers, sports and related workers, all other

 (3) (3) 17.20 (4)

Radio and television announcers

 1,240 1.0 36.15 75,180

Public address system and other announcers

 260 0.9 24.27 50,490

Broadcast news analysts

 320 1.4 45.37 94,380

Reporters and correspondents

 3,120 1.8 30.46 63,360

Public relations specialists

 16,870 1.9 35.69 74,240

Editors

 15,130 3.9 37.93 78,900

Technical writers

 1,520 0.9 34.28 71,310

Writers and authors

 5,880 3.7 43.98 91,470

Interpreters and translators

 1,970 1.1 26.28 54,660

Media and communication workers, all other

 800 0.9 26.08 54,240

Audio and video equipment technicians

 5,030 2.7 27.84 57,900

Broadcast technicians

 3,000 2.5 22.44 46,670

Sound engineering technicians

 3,000 4.9 28.91 60,140

Photographers

 2,520 1.2 26.41 54,940

Camera operators, television, video, and motion picture

 1,780 2.7 21.55 44,820

Film and video editors

 3,530 4.5 32.89 68,420

Media and communication equipment workers, all other

 940 1.4 34.56 71,880

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.
(3) Estimate not released.
(4) Wages for some occupations that do not generally work year-round, full time, are reported either as hourly wages or annual salaries depending on how they are typically paid.