The top three occupations with the most new job openings in Texas for the month of July were Driver/Sales Workers and Truck Drivers with 1,084 new openings, Managers with 1,061 new openings, and Cashiers with 1,145 new openings.

July 2015

Source: BLS

The number of job openings in Texas for nurses, therapists, and physician assistants increased from 10,068 to 13,438 from July 2014 to July 2015. The searcher-to-job opening ratio increased from 1.48 to 1.85 during that same span.

Source: BLS

Image source: http://www.carrollhs.org/s/1253/index.aspx?pgid=877

In this post, we look at the weekly overtime (OT) hours typically worked by those who work as police officers. Many of the employees that work in these jobs are not exempt from FLSA overtime pay and earn 1.5 times pay for hours worked over 40 in a given week. The tabulations below are based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) survey data. The BLS job title groups are insightful, generally containing more specific job titles with similar knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA), but can be more broad than a particular company’s job title listing. Also, some companies may have the job title listed here as exempt from FLSA or state OT due to their specific job assignments. The BLS does not make a distinction as to if the job title is exempt or non-exempt from OT.

U.S. BLS data indicates that approximately 30.86% of police officers work overtime hours in a given week.  On average, these workers that have FLSA overtime work approximately 12.6 hours a week in OT. The average regular or straight time pay rate of these workers in the U.S. is approximately $27.24 an hour.  The average FLSA OT rate, not including supplemental pay such as non-discretionary bonus pay, is $40.86 an hour.

Source: BLS (CPS March)

In this post, we look at the weekly overtime (OT) hours typically worked by those who work in retail sales occupations, specifically in electronics stores. Many of the employees that work in these jobs are not exempt from FLSA overtime pay and earn 1.5 times pay for hours worked over 40 in a given week. The tabulations below are based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) survey data. The BLS job title groups are insightful, generally containing more specific job titles with similar knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA), but can be more broad than a particular company’s job title listing. Also, some companies may have the job title listed here as exempt from FLSA or state OT due to their specific job assignments. The BLS does not make a distinction as to if the job title is exempt or non-exempt from OT.

U.S. BLS data indicates that approximately 17.95% of retail salespersons in electronic stores work overtime hours in a given week.  On average, these workers that have FLSA overtime work approximately 12.14 hours a week in OT. The average regular or straight time pay rate of these workers in the U.S. is approximately $13.89 an hour.  The average FLSA OT rate, not including supplemental pay such as non-discretionary bonus pay, is $20.84 an hour.

Source: BLS (CPS March)

In this post, we look at the weekly overtime (OT) hours typically worked by those who work in truck driving occupations.

Many of the employees that work in these jobs are not exempt from FLSA overtime pay and earn 1.5 times pay for hours worked over 40 in a given week.

The tabulations below are based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) survey data. The BLS job title groups are insightful, generally containing more specific job titles with similar knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA), but can be more broad than a particular company’s job title listing. Also, some companies may have the job title listed here as exempt from FLSA or state OT due to their specific job assignments. The BLS does not make a distinction as to if the job title is exempt or non-exempt from OT.

U.S. BLS data indicates that approximately 44.11% of truck drivers work overtime hours in a given week.  On average, these workers that have FLSA overtime work approximately 14.5 hours a week in OT. The average regular or straight time pay rate of these workers in the U.S. is approximately $18.74 an hour.  The average FLSA OT rate, not including supplemental pay such as non-discretionary bonus pay, is $28.11 an hour.

Source: BLS (CPS March)

Working with wage and hour data and employment data, like we do on a daily basis involves the analysis of very large data sets.  Big data and employment data are often one in the same.  STATA has a very useful command that allows you to load in large Excel 2007/2010 spreadsheet files.  It is:

set excelxlsxlargefile on

This simple command allows the user to bypass the pre-set limit on spreadsheet size.

Just remember, STATA and your computer will be unresponsive during the load.  So be patient and let it all load up.

Compared to June of last year, all of the main Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) in California saw an annual increase in the number of job openings and decrease in the searcher-to-job opening ratio.

Source: BLS

The number of job openings in California decreased from 610,591 in May 2015 to 598,171 in June 2015. The median number of job searchers per job opening across all Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) and occupations in California increased from 1.62 in May 2015 to 1.63 in June 2015.

Source: BLS

Compared to June 2014, the four largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) in Texas saw an annual increase in the number of job openings and a decrease in the searcher-to-job opening ratio in June 2015.

Source: BLS

The number of job openings in Texas decreased from 393,563 in May 2015 to 387,006 in June 2015. The median number of job searchers per job opening across all MSAs (metropolitan statistical areas) and occupations in Texas increased from 1.04 in May 2015 to 1.14 in June 2015.

Source: BLS