Department of Labor Logo United States Department of Labor
Dot gov

The .gov means it's official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you're on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

News Release Information

23-1411-PHI
Friday, July 14, 2023

Contacts Technical information: Media contact:

Occupational Employment and Wages in Erie — May 2022

Workers in the Erie, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $23.37 in May 2022, 21 percent below the nationwide average of $29.76, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Alexandra Hall Bovee noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were lower than their respective national averages in 20 of the 22 major occupational groups, including legal; management; and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Erie area employment was more highly concentrated in 6 of the 22 occupational groups, including production, healthcare support, and healthcare practitioners and technical. Thirteen groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including business and financial operations, management, and computer and mathematical. (See table A.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Erie metropolitan area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2022
Major occupational groupPercent of total employmentMean hourly wage ($)
United StatesErieUnited StatesEriePercent difference (1)

Total, all occupations

100.0100.029.7623.37*-21

Management

6.74.8*63.0849.15*-22

Business and financial operations

6.54.4*41.3932.67*-21

Computer and mathematical

3.41.7*51.9939.98*-23

Architecture and engineering

1.71.4*45.5234.70*-24

Life, physical, and social science

0.90.4*40.2131.63*-21

Community and social service

1.62.0*26.8123.07*-14

Legal

0.80.4*59.8741.41*-31

Educational instruction and library

5.75.930.4128.86*-5

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.41.0*36.7824.01*-35

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.17.5*46.5238.88*-16

Healthcare support

4.68.1*17.1014.36*-16

Protective service

2.32.2*25.9725.49-2

Food preparation and serving related

8.59.7*15.4513.08*-15

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.92.917.2615.15*-12

Personal care and service

1.92.5*17.4114.83*-15

Sales and related

8.98.1*24.2218.69*-23

Office and administrative support

12.612.1*21.9019.61*-10

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.30.1*18.2118.290

Construction and extraction

4.12.8*28.0825.54*-9

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.93.926.7723.68*-12

Production

5.910.1*21.8119.96*-8

Transportation and material moving

9.28.3*21.1218.23*-14

Footnotes:
(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in the Erie, PA 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. Erie had 11,850 jobs in production, accounting for 10.1 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 5.9-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $19.96, significantly below the national wage of $21.81.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators (1,840), first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (880), and inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers (770). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers and computer numerically controlled tool programmers, with mean hourly wages of $29.12 and $26.59, respectively (See chart 1). At the lower end of the wage scale were laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($13.51) and paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders ($15.88). (Detailed data for the production occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_21500.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 than it does nationally. In the Erie 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 6.1 times the national rate in Erie, and molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic, at 5.8 times the U.S. average. Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders had a location quotient of 1.2 in Erie, indicating that this particular occupation’s local and national employment shares were similar.

These statistics are from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, a federal-state cooperative program between BLS and State Workforce Agencies, in this case, the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry.

Changes to the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) Data

The May 2022 OEWS estimates use the model-based (MB3) estimation method implemented with the May 2021 estimates release. Additional updates were made to the MB3 wage processing methodology for May 2022. For more information, see the May 2022 Survey Methods and Reliability Statement.

The May 2022 estimates are the first OEWS estimates to be produced using the 2022 NAICS, which replaces the 2017 NAICS used for the May 2017-May 2021 estimates. See North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) at BLS for details.


Technical Note

The Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey is a semiannual survey measuring occupational employment and wage rates for wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments in the United States. The OEWS 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. OEWS data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm.

The OEWS survey is a cooperative effort between BLS and the 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. OEWS estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.1 million establishments. Each year, two semiannual panels of approximately 179,000 to 187,000 sampled establishments are contacted, one panel in May and the other in November. Responses are obtained by Internet or other electronic means, mail, email, telephone, or personal visit. The May 2022 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2022, November 2021, May 2021, November 2020, May 2020, and November 2019. The unweighted sampled employment of 80 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 57 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 65.4 percent based on establishments and 62.5 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Erie, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,490 establishments with a response rate of 60 percent. For more information about OEWS 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 a 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.

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 Erie, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Erie County.

For more information

Answers to frequently asked questions about the OEWS data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_ques.htm. Detailed information about the OEWS program is available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_doc.htm.

Information in this release will be made available to individuals with sensory impairments upon request. Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; Telecommunications Relay Service: 7-1-1.

Table 1. Employment and wage data for production occupations, Erie metropolitan area, May 2022
Occupation (1)EmploymentMean wages ($)
Level (2)Location quotient (3)HourlyAnnual (4)

Production occupations

11,8501.719.9641,520

First-line supervisors of production and operating workers

8801.729.1260,570

Electrical, electronic, and electromechanical assemblers, except coil winders, tapers, and finishers

4602.116.4234,150

Structural metal fabricators and fitters

901.823.1848,210

Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators

1,8401.616.7234,770

Bakers

2701.716.0033,280

Butchers and meat cutters

800.817.1035,560

Food batchmakers

2802.118.7438,970

Extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

1903.817.1935,750

Forging machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

405.324.6851,320

Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

2301.618.5438,560

Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

1903.317.8937,210

Machinists

6202.522.4346,660

Pourers and casters, metal

5010.618.8339,170

Foundry mold and coremakers

10010.915.9233,100

Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

7605.818.4338,330

Multiple machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

6205.721.2844,260

Tool and die makers

3006.125.9353,940

Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers

7402.321.4544,620

Welding, soldering, and brazing machine setters, operators, and tenders

602.422.7847,380

Plating machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

1606.316.2333,750

Metal workers and plastic workers, all other

503.020.2442,100

Printing press operators

1801.517.7937,000

Laundry and dry-cleaning workers

1401.013.5128,100

Sewing machine operators

901.017.5236,450

Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters

500.618.8439,190

Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing

500.917.0635,490

Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators

1201.325.8953,840

Separating, filtering, clarifying, precipitating, and still machine setters, operators, and tenders

400.920.3642,350

Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders

600.721.2844,250

Extruding, forming, pressing, and compacting machine setters, operators, and tenders

1202.518.2237,890

Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers

7701.719.9041,380

Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders

3601.219.2640,070

Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders

2201.819.5840,720

Computer numerically controlled tool operators

5904.222.2046,170

Computer numerically controlled tool programmers

301.426.5955,310

Adhesive bonding machine operators and tenders

303.616.1233,520

Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders

300.515.8833,020

Helpers--production workers

2201.516.9735,300

Production workers, all other

500.216.6034,530

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Erie, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_21500.htm.
(2) Estimates for detailed occupations may not sum to the totals due to rounding, and because the totals may include occupations that are 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.

 

Last Modified Date: Friday, July 14, 2023