Workers in the Lancaster Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $19.61 in May 2014, 14 percent below the nationwide average of $22.71, 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 13 of the 22 major occupational groups, including computer and mathematical; arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media; and business and financial operations. Three groups had hourly wages that were significantly higher than their respective national averages including protective service and production. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

 

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Lancaster Metropolitan Statistical Area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2014

Major occupational group	Employment share (percent of total)			Average (mean) hourly wage
	United States	Lancaster	Significant difference (1)	United States	Lancaster	Significant difference (1)	Percent difference (2)
Total, all occupations	100.00%	100.00%		$22.71	$19.61	Yes	-14
Management	5.0	3.3	Yes	54.08	48.48	Yes	-10
Business and financial operations	5.1	3.6	Yes	34.81	30.53	Yes	-12
Computer and mathematical	2.8	1.6	Yes	40.37	32.66	Yes	-19
Architecture and engineering	1.8	1.6	No	39.19	34.10	Yes	-13
Life, physical, and social science	0.8	0.4	Yes	33.69	29.36	Yes	-13
Community and social service	1.4	1.4	No	21.79	18.89	Yes	-13
Legal	0.8	0.3	Yes	48.61	42.73	No	-12
Education, training, and library	6.2	4.7	Yes	25.10	23.84	No	-5
Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media	1.3	1.2	No	26.82	19.44	Yes	-28
Healthcare practitioners and technical	5.8	5.5	Yes	36.54	32.95	Yes	-10
Healthcare support	2.9	3.6	Yes	13.86	13.98	No	1
Protective service	2.4	1.0	Yes	21.14	23.09	Yes	9
Food preparation and serving related	9.1	9.2	No	10.57	10.39	No	-2
Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance	3.2	3.0	No	12.68	12.81	No	1
Personal care and service	3.1	3.2	No	12.01	11.98	No	0
Sales and related	10.5	11.3	Yes	18.59	17.02	Yes	-8
Office and administrative support	16.0	15.1	Yes	17.08	16.07	Yes	-6
Farming, fishing, and forestry	0.3	0.3	No	12.09	13.18	Yes	9
Construction and extraction	3.9	5.4	Yes	22.40	20.67	Yes	-8
Installation, maintenance, and repair	3.9	4.2	Yes	21.74	20.99	Yes	-3
Production	6.6	10.8	Yes	17.06	17.46	Yes	2
Transportation and material moving	6.8	9.1	Yes	16.57	15.15	Yes	-9
Footnotes: (1) Statistical significance testing at the 90-percent confidence level. (2) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in Lancaster is above the national mean wage, while a negative difference reflects a lower wage.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Lancaster employment shares were significantly higher in 6 of the 22 occupational groups including production, transportation and material moving, and construction and extraction. Conversely, nine groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation including management; business and financial operations; and education, training, and library.

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Lancaster had 24,280 jobs in production, accounting for 10.8 percent of local area employment, significantly larger than the 6.6-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $17.46, significantly above the national wage of $17.06.

With employment of 2,070, team assemblers was the largest occupation within the production group, followed by production helpers, with 1,840 jobs. Among the higher-paying jobs were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers and water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators, with mean hourly wages of $27.44 and $22.08, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($10.53) and bakers ($12.00). (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_29540.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 Lancaster area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, food batchmakers were employed at over four-and-a-half times the national rate in Lancaster, and print binding and finishing workers, at more than seven times the U.S. average. On the other hand, machinists had a location quotient of 1.2 in Lancaster, 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. Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands are also surveyed, but their data are not included in the national estimates. OES estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.2 million establishments. Each year, forms are mailed to two semiannual panels of approximately 200,000 sampled establishments, one panel in May and the other in November. May 2014 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2014, November 2013, May 2013, November 2012, May 2012, and November 2011. The overall national response rate for the six panels is 74.3 percent based on establishments and 70.5 percent based on employment. The sample in the Lancaster Metropolitan Statistical Area included 2,405 establishments with a response rate of 76 percent. For more information about OES concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.tn.htm.

 

The OES survey provides estimates of employment and hourly and annual wages for wage and salary workers in 22 major occupational groups and 821 detailed occupations for the nation, states, metropolitan statistical areas, metropolitan divisions, and nonmetropolitan areas. In addition, employment and wage estimates for 94 minor groups and 458 broad occupations are available in the national data. OES data by state and metropolitan/nonmetropolitan area are available from www.bls.gov/oes/current/oessrcst.htm and www.bls.gov/oes/current/oessrcma.htm, respectively.

 

The May 2014 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.

 

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 Lancaster, Pa. Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Lancaster County 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: 1-800-877-8339.

Table 1. Employment and wage data from the Occupational Employment Statistics survey, by occupation, Lancaster Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2014

Occupation(1)	Employment(2)		Mean wage
	Level	Location quotient(3)	Hourly	Annual(4)
Production occupations	24,280	1.6	$17.46	$36,310
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers	1,690	1.7	27.44	57,070
Electrical and electronic equipment assemblers	180	0.5	15.17	31,550
Electromechanical equipment assemblers	(5)	(5)	13.90	28,910
Structural metal fabricators and fitters	440	3.4	19.42	40,380
Team assemblers	2,070	1.1	14.12	29,360
Assemblers and fabricators, all other	280	0.7	18.59	38,670
Bakers	410	1.4	12.00	24,970
Butchers and meat cutters	320	1.4	15.82	32,910
Slaughterers and meat packers	370	2.5	13.87	28,840
Food batchmakers	970	4.8	19.45	40,450
Food cooking machine operators and tenders	130	2.2	13.07	27,200
Computer-controlled machine tool operators, metal and plastic	370	1.5	17.96	37,370
Computer numerically controlled machine tool programmers, metal and plastic	50	1.2	23.20	48,250
Extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	380	3.2	18.45	38,380
Rolling machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	180	3.2	20.61	42,860
Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	640	2.0	17.27	35,920
Drilling and boring machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	80	2.8	14.87	30,920
Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	210	1.8	17.89	37,220
Lathe and turning machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	110	1.5	17.30	35,990
Milling and planing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	80	2.3	21.64	45,020
Machinists	800	1.2	18.06	37,560
Metal-refining furnace operators and tenders	110	3.0	17.75	36,920
Pourers and casters, metal	90	5.5	(5)	(5)
Patternmakers, metal and plastic	60	9.6	20.64	42,930
Foundry mold and coremakers	60	3.0	15.67	32,590
Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	630	2.9	16.17	33,630
Multiple machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	240	1.4	18.70	38,890
Tool and die makers	250	2.0	21.56	44,840
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers	1,150	1.9	18.43	38,340
Welding, soldering, and brazing machine setters, operators, and tenders	90	1.0	14.32	29,780
Heat treating equipment setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	110	3.2	18.73	38,960
Plating and coating machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	170	2.8	17.64	36,690
Metal workers and plastic workers, all others	90	2.4	17.10	35,560
Prepress technicians and workers	170	2.8	19.27	40,080
Printing press operators	970	3.5	19.13	39,780
Print binding and finishing workers	610	7.1	16.66	34,650
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers	320	1.0	10.53	21,890
Pressers, textile, garment, and related materials	30	0.4	11.31	23,520
Sewing machine operators	220	0.9	11.99	24,950
Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters	510	3.5	18.33	38,130
Furniture finishers	120	4.8	16.46	34,240
Sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood	180	2.4	16.04	33,370
Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing	490	4.1	16.76	34,860
Stationary engineers and boiler operators	40	0.7	26.74	55,630
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators	290	1.6	22.08	45,920
Plant and system operators, all other	50	2.5	22.18	46,130
Separating, filtering, clarifying, precipitating, and still machine setters, operators, and tenders	50	0.7	17.58	36,560
Crushing, grinding, and polishing machine setters, operators, and tenders	110	2.1	15.52	32,290
Grinding and polishing workers, hand	50	1.0	16.76	34,870
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders	290	1.4	15.55	32,340
Cutters and trimmers, hand	(5)	(5)	14.67	30,500
Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders	150	1.5	14.00	29,110
Extruding, forming, pressing, and compacting machine setters, operators, and tenders	160	1.5	(5)	(5)
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	1,020	1.2	17.40	36,190
Dental laboratory technicians	60	1.1	16.16	33,620
Medical appliance technicians	70	3.3	16.38	34,060
Ophthalmic laboratory technicians	(5)	(5)	16.39	34,090
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders	920	1.4	16.36	34,020
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders	400	2.6	17.07	35,510
Painters, transportation equipment	50	0.6	21.78	45,300
Painting, coating, and decorating workers	30	1.3	16.84	35,030
Photographic process workers and processing machine operators	50	1.1	14.67	30,500
Adhesive bonding machine operators and tenders	40	1.3	(5)	(5)
Cleaning, washing, and metal pickling equipment operators and tenders	70	2.6	15.05	31,300
Cooling and freezing equipment operators and tenders	(5)	(5)	15.13	31,470
Molders, shapers, and casters, except metal and plastic	250	4.3	14.75	30,680
Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders	250	1.6	16.31	33,920
Helpers--production workers	1,840	2.6	14.91	31,020
Production workers, all other	230	0.7	15.57	32,390
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Lancaster MSA, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_29540.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.