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News Release Information

23-1241-ATL
Tuesday, June 06, 2023

Contacts Technical information: Media contact:
  • (404) 893-4220

Occupational Employment and Wages in Decatur — May 2022

Workers in the Decatur, AL Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $24.15 in May 2022, 19 percent below the nationwide average of $29.76, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Victoria G. Lee noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were lower than their respective national averages in 19 of the 22 major occupational groups, including healthcare practitioners and technical, food preparation and serving related, and transportation and material moving. Three groups had significantly higher wages than their respective national averages: production; installation, maintenance, and repair; and architecture and engineering.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Decatur area employment was more highly concentrated in 5 of the 22 occupational groups, including production; installation, maintenance, and repair; and architecture and engineering. Seventeen 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.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Decatur metropolitan area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2022
Major occupational groupPercent of total employmentMean hourly wage
United StatesDecaturUnited StatesDecaturPercent difference (1)

Total, all occupations

100.0100.0$29.76$24.15*-19

Management

6.75.0*63.0853.61*-15

Business and financial operations

6.53.7*41.3935.05*-15

Computer and mathematical

3.41.1*51.9940.43*-22

Architecture and engineering

1.73.6*45.5247.20*4

Life, physical, and social science

0.90.8*40.2134.38*-14

Community and social service

1.60.9*26.8123.04*-14

Legal

0.80.3*59.8738.16*-36

Educational instruction and library

5.74.8*30.4122.40*-26

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.40.5*36.7822.85*-38

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.14.7*46.5233.49*-28

Healthcare support

4.63.5*17.1013.31*-22

Protective service

2.32.2*25.9719.67*-24

Food preparation and serving related

8.57.9*15.4512.25*-21

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.92.7*17.2614.21*-18

Personal care and service

1.91.1*17.4114.85*-15

Sales and related

8.98.5*24.2219.32*-20

Office and administrative support

12.610.4*21.9018.39*-16

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.30.3*18.2116.81*-8

Construction and extraction

4.15.2*28.0823.22*-17

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.96.6*26.7727.77*4

Production

5.915.9*21.8123.29*7

Transportation and material moving

9.210.3*21.1218.72*-11

Footnotes:
(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in the Decatur, AL Metropolitan Statistical Area is above the national mean wage, while a negative difference reflects a lower wage.
* The mean hourly wage or percent share of employment is significantly different from the national average of all areas at the 90-percent confidence level.

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Decatur had 8,970 jobs in production, accounting for 15.9 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 5.9-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $23.29, significantly above the national wage of $21.81.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators (1,210) and first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (780). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers and also chemical equipment operators and tenders, with mean hourly wages of $36.06 and $35.75, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($12.64) and sewing machine operators ($13.43). (Detailed data for the production occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_19460.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 Decatur area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, chemical equipment operators and tenders were employed at 10.6 times the national rate in Decatur, and meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers, at 6.4 times the U.S. average. Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders had a location quotient of 1.2 in Decatur, 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 Alabama Department of Labor.

Changes to the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) Data

The May 2022 OEWS estimates use the model-based (MB3) estimation method implemented with the May 2021 estimates release. Additional updates were made to the MB3 wage processing methodology for May 2022. For more information, see the May 2022 Survey Methods and Reliability Statement.

The May 2022 estimates are the first OEWS estimates to be produced using the 2022 NAICS, which replaces the 2017 NAICS used for the May 2017-May 2021 estimates. See North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) at BLS for details.


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 2022 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2022, November 2021, May 2021, November 2020, May 2020, and November 2019. The unweighted sampled employment of 80 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 57 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 65.4 percent based on establishments and 62.5 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Decatur, AL Metropolitan Statistical Area included 878 establishments with a response rate of 75 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 Decatur, AL Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Lawrence County and Morgan 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 production occupations, Decatur metropolitan area, May 2022
Occupation (1)EmploymentMean wages ($)
Level (2)Location quotient (3)HourlyAnnual (4)

Production occupations

8,9702.723.2948,450

First-line supervisors of production and operating workers

7803.136.0674,990

Electrical, electronic, and electromechanical assemblers, except coil winders, tapers, and finishers

2302.216.2133,710

Structural metal fabricators and fitters

702.919.9841,550

Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators

1,2102.217.4736,330

Butchers and meat cutters

701.315.2331,680

Meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers

3306.414.7630,700

Food batchmakers

901.514.4630,070

Extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

1606.719.8041,170

Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

3705.319.2039,940

Machinists

2702.226.5955,320

Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

901.416.4234,150

Multiple machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

1202.425.5453,120

Tool and die makers

301.424.4850,920

Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers

3702.421.8645,480

Printing press operators

701.216.3834,060

Laundry and dry-cleaning workers

701.012.6426,280

Sewing machine operators

801.813.4327,940

Extruding and forming machine setters, operators, and tenders, synthetic and glass fibers

12021.030.7764,010

Sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood

603.216.1233,530

Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing

1104.415.5332,300

Power plant operators

503.739.1681,450

Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators

601.323.2648,370

Chemical plant and system operators

8011.6(5)(5)

Chemical equipment operators and tenders

47010.635.7574,360

Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders

902.128.0758,390

Extruding, forming, pressing, and compacting machine setters, operators, and tenders

703.017.0635,470

Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers

3801.717.9837,400

Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders

1701.216.8134,970

Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders

1001.718.7839,060

Computer numerically controlled tool operators

2303.319.6240,820

Helpers--production workers

2703.716.4434,190

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Decatur, AL Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_19460.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.
(5) Estimate not released.

 

Last Modified Date: Tuesday, June 06, 2023