Workers in the Scranton–Wilkes-Barre–Hazleton, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $20.18 in May 2017, roughly 17 percent below the nationwide average of $24.34, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Sheila Watkins, the Bureau’s regional commissioner, noted that, after testing for statistical significance, 16 of the 22 major occupational groups in the local area were significantly lower than their respective national averages, including legal; arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media; and computer and mathematical.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment shares were significantly higher in six occupational groups including, transportation and material moving, production, and office and administrative support. Conversely, 14 occupational groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation; these groups included business and financial operations, management, 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 the Scranton–Wilkes-Barre–Hazleton Metropolitan Statistical Area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2017

Major occupational group	Percent of total employment			Mean hourly wage
	United States	Scranton		United States	Scranton		Percent difference (1)
Total, all occupations	100	100		$24.34	$20.18	*	-17
Management	5.1	3.4	*	57.65	49.25	*	-15
Business and financial operations	5.2	3.5	*	36.70	30.16	*	-18
Computer and mathematical	3.0	1.5	*	43.18	31.71	*	-27
Architecture and engineering	1.8	1.3	*	41.44	34.87	*	-16
Life, physical, and social science	0.8	0.5	*	35.76	35.17		-2
Community and social service	1.5	2.0	*	23.10	20.46	*	-11
Legal	0.8	0.5	*	51.62	31.08	*	-40
Education, training, and library	6.1	5.2	*	26.67	26.81		1
Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media	1.4	0.9	*	28.34	20.00	*	-29
Healthcare practitioners and technical	6.0	6.8	*	38.83	32.33	*	-17
Healthcare support	2.9	3.5	*	15.05	14.98		0
Protective service	2.4	2.2	*	22.69	22.53		-1
Food preparation and serving related	9.3	8.8	*	11.88	10.96	*	-8
Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance	3.1	3.1		13.91	12.33	*	-11
Personal care and service	3.6	3.2	*	13.11	11.72	*	-11
Sales and related	10.2	9.1	*	19.56	16.07	*	-18
Office and administrative support	15.4	17.1	*	18.24	16.57	*	-9
Farming, fishing, and forestry	0.3	0.1	*	13.87	15.04		8
Construction and extraction	4.0	3.2	*	24.01	22.49	*	-6
Installation, maintenance, and repair	3.9	4.0		23.02	21.00	*	-9
Production	6.3	8.8	*	18.30	17.61		-4
Transportation and material moving	7.0	11.6	*	17.82	16.71	*	-6
Footnotes: (1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in the Scranton–Wilkes-Barre–Hazleton 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. Scranton had 22,570 jobs in production, accounting for 8.8 percent of local area employment, significantly above the 6.3-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $17.61, close to the national wage of $18.30.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included assemblers and fabricators, all other, including team assemblers (4,520), production worker helpers (1,560), and paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders (1,500). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers, with a mean hourly wage of $27.04, and paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders with a wage of $22.60. At the lower end of the wage scale were slaughterers and meat packers ($12.96) and bakers ($12.85). (Detailed data for production occupations 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 4.6 times the national rate in Scranton, and print binding and finishing workers at 3.0 times the U.S. average. In contrast, machinists had a location quotient of 0.9 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 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 2017 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2017, November 2016, May 2016, November 2015, May 2015, and November 2014. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 72 percent based on establishments and 68 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The unweighted sample employment of 82 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 58 percent of total national employment. The sample in the Scranton—Wilkes-Barre—Hazleton Metropolitan Statistical Area included 2,411 establishments with a response rate of 71 percent. For more information about OES concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_tec.htm.

The May 2017 OES estimates are based on the 2010 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system and the 2017 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 2017 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 2017

Occupation(1)	Employment(2)		Mean wage
	Level	Location quotient(3)	Hourly	Annual(4)
Production occupations	22,570	1.4	$17.61	$36,620
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers	1,280	1.2	27.04	56,240
Electrical, electronic, and electromechanical assemblers, except coil winders, tapers, and finishers	80	0.2	17.16	35,700
Structural metal fabricators and fitters	(5)	(5)	21.74	45,220
Assemblers and fabricators, all other, including team assemblers	4,520	1.9	15.13	31,460
Bakers	570	1.7	12.85	26,730
Butchers and meat cutters	320	1.3	14.43	30,010
Slaughterers and meat packers	280	2.0	12.96	26,950
Food batchmakers	460	1.7	14.60	30,370
Food cooking machine operators and tenders	60	1.1	15.06	31,320
Computer-controlled machine tool operators, metal and plastic	480	1.8	16.66	34,660
Extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	610	4.6	16.82	34,980
Rolling machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	100	2.2	17.85	37,130
Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	720	2.1	18.60	38,680
Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	70	0.5	17.57	36,540
Machinists	630	0.9	20.53	42,700
Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	430	1.6	16.58	34,490
Multiple machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	320	1.5	19.29	40,130
Tool and die makers	60	0.5	24.26	50,460
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers	500	0.7	21.62	44,980
Welding, soldering, and brazing machine setters, operators, and tenders	100	1.4	19.82	41,220
Plating and coating machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	140	2.1	17.32	36,030
Metal workers and plastic workers, all other	(5)	(5)	19.77	41,120
Prepress technicians and workers	190	3.3	16.07	33,420
Printing press operators	640	2.1	18.66	38,820
Print binding and finishing workers	260	3.0	15.67	32,600
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers	320	0.9	12.65	26,310
Pressers, textile, garment, and related materials	120	1.6	10.20	21,210
Sewing machine operators	350	1.4	13.33	27,730
Tailors, dressmakers, and custom sewers	(5)	(5)	11.01	22,900
Textile cutting machine setters, operators, and tenders	(5)	(5)	14.20	29,540
Textile knitting and weaving machine setters, operators, and tenders	80	2.1	12.91	26,840
Upholsterers	40	0.7	15.79	32,840
Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters	40	0.2	17.47	36,340
Sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood	130	1.4	14.62	30,410
Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing	90	0.7	14.66	30,490
Stationary engineers and boiler operators	60	1.0	24.01	49,950
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators	200	0.9	23.15	48,160
Gas plant operators	(5)	(5)	29.28	60,910
Chemical equipment operators and tenders	170	1.2	20.83	43,330
Separating, filtering, clarifying, precipitating, and still machine setters, operators, and tenders	100	1.1	(5)	(5)
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders	190	0.8	20.22	42,050
Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders	150	1.4	14.19	29,520
Extruding, forming, pressing, and compacting machine setters, operators, and tenders	90	0.7	15.76	32,770
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	1,240	1.3	17.33	36,050
Dental laboratory technicians	(5)	(5)	24.25	50,440
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders	1,170	1.7	15.46	32,160
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders	100	0.7	14.28	29,710
Painters, transportation equipment	(5)	(5)	17.83	37,090
Photographic process workers and processing machine operators	(5)	(5)	11.84	24,620
Adhesive bonding machine operators and tenders	110	4.0	14.81	30,800
Cooling and freezing equipment operators and tenders	40	2.6	14.34	29,820
Molders, shapers, and casters, except metal and plastic	(5)	(5)	14.92	31,030
Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders	1,500	8.8	22.60	47,010
Helpers--production workers	1,560	2.2	14.18	29,490
Production workers, all other	(5)	(5)	13.14	27,330
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Scranton—Wilkes-Barre—Hazleton Metropolitan Statistical Area, see 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 released.