Workers in the Harrisburg-Carlisle Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $23.82 in May 2018, about 5 percent below the nationwide average of $24.98, 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 lower than their respective national averages in 12 of the 22 major occupational groups, including legal, architecture and engineering, and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment shares were significantly higher in 7 of the 22 occupational groups, including transportation and material moving, office and administrative support, and business and financial operations. Conversely, 9 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation including production, construction and extraction, and sales and related. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

 Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Harrisburg-Carlisle Metropolitan Statistical Area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2018

Major occupational group	Percent of total employment			Mean hourly wage
	United States	Harrisburg		United States	Harrisburg		Percent difference (1)
Total, all occupations	100	100		$24.98	$23.82	*	-5
Management	5.3	4.4	*	58.44	55.64	*	-5
Business and financial operations	5.3	6.7	*	36.98	33.07	*	-11
Computer and mathematical	3.0	3.5	*	44.01	39.19	*	-11
Architecture and engineering	1.8	1.6	*	42.01	37.17	*	-12
Life, physical, and social science	0.8	0.7		36.62	33.13	*	-10
Community and social service	1.5	1.7	*	23.69	23.88		1
Legal	0.8	1.0	*	52.25	43.58	*	-17
Education, training, and library	6.1	5.5		27.22	27.27		0
Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media	1.3	0.9	*	28.74	25.46	*	-11
Healthcare practitioners and technical	6.0	6.5	*	39.42	36.65	*	-7
Healthcare support	2.8	2.9		15.57	15.22		-2
Protective service	2.4	2.3		23.36	23.11		-1
Food preparation and serving related	9.2	8.1	*	12.30	11.35	*	-8
Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance	3.1	2.5	*	14.43	12.65	*	-12
Personal care and service	3.8	3.8		13.51	12.34	*	-9
Sales and related	10.0	8.8	*	20.09	20.45		2
Office and administrative support	15.1	17.3	*	18.75	18.73		0
Farming, fishing, and forestry	0.3	0.1	*	14.49	18.35	*	27
Construction and extraction	4.1	2.7	*	24.62	23.67	*	-4
Installation, maintenance, and repair	3.9	3.8		23.54	22.95		-3
Production	6.3	4.2	*	18.84	18.52		-2
Transportation and material moving	7.1	11.0	*	18.41	18.12		-2
Footnotes: (1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in the Harrisburg-Carlisle Metropolitan Statistical Area is above the national mean wage, while a negative difference reflects a lower wage. * The mean hourly wage or percent share of employment is significantly different from the national average of all areas at the 90-percent confidence level.

One occupational group—transportation and material moving—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Harrisburg had 35,680 jobs in transportation and material moving occupations, accounting for 11.0 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the national share of 7.1 percent. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $18.12, similar to the national wage of $18.41.

With employment of 10,970, hand laborers and freight, stock, and material movers was the largest detailed occupation within the transportation and material moving group, followed by heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers (7,800). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of transportation and material moving workers, except aircraft cargo handling supervisors, with a mean hourly wage of $29.89, and heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers with a wage of $22.42. At the lower end of the wage scale were automotive and watercraft service attendants ($12.00) and cleaners of vehicles and equipment ($12.65). (Detailed occupational data for transportation and material moving are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_25420.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 Harrisburg area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in several of the occupations within the transportation and material moving group. For instance, hand laborers and freight, stock, and material movers were employed at 1.7 times the national rate in Harrisburg, and industrial truck and tractor operators at 3.4 times the U.S. average. In contrast, driver/sales workers had a location quotient of 1.1 in Harrisburg, indicating that this particular occupation’s local employment share was similar to the national share.

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 580 areas, including states and the District of Columbia, metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), nonmetropolitan areas, and territories; national industry-specific estimates at the NAICS sector, 3-digit, most 4-digit, 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.

The OES survey is a cooperative effort between BLS and State Workforce Agencies (SWAs). BLS funds the survey and provides the procedures and technical support, while the State Workforce Agencies collect most of the data. OES estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.2 million establishments. Each year, two semiannual panels of approximately 180,000 to 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 2018 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2018, November 2017, May 2017, November 2016, May 2016, and November 2015. The unweighted sample employment of 83 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 58 percent of total national employment. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 71 percent based on establishments and 68 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Harrisburg-Carlisle Metropolitan Statistical Area included 2,636 establishments with a response rate of 67 percent. For more information about OES concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_tec.htm.

A value that is statistically different from another does not necessarily mean that the difference has economic or practical significance. Statistical significance is concerned with the ability to make confident statements about a universe based on sample. It is entirely possible that a large difference between two values is not significantly different statistically, while a small difference is, since both the size and heterogeneity of the sample affect the relative error of the data being tested.

The May 2018 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 Harrisburg-Carlisle Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Cumberland, Dauphin, and Perry Counties 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, Harrisburg-Carlisle Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2018

Occupation (1)	Employment (2)		Mean wage
	Level	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Transportation and material moving occupations	35,680	1.6	$18.12	$37,690
First-line supervisors of transportation and material moving workers, except aircraft cargo handling supervisors	1,940	2.1	29.89	62,170
Airfield operations specialists	50	2.2	17.94	37,300
Bus drivers, school or special client	1,880	1.7	12.19	25,360
Driver/sales workers	1,020	1.1	16.66	34,640
Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers	7,800	1.9	22.42	46,630
Light truck or delivery services drivers	2,450	1.2	16.37	34,040
Taxi drivers and chauffeurs	270	0.6	13.87	28,850
Motor vehicle operators, all other	90	0.7	14.14	29,410
Parking lot attendants	160	0.5	10.18	21,180
Automotive and watercraft service attendants	370	1.4	12.00	24,960
Transportation inspectors	30	0.5	30.97	64,410
Conveyor operators and tenders	(5)	(5)	15.11	31,430
Crane and tower operators	160	1.7	28.75	59,800
Industrial truck and tractor operators	4,590	3.4	17.95	37,330
Cleaners of vehicles and equipment	490	0.6	12.65	26,300
Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand	10,970	1.7	15.74	32,740
Machine feeders and offbearers	440	3.0	17.17	35,710
Packers and packagers, hand	2,390	1.6	14.22	29,580
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Harrisburg-Carlisle Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_25420.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.