Ditchmen • NUCA of Florida Ditchmen • July 2016 | Page 13

U.S. Bureau
of Labor
Statistics
Occupational
Employment
Data Update
Florida’s big cities have the
lowest-paying urban jobs in
America, according to a recentlyreleased federal survey. The latest
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment data,
for the year 2015, show that the
Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford
metropolitan area had the lowest
median pay among the country’s
50 largest employment centers,
according to an analysis by
FloridaPolitics.com. Miami’s pay
rates take the second-lowest
spot. Fort Lauderdale, Tampa-St.
Petersburg and Jacksonville also
were among the lowest seven in
the country in 2015 when it comes
to median pay for all surveyed
jobs, according to the BLS
numbers released this spring. Just
San Antonio [3rd] and Las Vegas
[5th] join the Sunshine
State cities in the bottom tier.
The data is based on the BLS’s
annual survey of rates of pay for
hundreds of specific professional
occupations, ranging from
accountants to zoologists,
inside 420 employment markets
nationwide.
The pay survey is different from

an assessment of workers’ median
incomes, because the survey does
not account for the prospects
that many people hold two or
more jobs or have other sources
of income. This is a survey of how
wages and salaries compare, per
occupation, per city.
According to the BLS, the average
median pay, annualized [meaning
workers are assumed to be
working full-time, all year] for all
occupations was $30,520 a year
in Orlando in 2015. It was $31,990
in Miami; $32,610 in San Antonio;
$33,140 in Fort Lauderdale; $33,150
in Las Vegas; $33,240 in TampaSt. Petersburg; and $33,420 in
Jacksonville. Fort Worth-Arlington,
Texas; Louisville/Jefferson County,
Ky.; and Riverside-San Bernardino,
Ca., round out the bottom ten.
Those are pay rates from among
the 50 American Metropolitan
Statistical Areas, or divisions, with
the largest employment bases.
Each of them had at least 617,000
jobs in May, 2015.
The metropolitan areas with the
highest pay are all in the nation’s
northeast [the Boston-Washington
D.C. corridor] and in the northwest.
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara,
Ca., Metropolitan Division, home
of Silicon Valley, has the highest
annual median pay, at $58,900.
As expected, Florida’s economic
reliance on service jobs, typically
those tied to tourism, means the
economy is reliant on low-wage
jobs. And in many cases, those
jobs pay less in Florida cities than
elsewhere in the United States.
In Orlando, for example, the three
occupations with the most jobs

are “retail salespersons,” “food
preparation workers” [which
includes fast-food,] and “waiters
and waitresses.” Those three
combine to provide more than
120,000 jobs, representing more
than 10 percent of Orlando’s jobs,
according to the BLS survey. None
of those occupations, in Orlando,
has a median annualized pay of
more than $20,430.
By contrast, the occupations
with the most jobs in the San
Jose market are “application
software developers” and “systems
software developers,” which
combine for 70,000 jobs there,
with each occupation having a
median annual pay of more than
$140,000. The third most common
occupation in San Jose is “retail
salespersons,” wit h a median pay
of only $24,790, still about 20
percent more than what such jobs
pay in Orlando.
Higher wages are almost
exclusively found in the bigger
metropolitan areas while smaller
metropolitan areas are dominated
by relatively lower-paying
occupations, and by lower pay
across the board.
As a state, Florida does slightly
better. The statewide median
pay, based on a compilation of
occupations, is $32,810. That’s
seventh-lowest nationally, better
than several mostly-rural states.
Mississippi was lowest at $29,000,
followed by Arkansas, West
Virginia, South Dakota, South
Carolina, Alabama, and then
Florida.
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JULY 2016 • DITCHMEN

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