Workers in the Medford Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $19.66 in May 2012, about 11 percent below the nationwide average of $22.01, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Regional Commissioner Richard J. Holden noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were significantly higher than their respective national averages in 4 of the 22 major occupational groups, including healthcare practitioners and technical, and healthcare support. Fifteen groups had significantly lower wages than their respective national averages, including management, architecture and engineering, and computer and mathematical.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 9 of the 22 occupational groups, including food preparation and serving related, community and social service, and office and administrative support. Conversely, seven groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including business and financial operations, computer and mathematical, and architecture and engineering. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

One occupational group—community and social service—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Medford had 1,710 jobs in community and social service, accounting for 2.3 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 1.4-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $19.88, measurably below the national wage of $21.27.

With employment of 280, social and human service assistants was the largest occupation within the community and social service group, followed by clergy (260) and child, family, and school social workers (210). Among the higher paying jobs were educational, guidance, school, and vocational counselors, and healthcare social workers, with mean hourly wages of $27.29 and $27.18, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were directors of religious activities and education ($13.16) and social and human service assistants ($13.96). (Detailed occupational data for community and social service are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/2012/may/oes_32780.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 Medford Metropolitan Statistical Area, above average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the community and social service group. For instance, clergy were employed at 10.4 times the national rate in Medford, and mental health counselors, at 2.0 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, child, family, and school social workers had a location quotient of 1.3 in Medford, 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 Oregon Employment Department.

With the release of the May 2012 estimates, OES data are based on the 2010 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system for the first time. The OES survey provides estimates of employment and hourly and annual wages for wage and salary workers in 22 major occupational groups and more than 800 detailed occupations for the nation, states, metropolitan statistical areas, metropolitan divisions, and nonmetropolitan areas. In addition, employment and wage estimates for 94 minor groups and 458 broad occupations are available in the national data for the first time. Information about the 2010 SOC is available on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/soc.

The May 2012 OES estimates are the first to be produced using the 2012 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). Information about the 2012 NAICS is available on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/bls/naics.htm .

OES wage and employment data for the 22 major occupational groups in the Medford metropolitan statistical area 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 are also surveyed, but their data are not included in the national estimates. OES estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.2 million establishments. Forms are mailed to approximately 200,000 sampled establishments in May and November each year for a 3-year period. May 2012 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected in May 2012, November 2011, May 2011, November 2010, May 2010, and November 2009. The overall national response rate for the six panels is 76.6 percent based on establishments and 72.9 percent based on employment. The sample in the Medford Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,337 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.

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 Medford, Ore. Metropolitan Statistical Area  includes Jackson County.

Additional information

OES data are available on our regional web page at www.bls.gov/ro9/home.htm. Answers to frequently asked questions about the OES data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_ques.htm. Detailed technical information about the OES survey is available in our Survey Methods and Reliability Statement on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/oes/2012/may/methods_statement.pdf. Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request – Voice phone: 202-691-5200; Federal Relay Service: 1-800-877-8339.

Table 1. Employment and wage data from the Occupational Employment Statistics survey, by occupation, Medford Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2012

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual(4)
Community and Social Service Occupations	1,710	1.6	$19.88	$41,360
Educational, Guidance, School, and Vocational Counselors	100	0.7	27.29	56,760
Mental Health Counselors	130	2.0	23.75	49,400
Rehabilitation Counselors	80	1.4	18.24	37,940
Child, Family, and School Social Workers	210	1.3	17.32	36,030
Healthcare Social Workers	100	1.3	27.18	56,530
Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Workers	70	1.1	17.04	35,450
Social Workers, All Other	130	4.0	22.63	47,070
Social and Human Service Assistants	280	1.4	13.96	29,050
Community and Social Service Specialists, All Other	80	1.4	17.62	36,640
Clergy	260	10.4	21.53	44,780
Directors, Religious Activities and Education	(5)	(5)	13.16	27,380
Religious Workers, All Other	(5)	(5)	17.09	35,560
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in Medford, OR, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_32780.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: May 29, 2013