Workers in the York-Hanover Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $20.82 in May 2016, 13 percent below the nationwide average of $23.86, 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 arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media; legal; and architecture and engineering. The healthcare support occupational group was the only group that had an average hourly wage that was significantly higher than the national average.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was significantly higher in 5 of the 22 occupational groups including production; transportation and material moving; and installation, maintenance, and repair. Conversely, 14 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation; these groups included computer and mathematical; management; and business and financial operations. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

 

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the York-Hanover Metropolitan Statistical Area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2016

Major occupational group	Percent of total employment			Mean hourly wage
	United States	York		United States	York		Percent difference (1)
Total, all occupations	100.0	100.0		$23.86	$20.82	*	-13
Management	5.1	3.5	*	56.74	53.85	*	-5
Business and financial operations	5.2	3.6	*	36.09	33.08	*	-8
Computer and mathematical	3.0	1.3	*	42.25	35.55	*	-16
Architecture and engineering	1.8	2.3	*	40.53	33.71	*	-17
Life, physical, and social science	0.8	0.5	*	35.06	29.84	*	-15
Community and social service	1.4	1.3	*	22.69	20.30	*	-11
Legal	0.8	0.3	*	50.95	36.68	*	-28
Education, training, and library	6.2	5.4	*	26.21	24.60	*	-6
Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media	1.4	0.6	*	28.07	19.94	*	-29
Healthcare practitioners and technical	5.9	6.1		38.06	35.26	*	-7
Healthcare support	2.9	2.8		14.65	15.10	*	3
Protective service	2.4	1.4	*	22.03	21.88		-1
Food preparation and serving related	9.2	8.7	*	11.47	10.63	*	-7
Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance	3.2	2.7	*	13.47	12.30	*	-9
Personal care and service	3.2	2.8	*	12.74	11.85	*	-7
Sales and related	10.4	9.9		19.50	16.60	*	-15
Office and administrative support	15.7	14.5	*	17.91	16.71	*	-7
Farming, fishing, and forestry	0.3	0.1	*	13.37	13.76		3
Construction and extraction	4.0	4.5	*	23.51	21.99	*	-6
Installation, maintenance, and repair	3.9	4.6	*	22.45	22.75		1
Production	6.5	11.5	*	17.88	17.62		-1
Transportation and material moving	6.9	11.8	*	17.34	16.79	*	-3
Footnotes: (1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in the York-Hanover Metropolitan Statistical Area 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. York had 20,580 jobs in production, accounting for 11.5 percent of local area employment, nearly twice the 6.5-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $17.62, similar to the national wage of $17.88.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group include team assemblers (2,770); inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers (1,400); and first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (1,290). Among the higher-paying jobs were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers and tool and die makers, with mean hourly wages of $28.58 and $23.02, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were production worker helpers ($12.85) and food batchmakers ($13.17). (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_49620.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 York area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, tool and die makers were employed at 4.8 times the national rate in York, and paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders were employed at 8.1 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, bakers had a location quotient of 1.2 in York, 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. 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 York-Hanover Metropolitan Division included 2,016 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 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 York-Hanover, Pa. Metropolitan Statistical Area includes York 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/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, York-Hanover Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2016

Occupation(1)	Employment(2)		Mean wages
	Level	Location quotient(3)	Hourly	Annual(4)
Production occupations	20,580	1.8	$17.62	$36,660
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers	1,290	1.7	28.58	59,450
Coil winders, tapers, and finishers	70	4.0	13.15	27,340
Electrical and electronic equipment assemblers	410	1.5	14.70	30,580
Electromechanical equipment assemblers	350	6.1	15.66	32,570
Structural metal fabricators and fitters	(5)	(5)	18.72	38,930
Team assemblers	2,770	2.0	14.57	30,300
Assemblers and fabricators, all other	250	0.8	13.12	27,290
Bakers	270	1.2	12.92	26,870
Butchers and meat cutters	100	0.6	14.11	29,360
Food and tobacco roasting, baking, and drying machine operators and tenders	70	2.9	19.50	40,560
Food batchmakers	420	2.2	13.17	27,400
Food cooking machine operators and tenders	360	7.6	18.22	37,910
Computer-controlled machine tool operators, metal and plastic	610	3.3	17.68	36,770
Computer numerically controlled machine tool programmers, metal and plastic	70	2.0	26.16	54,420
Extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	150	1.6	15.80	32,870
Rolling machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	(5)	(5)	19.31	40,170
Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	550	2.2	17.49	36,390
Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	150	1.6	15.66	32,560
Lathe and turning machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	(5)	(5)	19.24	40,030
Milling and planing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	(5)	(5)	20.21	42,030
Machinists	830	1.7	19.76	41,110
Metal-refining furnace operators and tenders	50	2.3	18.72	38,930
Pourers and casters, metal	50	4.2	15.69	32,640
Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	310	1.7	16.69	34,720
Multiple machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	490	3.2	17.97	37,380
Tool and die makers	440	4.8	23.02	47,890
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers	930	1.9	20.82	43,310
Welding, soldering, and brazing machine setters, operators, and tenders	70	1.2	15.07	31,340
Plating and coating machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	110	2.3	14.49	30,150
Metal workers and plastic workers, all other	70	2.5	12.51	26,010
Prepress technicians and workers	140	3.2	17.04	35,440
Printing press operators	570	2.6	18.34	38,140
Print binding and finishing workers	290	4.4	14.08	29,280
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers	190	0.7	11.13	23,160
Pressers, textile, garment, and related materials	(5)	(5)	11.68	24,300
Upholsterers	40	1.0	15.36	31,940
Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters	110	0.9	15.67	32,590
Furniture finishers	40	1.9	12.62	26,260
Sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood	100	1.5	13.97	29,060
Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing	190	1.9	13.03	27,090
Stationary engineers and boiler operators	50	1.1	24.99	51,990
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators	190	1.3	26.27	54,640
Gas plant operators	50	2.0	29.07	60,470
Chemical equipment operators and tenders	180	1.9	17.32	36,020
Separating, filtering, clarifying, precipitating, and still machine setters, operators, and tenders	130	2.1	(5)	(5)
Grinding and polishing workers, hand	90	2.7	14.05	29,220
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders	190	1.1	19.74	41,060
Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders	180	2.2	16.36	34,030
Extruding, forming, pressing, and compacting machine setters, operators, and tenders	190	2.1	19.89	41,370
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	1,400	2.1	16.51	34,340
Jewelers and precious stone and metal workers	30	0.9	17.44	36,270
Dental laboratory technicians	30	0.7	21.03	43,730
Ophthalmic laboratory technicians	70	2.0	12.81	26,640
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders	860	1.7	15.98	33,240
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders	180	1.6	15.98	33,250
Painters, transportation equipment	50	0.7	21.96	45,680
Molders, shapers, and casters, except metal and plastic	130	2.5	16.03	33,330
Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders	960	8.1	17.23	35,830
Helpers--production workers	1,040	1.9	12.85	26,720
Production workers, all other	140	0.4	16.25	33,800
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the York-Hanover Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_49620.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.