Workers in the Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $18.58 in May 2011, about 15 percent below the nationwide average of $21.74, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Regional Commissioner Stanley W. Suchman noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were significantly higher than their respective national averages in 2 of the 22 major occupational groups: transportation and material moving; and production. Seventeen groups had significantly lower wages than their respective national averages, including legal, computer and mathematical, and business and financial operations.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 4 of the 22 occupational groups, including transportation and material moving, construction and extraction, and installation, maintenance, and repair. Conversely, 14 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including business and financial operations, computer and mathematical, and office and administrative support. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

One occupational group – transportation and material moving – was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux had 14,310 jobs in transportation and material moving, accounting for 15.8 percent of local area employment, more than double the 6.7-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $22.20, nearly 40 percent above the national wage of $15.96. With employment of 3,290, captains, mates, and pilots of water vessels was the largest occupation within the transportation and material moving group, followed by hand laborers and freight, stock, and material movers (2,920) and sailors and marine oilers (2,210). Interestingly, the Houma area had the largest number of captains, mates, and pilots of water vessels in the entire country, followed by New Orleans. This occupation was also among the higher paying jobs at $37.40 per hour, followed by ship engineers at $36.83. At the lower end of the wage scale were hand packers and packagers ($9.29) and hand laborers and freight, stock, and material movers ($12.14). (Detailed data for transportation and material moving occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of all detailed occupations go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_26380.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 Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux Metropolitan Statistical Area, above average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the transportation and material moving group. For instance, captains, mates, and pilots of water vessels were employed at more than 150 times times the national rate in Houma, and sailors and marine oilers, at 100.2 times the U.S. average, the highest location quotient for this occupation in any U.S. metropolitan area. On the other hand, light truck or delivery services drivers had a location quotient of 1.2 in Houma, 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 Louisiana Workforce Commission. 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 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 the national estimates. 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 Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,374 establishments with a response rate of 74 percent. For more information about OES concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.tn.htm.

The May 2011 OES estimates are 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: 1-800-877-8339.

The substate area data published in this release reflect the standards and definitions established by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. The Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) includes Lafourche and Terrebonne Parishes in Louisiana