Workers in the Lancaster Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $19.30 in May 2013, 14 percent below the nationwide average of $22.33, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Sheila Watkins, the Bureau’s regional commissioner, noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were significantly lower than their respective national averages in 14 of the 22 major occupational groups, including arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media; computer and mathematical; and business and financial operations. Only two groups had hourly wages that were significantly higher than their respective national averages—production and farming, fishing, and forestry. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

 

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Lancaster Metropolitan Statistical Area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2013

Major occupational group	Percent of total employment		Mean hourly wage
	United States	Lancaster	United States	Lancaster	Percent difference(1)
Total, all occupations	100.0	100.0	$22.33	$19.30*	-14
Management	4.9	3.2*	53.15	48.64*	-8
Business and financial operations	5.0	3.5*	34.14	29.65*	-13
Computer and mathematical	2.8	1.2*	39.43	31.67*	-20
Architecture and engineering	1.8	1.7	38.51	33.72*	-12
Life, physical, and social science	0.9	0.4*	33.37	29.95*	-10
Community and social service	1.4	1.3	21.50	18.31*	-15
Legal	0.8	0.3*	47.89	35.93*	-25
Education, training, and library	6.3	5.2*	24.76	22.69*	-8
Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media	1.3	1.4	26.72	18.70*	-30
Healthcare practitioners and technical	5.8	5.5	35.93	34.12	-5
Healthcare support	3.0	3.6*	13.61	13.64	0
Protective service	2.5	1.0*	20.92	21.77	4
Food preparation and serving related	9.0	9.1	10.38	10.41	0
Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance	3.2	2.9*	12.51	12.22	-2
Personal care and service	3.0	2.9	11.88	11.94	1
Sales and related	10.6	11.9*	18.37	16.72*	-9
Office and administrative support	16.2	15*	16.78	15.94*	-5
Farming, fishing, and forestry	0.3	0.3	11.70	13.23*	13
Construction and extraction	3.8	5.4*	21.94	20.15*	-8
Installation, maintenance, and repair	3.9	4.0	21.35	20.41*	-4
Production	6.6	10.7*	16.79	17.15*	2
Transportation and material moving	6.8	9.2*	16.28	15.00*	-8
* The percent share of employment or mean hourly wage for this area is significantly different from the national average of all areas at the 90-percent confidence level.
Footnotes: (1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in Lancaster is above the national mean wage, while a negative percent difference reflects a lower wage.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Lancaster employment was more highly concentrated in 5 of the 22 occupational groups including production, transportation and material moving, and sales and related. Conversely, nine groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation; these groups included management, business and financial operations, and protective service.

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Lancaster had 23,690 jobs in production, accounting for 10.7 percent of local area employment, significantly larger than the 6.6-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $17.15, measurably above the national wage of $16.79.

With employment of 2,280, team assemblers was the largest occupation within the production group, followed by production helpers, with 1,710 jobs. Among the higher-paying jobs were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers and food batchmakers, with mean hourly wages of $26.32 and $20.00, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were bakers ($11.85) and production helpers ($13.85). (Detailed occupational data for production are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_29540.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 as it does nationally. In the Lancaster area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, food batchmakers were employed at over four-and-a-half times the national rate in Lancaster, and printing press operators, at nearly four times the U.S. average. On the other hand, machinists had a location quotient of 1.2 in Lancaster, 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 Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry.

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. Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands are also surveyed, but their data are not included in the national estimates. OES estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.2 million establishments. Forms are mailed to approximately 200,000 sampled establishments in May and November each year for a 3-year period. May 2013 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected in May 2013, November 2012, May 2012, November 2011, May 2011, and November 2010. The overall national response rate for the six panels is 75.3 percent based on establishments and 71.6 percent based on employment. The sample in the Lancaster Metropolitan Statistical Area included 2,383 establishments with a response rate of 77 percent. For more information about OES concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.tn.htm.

The OES survey provides estimates of employment and hourly and annual wages for wage and salary workers in 22 major occupational groups and 821 detailed occupations for the nation, states, metropolitan statistical areas, metropolitan divisions, and nonmetropolitan areas. In addition, employment and wage estimates for 94 minor groups and 458 broad occupations are available in the national data. OES data by state and metropolitan/nonmetropolitan area are available from www.bls.gov/oes/current/oessrcst.htm and www.bls.gov/oes/current/oessrcma.htm, respectively.

The May 2013 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.

 

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 Lancaster, Pa. Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Lancaster County in Pennsylvania.

Additional information

OES data are available on our regional web page at https://www.bls.gov/regions/mid-atlantic. 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/2013/may/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: 1-800-877-8339.
 

 

Table 1. Employment and wage data from the Occupational Employment Statistics survey, by occupation, Lancaster Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2013

Occupation(1)	Employment		Mean wage
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual(4)
Production occupations	23,690	1.6	$17.15	$35,670
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers	1,670	1.7	26.32	54,740
Electrical and electronic equipment assemblers	410	1.2	13.97	29,060
Electromechancial equipment assemblers	(5)	(5)	13.90	28,910
Structural metal fabricators and fitters	500	3.9	17.89	37,220
Team assemblers	2,280	1.3	14.55	30,250
Assemblers and fabricators, all other	290	0.7	15.39	32,010
Bakers	440	1.6	11.85	24,650
Butchers and meat cutters	270	1.2	14.44	30,040
Meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers	140	0.5	12.67	26,350
Slaughterers and meat packers	300	2.1	14.13	29,400
Food batchmakers	840	4.6	20.00	41,600
Food cooking machine operators and tenders	200	3.5	12.13	25,220
Computer-controlled machine tool operators, metal and plastic	320	1.4	17.84	37,120
Computer numerically controlled machine tool programmers, metal and plastic	60	1.6	22.92	47,660
Extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	310	2.5	18.25	37,950
Rolling machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	210	3.8	20.21	42,040
Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	690	2.2	17.26	35,900
Drilling and boring machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	90	2.6	14.38	29,910
Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	200	1.7	18.74	38,970
Lathe and turning machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	100	1.4	17.66	36,730
Milling and planing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	(5)	(5)	23.87	49,660
Machinists	750	1.1	18.54	38,560
Metal-refining furnace operators and tenders	100	2.7	18.56	38,600
Pourers and casters, metal	90	5.3	20.21	42,040
Patternmakers, metal and plastic	50	6.8	19.98	41,550
Foundry mold and coremakers	50	2.4	15.52	32,280
Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	(5)	(5)	15.74	32,740
Multiple machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	170	1.1	17.69	36,790
Tool and die makers	210	1.6	21.35	44,410
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers	1,140	1.9	18.13	37,700
Welding, soldering, and brazing machine setters, operators, and tenders	90	1.1	15.68	32,620
Heat treating equipment setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	140	3.8	18.60	38,690
Plating and coating machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	170	2.8	17.41	36,220
Metal workers and plastic workers, all others	70	1.8	18.17	37,790
Prepress technicians and workers	150	2.4	19.10	39,740
Printing press operators	1,080	3.9	18.91	39,330
Print binding and finishing workers	620	7.2	16.60	34,540
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers	340	1.0	11.10	23,080
Pressers, textile, garment, and related materials	50	0.6	12.76	26,550
Sewing machine operators	190	0.8	13.31	27,690
Upholsterers	130	2.7	16.93	35,220
Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters	370	2.6	18.36	38,190
Furniture finishers	80	3.4	17.15	35,670
Sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood	150	2.1	14.89	30,970
Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing	300	2.7	16.09	33,460
Stationary engineers and boiler operators	30	0.5	25.95	53,980
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators	390	2.1	21.20	44,100
Separating, filtering, clarifying, precipitating, and still machine setters, operators, and tenders	30	0.5	19.81	41,200
Crushing, grinding, and polishing machine setters, operators, and tenders	120	2.3	16.17	33,630
Grinding and polishing workers, hand	50	0.9	16.43	34,180
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders	270	1.4	15.61	32,460
Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders	170	1.7	14.99	31,170
Extruding, forming, pressing, and compacting machine setters, operators, and tenders	140	1.2	17.31	36,010
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	1,030	1.3	17.68	36,770
Dental laboratory technicians	50	0.8	15.21	31,630
Medical appliance technicians	70	3.0	14.66	30,500
Ophthalmic laboratory technicians	90	1.8	13.79	28,690
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders	860	1.4	16.15	33,600
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders	290	2.0	15.51	32,260
Painters, transportation equipment	90	1.1	22.17	46,120
Photographic process workers and processing machine operators	100	1.6	13.06	27,160
Cleaning, washing, and metal pickling equipment operators and tenders	100	3.5	14.66	30,490
Cooling and freezing equipment operators and tenders	(5)	(5)	14.55	30,250
Etchers and engravers	(5)	(5)	16.10	33,480
Molders, shapers, and casters, except metal and plastic	230	4.1	17.37	36,130
Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders	220	1.4	15.81	32,890
Helpers--production workers	1,710	2.4	13.85	28,800
Production workers, all other	210	0.6	15.09	31,390
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Lancaster MSA, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_29540.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) Estimates not released.