Occupational Employment and Wages in the U.S. Virgin Islands — May 2025

Workers in the U.S. Virgin Islands had an average (mean) hourly wage of $25.35 in May 2025, compared to the United States average of $33.54, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Mark J. Maggi noted that higher paying major occupational groups included legal ($47.17), management ($46.33), and healthcare practitioners and technical ($43.95). Lower paying occupations included building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($16.75), sales and related ($18.00), and healthcare support ($18.62). (See table A.)

Office and administrative support occupations accounted for 13.7 percent of employment in the U.S. Virgin Islands, followed by food preparation and serving related occupations (12.4 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included architecture and engineering (0.3 percent) and legal (0.8 percent).

One occupational group-office and administrative support-was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 21 major occupational categories for which data is available. The U.S. Virgin Islands had 4,400 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 13.7 percent of local area employment, compared to the 11.4-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $20.91, compared to the national wage of $24.79.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included general office clerks (560); secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (530); and first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers (510). Among the higher paying jobs in this group were postal service clerks ($30.76), postal service mail carriers ($29.08), and first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers ($28.73). (See chart 1.) At the lower end of the wage scale were couriers and messengers ($12.74) and tellers ($15.74). (Detailed data for the office and administrative support occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/7800000/2025.)

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 2.00 indicates that an occupation accounts for twice the share of employment in the area than it does nationally. In the U.S. Virgin Islands, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks were employed at 12.28 times the national rate in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks, at 4.39 times the U.S. average. Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks had a location quotient of 0.99 in the U.S. Virgin Islands, indicating that this particular occupation's local and national employment shares were similar.

The statistics in this release are from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, a cooperative effort between BLS and the State Workforce Agencies (SWAs). BLS funds the survey and provides the procedures and technical support. State Workforce Agencies collect most of the data: in this case, the U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Labor.

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 530 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. Full OEWS data tables are available online.

Additional information about the OEWS estimates and methodology is available in the national Technical Notes. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 66.2 percent based on establishments and 67.2 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the U.S. Virgin Islands included 660 establishments with a response rate of 88.3 percent.

For more information

Answers to frequently asked questions about the OEWS data, as well as general program documentation, are available on the OEWS website.

If you are deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability, please dial 7-1-1 to access telecommunications relay services.