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News Release Information

17-524-CHI
Friday, June 30, 2017

Contacts Technical information: Media contact:
  • (312) 353-1138

Occupational Employment and Wages in Elgin — May 2016

Workers in the Elgin Metropolitan Division had an average (mean) hourly wage of $23.28 in May 2016, not significantly different than the nationwide average of $23.86, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Assistant Commissioner for Regional Operations Charlene Peiffer noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were lower than their respective national averages in 8 of the 22 major occupational groups, including management; business and financial operations; and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media. Eight groups had significantly higher wages than their respective national averages, including construction and extraction; healthcare support; and education, training, and library.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 4 of the 22 occupational groups, including production; transportation and material moving; and education, training, and library. Conversely, 14 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including business and financial operations; computer and mathematical; 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 Elgin Metropolitan Division, and measures of statistical significance, May 2016
Major occupational groupPercent of total employmentMean hourly wage
United StatesElginUnited StatesElginPercent difference (1)

Total, all occupations

100.0100.0$23.86$23.28-2

Management

5.16.5*56.7448.29*-15

Business and financial operations

5.23.4*36.0928.85*-20

Computer and mathematical

3.01.8*42.2537.63*-11

Architecture and engineering

1.81.5*40.5335.79*-12

Life, physical, and social science

0.80.5*35.0630.11*-14

Community and social service

1.41.422.6924.70*9

Legal

0.80.3*50.9546.27-9

Education, training, and library

6.28.1*26.2131.18*19

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.41.0*28.0722.35*-20

Healthcare practitioners and technical

5.95.1*38.0636.01*-5

Healthcare support

2.92.4*14.6515.66*7

Protective service

2.41.9*22.0327.63*25

Food preparation and serving related

9.28.5*11.4710.97*-4

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

3.22.6*13.4714.10*5

Personal care and service

3.22.5*12.7413.103

Sales and related

10.49.3*19.5019.852

Office and administrative support

15.715.317.9118.121

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.30.1*13.3714.84*11

Construction and extraction

4.03.923.5131.43*34

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.93.822.4524.07*7

Production

6.510.6*17.8817.46-2

Transportation and material moving

6.99.3*17.3416.35-6

Footnotes:
(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in the Elgin Metropolitan Division 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. Elgin had 26,130 jobs in production, accounting for 10.6 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 6.5-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $17.46, compared to the national wage of $17.88.

Some of the largest detailed occupations within the production group included machinists (2,440), team assemblers (1,590), and inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers (1,570). Among the higher paying jobs were stationary engineers and boiler operators with mean hourly wages of $35.83 and water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators, $28.82. At the lower end of the wage scale were laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($10.32) and pressers, textile, garment, and related materials ($10.37). (Detailed occupational data for production are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/2016/may/oes_20994.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 Elgin Metropolitan Division, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, cutters and trimmers, hand were employed at 10.2 times the national rate in Elgin, and molders, shapers, and casters, except metal and plastic, at 5.5 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers had a location quotient of 0.9 in Elgin, 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 Illinois Department of Employment Security.

Note

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.


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. 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 2016 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2016, November 2015, May 2015, November 2014, May 2014, and November 2013. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 73 percent based on establishments and 69 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The unweighted employment of sampled establishments across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 58 percent of total national employment. The sample in the Elgin Metropolitan Division included 1,939 establishments with a response rate of 62 percent. For more information about OES concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.tn.htm.

The May 2016 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.

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 Elgin, Ill. Metropolitan Division  includes DeKalb and Kane Counties.

Additional information

OES data are available on our regional web page at www.bls.gov/regions/midwest. 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, Elgin Metropolitan Division, May 2016
Occupation (1)EmploymentMean wages
Level (2)Location quotient (3)HourlyAnnual (4)

Production occupations

26,1301.6$17.46$36,310

First-line supervisors of production and operating workers

1,5101.428.3558,970

Electrical and electronic equipment assemblers

4601.215.1531,510

Engine and other machine assemblers

701.117.2735,920

Structural metal fabricators and fitters

500.419.1939,920

Team assemblers

1,5900.815.2931,800

Assemblers and fabricators, all other

1,0702.614.0329,170

Bakers

2400.713.6228,320

Butchers and meat cutters

3601.612.9426,910

Meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers

1200.411.7924,530

Slaughterers and meat packers

2101.513.4027,870

Food and tobacco roasting, baking, and drying machine operators and tenders

902.515.9033,080

Food batchmakers

1800.717.9937,420

Food cooking machine operators and tenders

(5)(5)12.8926,800

Food processing workers, all other

400.511.4223,760

Computer-controlled machine tool operators, metal and plastic

1600.621.0143,700

Computer numerically controlled machine tool programmers, metal and plastic

601.325.0752,140

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

(5)(5)14.0029,130

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

501.513.8728,860

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

6802.018.0937,620

Drilling and boring machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

301.413.5228,120

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

1201.018.0937,630

Lathe and turning machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

1502.521.0543,780

Milling and planing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

1003.118.2637,980

Machinists

2,4403.617.2735,930

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

3001.216.6434,610

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

6903.414.3829,900

Tool and die makers

2702.227.0456,240

Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers

6000.919.5940,740

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

800.919.1339,800

Heat treating equipment setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

(5)(5)16.6134,560

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

(5)(5)15.5632,370

Prepress technicians and workers

1001.621.5044,720

Printing press operators

4801.620.9743,620

Print binding and finishing workers

901.018.7639,020

Laundry and dry-cleaning workers

2300.610.3221,470

Pressers, textile, garment, and related materials

500.610.3721,580

Sewing machine operators

2701.113.0027,030

Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters

800.517.7136,850

Sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood

500.619.6940,940

Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing

600.514.1029,330

Stationary engineers and boiler operators

(5)(5)35.8374,530

Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators

1100.628.8259,950

Chemical equipment operators and tenders

(5)(5)20.1041,820

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

400.519.7741,120

Crushing, grinding, and polishing machine setters, operators, and tenders

801.416.3333,970

Grinding and polishing workers, hand

901.913.7128,520

Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders

5402.418.6938,880

Cutters and trimmers, hand

25010.213.3027,670

Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders

3002.821.1644,000

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

1201.016.3433,980

Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers

1,5701.717.1135,580

Dental laboratory technicians

(5)(5)17.7336,870

Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders

1,2701.913.2527,560

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

3402.315.4632,160

Photographic process workers and processing machine operators

300.716.7534,840

Etchers and engravers

(5)(5)10.4321,690

Molders, shapers, and casters, except metal and plastic

3805.514.7530,680

Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders

3302.017.7836,980

Helpers--production workers

1,1501.512.6426,290

Production workers, all other

(5)(5)18.1937,840

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Elgin, IL Metropolitan Division, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_20994.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.
 

 

Last Modified Date: Friday, June 30, 2017