Workers in the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $26.46 in May 2021, about 6 percent below the nationwide average of $28.01, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Chris Rosenlund noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were lower than their respective national averages in 7 of the 22 major occupational groups, including computer and mathematical; management; and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media. Eleven groups had significantly higher wages than their respective national averages, including healthcare practitioners and technical, educational instruction and library, and community and social service.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Riverside area employment was more highly concentrated in 7 of the 22 occupational groups, including transportation and material moving, healthcare support, and construction and extraction. Thirteen 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.)

One occupational group—transportation and material moving—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Riverside had 254,610 jobs in transportation and material moving, accounting for 16.6 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 9.0-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $20.38, significantly above the national wage of $19.88.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the transportation and material moving group included hand laborers and freight, stock, and material movers (61,940), industrial truck and tractor operators (46,930), and stockers and order fillers (46,730). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were crane and tower operators and first-line supervisors of transportation and material moving workers, except aircraft cargo handling supervisors, with mean hourly wages of $35.75 and $27.92, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were parking attendants ($15.06) and cleaners of vehicles and equipment ($15.58). (Detailed data for the transportation and material moving occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_40140.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 Riverside area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the transportation and material moving group. For instance, industrial truck and tractor operators were employed at 5.7 times the national rate in Riverside, and machine feeders and offbearers, at 4.5 times the U.S. average. Bus drivers, transit and intercity had a location quotient of 1.1 in Riverside, indicating that this particular occupation’s local and national employment shares were similar.

These statistics are from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, a federal-state cooperative program between BLS and State Workforce Agencies, in this case, the California Employment Development Department.

Technical Note

The Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey is a semiannual survey measuring occupational employment and wage rates for wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments in the United States. The OEWS data available from BLS include cross-industry occupational employment and wage estimates for the nation; over 580 areas, including states and the District of Columbia, metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), nonmetropolitan areas, and territories; national industry-specific estimates at the NAICS sector, 3-digit, most 4-digit, and selected 5- and 6-digit industry levels, and national estimates by ownership across all industries and for schools and hospitals. OEWS data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm.

The OEWS survey is a cooperative effort between BLS and the State Workforce Agencies (SWAs). BLS funds the survey and provides the procedures and technical support, while the State Workforce Agencies collect most of the data. OEWS estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.1 million establishments. Each year, two semiannual panels of approximately 179,000 to 187,000 sampled establishments are contacted, one panel in May and the other in November. Responses are obtained by Internet or other electronic means, mail, email, telephone, or personal visit. The May 2021 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2021, November 2020, May 2020, November 2019, May 2019, and November 2018. The unweighted sampled employment of 82 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 62 percent of total national employment. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 67.2 percent based on establishments and 64.5 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area included 5,925 establishments with a response rate of 54 percent. For more information about OEWS concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_tec.htm.

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.

Metropolitan 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 Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Riverside County and San Bernardino County.

For more information

Answers to frequently asked questions about the OEWS data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_ques.htm. Detailed information about the OEWS program is available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_doc.htm.

Information in this release will be made available to individuals with sensory impairments upon request. Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; Telecommunications Relay Service: 7-1-1.

Table 1. Employment and wage data for transportation and material moving occupations, Riverside metropolitan area, May 2021

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Transportation and material moving occupations	254,610	1.9	$20.38	$42,380
Aircraft cargo handling supervisors	300	3.2	25.90	53,870
First-line supervisors of transportation and material moving workers, except aircraft cargo handling supervisors	8,700	1.5	27.92	58,070
Airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers	530	0.6	(6)	255,250
Commercial pilots	230	0.5	(6)	105,980
Airfield operations specialists	540	3.9	17.51	36,430
Ambulance drivers and attendants, except emergency medical technicians	110	0.9	16.57	34,460
Driver/sales workers	5,710	1.1	19.06	39,640
Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers	38,240	1.9	24.78	51,540
Light truck drivers	15,690	1.4	21.58	44,890
Bus drivers, school	2,130	0.5	21.39	44,500
Bus drivers, transit and intercity	1,700	1.1	24.51	50,990
Shuttle drivers and chauffeurs	1,320	0.7	16.22	33,730
Motor vehicle operators, all other	440	0.8	25.81	53,690
Locomotive engineers	30	0.1	20.15	41,910
Rail yard engineers, dinkey operators, and hostlers	40	0.8	22.45	46,690
Parking attendants	530	0.5	15.06	31,310
Automotive and watercraft service attendants	930	0.8	15.68	32,610
Aircraft service attendants	40	0.3	18.47	38,420
Transportation inspectors	350	1.3	27.52	57,240
Transportation workers, all other	70	0.5	28.56	59,390
Conveyor operators and tenders	480	1.5	18.79	39,070
Crane and tower operators	350	0.8	35.75	74,360
Industrial truck and tractor operators	46,930	5.7	20.63	42,900
Cleaners of vehicles and equipment	5,910	1.6	15.58	32,400
Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand	61,940	2.1	18.15	37,740
Machine feeders and offbearers	2,950	4.5	19.29	40,110
Packers and packagers, hand	9,000	1.4	15.84	32,950
Stockers and order fillers	46,730	1.8	17.88	37,190
Refuse and recyclable material collectors	930	0.7	24.89	51,760
Material moving workers, all other	1,180	4.8	16.42	34,150
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_40140.htm. (2) Estimates for detailed occupations may not sum to the totals due to rounding, and because the totals may include occupations that are 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. (6) 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.