Workers in the Scranton–Wilkes-Barre–Hazleton, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $20.68 in May 2018, roughly 17 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 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, local employment shares were significantly higher in five occupational groups, including transportation and material moving, production, and office and administrative support. Conversely, 13 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 2018

Major occupational group	Percent of total employment			Mean hourly wage
	United States	Scranton		United States	Scranton		Percent difference (1)
Total, all occupations	100	100		$24.98	$20.68	*	-17
Management	5.3	3.5	*	58.44	51.36	*	-12
Business and financial operations	5.3	3.3	*	36.98	30.92	*	-16
Computer and mathematical	3.0	1.4	*	44.01	32.60	*	-25
Architecture and engineering	1.8	1.2	*	42.01	35.50	*	-15
Life, physical, and social science	0.8	0.4	*	36.62	34.66		-5
Community and social service	1.5	1.9	*	23.69	20.47	*	-14
Legal	0.8	0.5	*	52.25	33.98	*	-35
Education, training, and library	6.1	5.3	*	27.22	27.10		0
Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media	1.3	0.8	*	28.74	20.53	*	-29
Healthcare practitioners and technical	6.0	7.0	*	39.42	32.82	*	-17
Healthcare support	2.8	3.1		15.57	15.51		0
Protective service	2.4	2.1	*	23.36	23.45		0
Food preparation and serving related	9.2	8.6	*	12.30	11.38	*	-7
Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance	3.1	2.8		14.43	13.37	*	-7
Personal care and service	3.8	3.9		13.51	12.21	*	-10
Sales and related	10.0	9.5	*	20.09	16.46	*	-18
Office and administrative support	15.1	16.9	*	18.75	16.89	*	-10
Farming, fishing, and forestry	0.3	0.1	*	14.49	17.38		20
Construction and extraction	4.1	3.3	*	24.62	23.71	*	-4
Installation, maintenance, and repair	3.9	4.0		23.54	21.44	*	-9
Production	6.3	8.8	*	18.84	18.09	*	-4
Transportation and material moving	7.1	11.8	*	18.41	16.86	*	-8
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 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—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Scranton had 22,730 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 $18.09, significantly lower than the national wage of $18.84.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included assemblers and fabricators, all other, including team assemblers (4,630), paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders (1,750), and first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (1,320). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers, with a mean hourly wage of $29.12, and water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators with a wage of $23.37. At the lower end of the wage scale were butchers and meat cutters ($13.95) and bakers ($12.64). (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 4.4 times the national rate in Scranton, and paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders at 10.0 times the U.S. average. In contrast, inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers had a location quotient of 1.2 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 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 Scranton—Wilkes-Barre—Hazleton Metropolitan Statistical Area included 2,346 establishments with a response rate of 68 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 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 2018

Occupation(1)	Employment(2)		Mean wage
	Level	Location quotient(3)	Hourly	Annual(4)
Production occupations	22,730	1.4	$18.09	$37,620
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers	1,320	1.2	29.12	60,570
Electrical, electronic, and electromechanical assemblers, except coil winders, tapers, and finishers	110	0.2	15.90	33,060
Structural metal fabricators and fitters	(5)	(5)	23.68	49,250
Assemblers and fabricators, all other, including team assemblers	4,630	1.9	15.39	32,010
Bakers	480	1.5	12.64	26,290
Butchers and meat cutters	310	1.3	13.95	29,010
Food batchmakers	700	2.5	15.49	32,220
Computer-controlled machine tool operators, metal and plastic	380	1.4	18.24	37,950
Extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	600	4.4	17.29	35,970
Rolling machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	100	2.1	18.41	38,290
Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	790	2.4	19.00	39,510
Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	80	0.6	16.87	35,080
Lathe and turning machinetool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	(5)	(5)	15.96	33,200
Machinists	460	0.7	20.27	42,160
Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	510	1.7	17.43	36,260
Multiple machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	460	1.9	19.68	40,930
Tool and die makers	80	0.6	24.13	50,200
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers	550	0.8	21.38	44,470
Welding, soldering, and brazing machine setters, operators, and tenders	110	1.8	19.35	40,250
Plating and coating machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	140	2.0	17.85	37,130
Metal workers and plastic workers, all other	80	1.7	21.05	43,780
Prepress technicians and workers	120	2.2	20.38	42,390
Printing press operators	600	1.9	19.52	40,590
Print binding and finishing workers	240	2.9	16.25	33,790
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers	440	1.2	12.32	25,620
Pressers, textile, garment, and related materials	120	1.8	10.12	21,050
Sewing machine operators	170	0.7	12.55	26,110
Textile cutting machine setters, operators, and tenders	(5)	(5)	14.83	30,850
Textile knitting and weaving machine setters, operators, and tenders	90	2.4	13.09	27,240
Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters	80	0.4	17.35	36,100
Sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood	110	1.2	14.61	30,380
Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing	120	0.9	15.55	32,350
Stationary engineers and boiler operators	70	1.3	25.10	52,210
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators	310	1.4	23.37	48,620
Chemical equipment operators and tenders	160	1.1	15.75	32,750
Grinding and polishing workers, hand	40	0.7	15.62	32,490
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders	120	0.5	18.64	38,770
Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders	140	1.3	15.63	32,500
Extruding, forming, pressing, and compacting machine setters, operators, and tenders	(5)	(5)	17.18	35,730
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	1,150	1.2	17.75	36,920
Dental laboratory technicians	(5)	(5)	25.30	52,630
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders	1,270	1.8	17.48	36,360
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders	170	1.1	14.61	30,380
Painters, transportation equipment	30	0.3	23.77	49,430
Adhesive bonding machine operators and tenders	40	1.3	15.67	32,600
Molders, shapers, and casters, except metal and plastic	90	1.2	14.77	30,720
Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders	1,750	10.0	20.71	43,070
Helpers--production workers	1,120	1.8	12.23	25,430
Production workers, all other	130	0.3	14.14	29,400
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.