Workers in the Scranton—Wilkes-Barre—Hazleton Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $19.75 in May 2015, roughly 15 percent below the nationwide average of $23.23, 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 17 of the 22 major occupational groups, including legal; arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media; and computer and mathematical.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Scranton employment shares were significantly higher in six occupational groups including transportation and material moving; production; and healthcare practitioners and technical. Conversely, 10 occupational groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation; these groups included management; business and financial operations; and computer and mathematical. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

 

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and Scranton metropolitan area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2015

Major occupational group	Percent of total employment			Mean hourly wage
	United States	Scranton		United States	Scranton		Percent difference (1)
Total, all occupations	100%	100%		$23.23	$19.75	*	-15
Management	5.0	3.1	*	55.30	48.73	*	-12
Business and financial operations	5.1	3.7	*	35.48	30.22	*	-15
Computer and mathematical	2.9	1.7	*	41.43	30.43	*	-27
Architecture and engineering	1.8	1.3	*	39.89	35.37	*	-11
Life, physical, and social science	0.8	0.5	*	34.24	31.08		-9
Community and social service	1.4	2.0	*	22.19	19.57	*	-12
Legal	0.8	0.5	*	49.74	29.47	*	-41
Education, training, and library	6.2	6.4		25.48	26.69		5
Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media	1.3	0.8	*	27.39	19.45	*	-29
Healthcare practitioners and technical	5.8	6.6	*	37.40	32.50	*	-13
Healthcare support	2.9	3.6	*	14.19	13.66	*	-4
Protective service	2.4	2.2		21.45	20.39		-5
Food preparation and serving related	9.1	8.6	*	10.98	10.23	*	-7
Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance	3.2	3.2		13.02	11.72	*	-10
Personal care and service	3.1	3.3		12.33	11.55	*	-6
Sales and related	10.5	10.1		18.90	15.91	*	-16
Office and administrative support	15.8	16.6	*	17.47	16.09	*	-8
Farming, fishing, and forestry	0.3	0.1	*	12.67	19.13	*	51
Construction and extraction	4.0	3.5	*	22.88	21.15	*	-8
Installation, maintenance, and repair	3.9	3.9		22.11	20.70	*	-6
Production	6.6	7.8	*	17.41	16.81		-3
Transportation and material moving	6.9	10.6	*	16.90	16.44	*	-3
Footnotes: (1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in Scranton is above the national mean wage, while a negative difference reflects a lower wage. * 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.

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Scranton had 20,020 jobs in production, accounting for 7.8 percent of local area employment, significantly above the 6.6-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $16.81, not significantly difference from the national wage of $17.41.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included team assemblers (2,150), production helpers (1,810), and paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders (1,410). Among the higher-paying jobs were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers, with a mean hourly wage of $26.49, and machinists with a wage of $21.92. At the lower end of the wage scale were slaughterers and meat packers ($10.51) and laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($11.76). (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_42540.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 Scranton, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, metal and plastic extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders were employed at 4.4 times the national rate in Scranton. In contrast, team assemblers had a location quotient of 1.0 in Scranton, 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. The OES program produces employment and wage estimates for over 800 occupations for all industries combined in the nation; the 50 states and the District of Columbia; 432 metropolitan areas and divisions; 167 nonmetropolitan areas; and Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. National estimates are also available by industry for NAICS sectors, 3-, 4-, and selected 5- and 6-digit industries, and 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. Forms are mailed to approximately 200,000 sampled establishments in May and November each year. May 2015 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2015, November 2014, May 2014, November 2013, May 2013, and November 2012. The overall national response rate for the six panels is 73.5 percent based on establishments and 69.6 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The unweighted employment of sampled establishments across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 57.9 percent of total national employment. (Response rates are slightly lower for these estimates due to the federal shutdown in October 2013.) The sample in the Scranton—Wilkes-Barre—Hazleton Metropolitan Statistical Area included 2,481 establishments with a response rate of 75 percent. For more information about OES concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.tn.htm.

The May 2015 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 Scranton—Wilkes-Barre—Hazleton, Pa. Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Lackawanna, Luzerne, and Wyoming Counties in Pennsylvania.

Additional information

OES data are available on our regional web page at 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/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, Scranton—Wilkes-Barre—Hazleton Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2015

Occupation (1)	Employment (2)		Mean wage
	Level	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
					Production occupations	20,020	1.2	$16.81	$34,960
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers	1,160	1.0	26.49	55,110
Structural metal fabricators and fitters	120	0.8	20.93	43,540
Team assemblers	2,150	1.0	13.66	28,420
Assemblers and fabricators, all other	340	0.8	12.32	25,620
Bakers	480	1.5	12.61	26,230
Butchers and meat cutters	320	1.3	15.98	33,240
Meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers	60	0.2	13.86	28,830
Slaughterers and meat packers	190	1.3	10.51	21,870
Food batchmakers	410	1.7	15.52	32,290
Food cooking machine operators and tenders	80	1.3	16.41	34,120
Computer-controlled machine tool operators, metal and plastic	390	1.5	15.69	32,640
Computer numerically controlled machine tool programmers, metal and plastic	30	0.7	23.48	48,850
Extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	590	4.4	16.28	33,860
Rolling machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	90	1.5	19.08	39,680
Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	630	1.8	17.19	35,750
Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	120	0.9	13.74	28,580
Machinists	560	0.8	21.92	45,590
Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	220	0.9	16.93	35,210
Multiple machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	360	1.8	15.12	31,450
Tool and die makers	70	0.5	22.06	45,880
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers	630	0.9	20.23	42,080
Welding, soldering, and brazing machine setters, operators, and tenders	90	0.9	17.64	36,700
Prepress technicians and workers	170	2.6	13.58	28,240
Printing press operators	620	2.0	16.63	34,590
Print binding and finishing workers	210	2.1	15.17	31,560
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers	450	1.2	11.76	24,460
Pressers, textile, garment, and related materials	60	0.7	10.22	21,260
Sewing machine operators	330	1.3	12.48	25,950
Upholsterers	(5)	(5)	11.54	24,000
Textile, apparel, and furnishings workers, all other	(5)	(5)	13.91	28,920
Sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood	150	1.7	13.14	27,320
Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing	130	0.9	14.28	29,700
Stationary engineers and boiler operators	60	0.9	23.47	48,830
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators	290	1.4	21.41	44,520
Gas plant operators	80	2.5	22.78	47,390
Petroleum pump system operators, refinery operators, and gaugers	(5)	(5)	25.03	52,070
Chemical equipment operators and tenders	120	0.9	21.34	44,380
Separating, filtering, clarifying, precipitating, and still machine setters, operators, and tenders	150	1.6	17.00	35,360
Crushing, grinding, and polishing machine setters, operators, and tenders	40	0.6	16.99	35,350
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders	300	1.2	17.65	36,720
Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders	140	1.2	14.86	30,910
Extruding, forming, pressing, and compacting machine setters, operators, and tenders	110	0.8	17.06	35,490
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	790	0.8	17.06	35,470
Dental laboratory technicians	60	0.8	19.77	41,120
Ophthalmic laboratory technicians	220	4.2	14.55	30,250
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders	1,230	1.8	14.08	29,300
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders	110	0.7	14.05	29,220
Painters, transportation equipment	(5)	(5)	15.64	32,530
Adhesive bonding machine operators and tenders	90	3	(5)	(5)
Molders, shapers, and casters, except metal and plastic	(5)	(5)	20.69	43,030
Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders	1,410	8.3	(5)	(5)
Tire builders	130	3.9	13.84	28,790
Helpers--production workers	1,810	2.2	13.74	28,570
Production workers, all other	320	0.7	13.47	28,020
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Scranton—Wilkes-Barre—Hazleton Metropolitan Statistical Area, www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_42540.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 releases.