Workers in the Green Bay Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $20.97 in May 2016, about 12 percent below the nationwide average of $23.86, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Assistant Commissioner for Regional Operations Charlene Peiffer noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were lower than their respective national averages in 15 of the 22 major occupational groups, including legal; management; and architecture and engineering.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 2 of the 22 occupational groups: production, and transportation and material moving. Conversely, 10 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including food preparation and serving related; education, training, and library; and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Green Bay had 18,520 jobs in production, accounting for 10.8 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 6.5-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $17.92, compared to the national wage of $17.88.

Some of the largest detailed occupations within the production group included team assemblers (1,550); first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (1,390); and paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders (1,320). Among the higher paying jobs were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers with mean hourly wages of $26.74 and water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators, $25.12. At the lower end of the wage scale were tailors, dressmakers, and custom sewers ($10.34) and textile cutting machine setters, operators, and tenders ($10.98). (Detailed occupational data for production are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/2016/may/oes_24580.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 Green Bay Metropolitan Statistical Area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders were employed at 11.7 times the national rate in Green Bay, and print binding and finishing workers, at 5.9 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, laundry and dry-cleaning workers had a location quotient of 1.0 in Green Bay, indicating that this particular occupation’s local and national employment shares were similar.

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 Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development.

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. The OES data available from BLS include cross-industry occupational employment and wage estimates for the nation; over 650 areas, including states and the District of Columbia, metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), metropolitan divisions, nonmetropolitan areas, and territories; national industry-specific estimates at the NAICS sector, 3-, 4-, and selected 5- and 6-digit industry levels, and national estimates by ownership across all industries and for schools and hospitals. OES data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm.

OES estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.2 million establishments. Each year, two semiannual panels of approximately 200,000 sampled establishments are contacted, one panel in May and the other in November. Responses are obtained by mail, Internet or other electronic means, email, telephone, or personal visit. The May 2016 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2016, November 2015, May 2015, November 2014, May 2014, and November 2013. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 73 percent based on establishments and 69 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The unweighted employment of sampled establishments across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 58 percent of total national employment. The sample in the Green Bay Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,920 establishments with a response rate of 76 percent. For more information about OES concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.tn.htm.

The May 2016 OES estimates are based on the 2010 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system and the 2012 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). Information about the 2010 SOC is available on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/soc and information about the 2012 NAICS is available at www.bls.gov/bls/naics.htm.

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 Green Bay, Wis. Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Brown, Kewaunee, and Oconto Counties.

Additional information

OES data are available on our regional web page at www.bls.gov/regions/midwest. Answers to frequently asked questions about the OES data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_ques.htm. Detailed technical information about the OES survey is available in our Survey Methods and Reliability Statement on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/oes/current/methods_statement.pdf.

Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request . Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; Federal Relay Service: (800) 877-8339.

Table 1. Employment and wage data from the Occupational Employment Statistics survey, by occupation, Green Bay Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2016

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Production occupations	18,520	1.7	$17.92	$37,280
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers	1,390	1.9	26.74	55,620
Electrical and electronic equipment assemblers	370	1.4	14.37	29,890
Electromechanical equipment assemblers	90	1.6	23.26	48,390
Engine and other machine assemblers	40	0.8	19.64	40,860
Structural metal fabricators and fitters	500	5.3	21.91	45,570
Team assemblers	1,550	1.2	14.60	30,370
Assemblers and fabricators, all other	(5)	(5)	11.77	24,490
Bakers	340	1.5	13.98	29,080
Butchers and meat cutters	210	1.3	18.68	38,860
Meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers	660	3.6	14.12	29,360
Slaughterers and meat packers	130	1.3	16.71	34,760
Food and tobacco roasting, baking, and drying machine operators and tenders	140	5.8	(5)	(5)
Food batchmakers	650	3.6	17.09	35,550
Food cooking machine operators and tenders	100	2.3	18.11	37,670
Computer-controlled machine tool operators, metal and plastic	330	1.9	22.21	46,190
Computer numerically controlled machine tool programmers, metal and plastic	60	1.9	22.63	47,060
Forging machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	40	1.6	14.46	30,080
Rolling machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	(5)	(5)	20.11	41,830
Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	190	0.8	18.50	38,470
Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	(5)	(5)	14.07	29,270
Machinists	730	1.5	21.53	44,780
Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	100	0.6	15.99	33,260
Multiple machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	170	1.2	16.26	33,820
Tool and die makers	60	0.7	20.92	43,510
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers	630	1.4	19.62	40,810
Heat treating equipment setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	(5)	(5)	16.84	35,020
Plating and coating machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	140	3.2	14.10	29,320
Prepress technicians and workers	230	5.6	16.49	34,300
Printing press operators	950	4.6	18.30	38,070
Print binding and finishing workers	380	5.9	14.36	29,870
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers	260	1.0	11.43	23,770
Sewing machine operators	100	0.6	12.42	25,830
Tailors, dressmakers, and custom sewers	(5)	(5)	10.34	21,510
Textile cutting machine setters, operators, and tenders	(5)	(5)	10.98	22,830
Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters	280	2.3	16.97	35,310
Furniture finishers	(5)	(5)	15.57	32,390
Sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood	70	1.2	15.80	32,860
Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing	160	1.7	15.61	32,470
Stationary engineers and boiler operators	100	2.3	24.20	50,340
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators	100	0.7	25.12	52,250
Separating, filtering, clarifying, precipitating, and still machine setters, operators, and tenders	30	0.6	23.22	48,300
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders	440	2.8	17.38	36,150
Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders	370	5.0	17.50	36,400
Extruding, forming, pressing, and compacting machine setters, operators, and tenders	110	1.2	19.59	40,750
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	700	1.1	17.88	37,200
Dental laboratory technicians	(5)	(5)	21.65	45,040
Ophthalmic laboratory technicians	100	2.8	14.95	31,090
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders	1,220	2.6	15.93	33,140
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders	370	3.6	17.57	36,540
Painters, transportation equipment	50	0.7	19.26	40,050
Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders	1,320	11.7	19.24	40,030
Helpers--production workers	880	1.7	16.37	34,050
Production workers, all other	160	0.5	15.39	32,000
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Green Bay, WI, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_24580.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. (5) Estimate not released.