Workers in the Boston-Cambridge-Quincy Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $29.04 in May 2011, about 34 percent below the nationwide average of $21.74, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Acting Regional Commissioner Michael J. Foley 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 9 of the 22 occupational groups, including computer and mathematical, business and financial operations, and management. Conversely, 10 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including production, transportation and material moving, and construction and extraction. (See Table A and box note at end of release.)

One occupational group-computer and mathematical-was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Boston-Cambridge-Quincy had 91,110 jobs in computer and mathematical, accounting for 5.4 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 2.7-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $43.54, measurably above the national wage of $37.85.

With employment of 18,490, systems software developers was the largest occupation within the computer and mathematical group, followed by software applications developers (17,300) and computer support specialists (14,220). Among the higher paying jobs were mathematicians and computer and information research scientists, with mean hourly wages of $58.05 and $55.51, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were computer support specialists ($30.29) and operations research analysts ($38.77). (Detailed occupational data for the computer and mathematical occupational group are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_71654.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 Boston-Cambridge-Quincy Metropolitan Statistical Area, above average concentrations of employment were found in almost all of the occupations within the computer and mathematical group. For instance, systems software developers were employed at 3.7 times the national rate in Boston, and software applications developers, at 2.5 times the U.S. average.

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Boston-Cambridge-Quincy Metropolitan Statistical Area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2011

Major occupational group	Percent of total employment			Mean hourly wage
	United States	Boston-Cambridge-Quincy		United States	Boston-Cambridge-Quincy		Percent difference(1)
Total, all occupations	100.0%	100.0%		$21.74	$29.04	*	34
Management	4.8	6.9	*	51.64	62.36	*	21
Business and financial operations	4.8	7.0	*	33.05	39.25	*	19
Computer and mathematical	2.7	5.4	*	37.85	43.54	*	15
Architecture and engineering	1.8	2.4	*	37.08	41.01	*	11
Life, physical, and social science	0.8	1.9	*	32.44	35.78	*	10
Community and social service	1.5	1.9	*	21.07	22.66	*	8
Legal	0.8	1.1	*	47.30	51.64	*	9
Education, training, and library	6.6	6.4		24.46	31.78	*	30
Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media	1.3	1.9	*	25.89	29.43	*	14
Healthcare practitioners and technical	5.9	7.4	*	34.97	41.43	*	18
Healthcare support	3.1	2.9	*	13.16	16.28	*	24
Protective service	2.5	2.4		20.54	22.59	*	10
Food preparation and serving related	8.7	8.0	*	10.30	12.84	*	25
Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance	3.3	3.1	*	12.29	15.74	*	28
Personal care and service	2.8	2.7		11.84	15.08	*	27
Sales and related	10.6	9.6	*	18.04	24.47	*	36
Office and administrative support	16.7	15.9	*	16.40	19.99	*	22
Farming, fishing, and forestry	0.3	***[2]	*	11.68	15.99	*	37
Construction and extraction	3.9	2.5	*	21.46	29.16	*	36
Installation, maintenance, and repair	3.9	2.8	*	20.86	25.62	*	23
Production	6.5	3.6	*	16.45	18.60	*	13
Transportation and material moving	6.7	4.1	*	15.96	17.06	*	7
Footnotes: (1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in Boston-Cambridge-Quincy is above the national mean wage, while a negative difference reflects a lower wage.
* The percent share of employment or mean hourly wage for this area is significantly different from the national average of all areas at the 90-percent confidence level.

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 Massachusetts Division of Unemployment Assistance. 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 are also 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 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 Boston-Cambridge-Quincy Metropolitan Statistical Area included 7,472 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.

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 Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, Mass. New England City and Town Area (NECTA) Division includes Acton town, Andover town, Arlington town, Ayer town, Bedford town, Belmont town, Beverly city, Bolton town, Boston city, Boxborough town, Boxford town, Braintree town, Brookline town, Burlington town, Cambridge city, Canton town, Carlisle town, Carver town, Chelsea city, Cohasset town, Concord town, Dedham town, Dover town, Duxbury town, Essex town, Everett city, Foxborough town, Franklin city, Gloucester city, Groton town, Hamilton town, Hanover town, Harvard town, Hingham town, Holbrook town, Hull town, Ipswich town, Kingston town, Lexington town, Lincoln town, Littleton town, Lynnfield town, Malden city, Manchester by the Sea town, Mansfield town, Marshfield town, Maynard town, Medfield town, Medford city, Medway town, Melrose city, Middleton town, Millis town, Milton town, Needham town, Newbury town, Newburyport city, Newton city, Norfolk town, North Reading town, Norwell town, Norwood town, Pembroke town, Plymouth town, Quincy city, Randolph town, Reading town, Revere city, Rockland town, Rockport town, Rowley town, Saugus town, Scituate town, Sharon town, Sherborn town, Shirley town, Somerville city, and Stoneham town, Stoughton town, Stow town, Sudbury town, Topsfield town, Wakefield town, Walpole town, Waltham city, Watertown city, Wayland town, Wellesley town, Wenham town, Weston town, Westwood town, Weymouth town, Wilmington town, Winchester town, Winthrop town, Woburn city, and Wrentham town, MA..

Additional information

OES data are available on our regional web page at www.bls.gov/ro1. If you have additional questions, contact the New England Information Office at 617-565-2327. Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request – Voice phone: 617-565-2072; TDD message referral phone: 1-800-877-8339.

Table 1. Employment and wage data from the Occupational Employment Statistics survey, by occupation, Boston-Cambridge-Quincy Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2011

Occupation(1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level(2)	Location quotient(3)	Hourly	Annual(4)
Computer and mathematical occupations	91,110	2.1	$43.54	$90,560
Computer and information research scientists	1,190	3.6	55.51	115,460
Computer systems analysts	11,630	1.8	43.41	90,290
Computer programmers	5,390	1.3	42.32	88,020
Software developers, applications	17,300	2.5	47.51	98,820
Software developers, systems software	18,490	3.7	51.27	106,650
Database administrators	2,930	2.1	40.32	83,860
Network and computer systems administrators	6,420	1.4	41.01	85,290
Computer support specialists	14,220	1.7	30.29	63,000
Information security analysts, web developers, and computer network architects	7,010	2.0	44.65	92,880
Computer occupations, all other	2,710	1.2	40.50	84,240
Actuaries	750	2.9	51.16	106,420
Mathematicians	80	2.1	58.05	120,750
Operations research analysts	2,010	2.4	38.77	80,630
Statisticians	950	3.1	42.96	89,360
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Boston-Cambridge-Quincy metropolitan statistical area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_71654.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.