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Wednesday, June 21, 2017
Workers in the Rockford Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $21.18 in May 2016, about 11 percent below 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 10 of the 22 major occupational groups, including management; computer and mathematical; and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media. Ten occupational groups had wages that were not significantly different from their respective national averages, including production; health care practitioners and technical; and education, training, and library.
When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 3 of the 22 occupational groups: production; transportation and material moving; and healthcare support. Conversely, 13 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including business and financial operations; computer and mathematical; and construction and extraction. (See table A and box note at end of release.)
Major occupational group | Percent of total employment | Mean hourly wage | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
United States | Rockford | United States | Rockford | Percent difference (1) | |
Total, all occupations | 100.0 | 100.0 | $23.86 | $21.18* | -11 |
Management | 5.1 | 5.0 | 56.74 | 45.09* | -21 |
Business and financial operations | 5.2 | 3.1* | 36.09 | 29.25* | -19 |
Computer and mathematical | 3.0 | 0.9* | 42.25 | 32.15* | -24 |
Architecture and engineering | 1.8 | 1.9 | 40.53 | 34.82* | -14 |
Life, physical, and social science | 0.8 | 0.3* | 35.06 | 33.75 | -4 |
Community and social service | 1.4 | 1.1* | 22.69 | 22.15 | -2 |
Legal | 0.8 | 0.3* | 50.95 | 43.30* | -15 |
Education, training, and library | 6.2 | 6.2 | 26.21 | 26.78 | 2 |
Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media | 1.4 | 1.0* | 28.07 | 18.02* | -36 |
Healthcare practitioners and technical | 5.9 | 6.8 | 38.06 | 36.45 | -4 |
Healthcare support | 2.9 | 3.6* | 14.65 | 14.71 | 0 |
Protective service | 2.4 | 1.8* | 22.03 | 21.87 | -1 |
Food preparation and serving related | 9.2 | 8.2* | 11.47 | 10.86* | -5 |
Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance | 3.2 | 2.3* | 13.47 | 13.08 | -3 |
Personal care and service | 3.2 | 2.6* | 12.74 | 12.37 | -3 |
Sales and related | 10.4 | 9.3* | 19.50 | 16.99* | -13 |
Office and administrative support | 15.7 | 14.9 | 17.91 | 16.20* | -10 |
Farming, fishing, and forestry | 0.3 | (2)* | 13.37 | 19.04* | 42 |
Construction and extraction | 4.0 | 2.7* | 23.51 | 28.51* | 21 |
Installation, maintenance, and repair | 3.9 | 3.6 | 22.45 | 22.01 | -2 |
Production | 6.5 | 15.3* | 17.88 | 18.65 | 4 |
Transportation and material moving | 6.9 | 9.1* | 17.34 | 15.93* | -8 |
Footnotes: |
One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Rockford had 22,730 jobs in production, accounting for 15.3 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 6.5-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $18.65, compared to the national hourly wage of $17.88.
Some of the largest detailed occupations within the production group included team assemblers (6,410), machinists (2,740), and inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers (1,210). Among the higher paying jobs were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers with mean hourly wages of $29.54 and water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators, $26.36. At the lower end of the wage scale were pressers, textile, garment, and related materials ($10.17) and furnace, kiln, oven, drier, and kettle operators and tenders ($10.69). (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_40420.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 Rockford Metropolitan Statistical Area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, tool and die makers in Rockford were employed at 7.5 times the national rate, and machinists, at 6.6 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, helpers--production workers in Rockford had a location quotient of 1.0, 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.
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.
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 Rockford Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,667 establishments with a response rate of 72 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 Rockford, Ill. Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Boone and Winnebago 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.
Occupation (1) | Employment | Mean wages | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Level (2) | Location quotient (3) | Hourly | Annual (4) | |
Production occupations | 22,730 | 2.4 | $18.65 | $38,800 |
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers | 1,070 | 1.7 | 29.54 | 61,440 |
Electrical and electronic equipment assemblers | 180 | 0.8 | 15.17 | 31,540 |
Engine and other machine assemblers | (5) | (5) | 21.10 | 43,880 |
Structural metal fabricators and fitters | (5) | (5) | 21.65 | 45,030 |
Team assemblers | 6,410 | 5.5 | 18.92 | 39,340 |
Assemblers and fabricators, all other | 430 | 1.8 | 15.30 | 31,820 |
Bakers | 180 | 1.0 | 12.53 | 26,060 |
Butchers and meat cutters | 60 | 0.4 | 14.75 | 30,670 |
Food batchmakers | 320 | 2.1 | 16.05 | 33,380 |
Computer-controlled machine tool operators, metal and plastic | 310 | 2.0 | 18.92 | 39,350 |
Computer numerically controlled machine tool programmers, metal and plastic | (5) | (5) | 20.93 | 43,530 |
Forging machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic | 120 | 6.1 | 19.86 | 41,320 |
Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic | 580 | 2.9 | 17.88 | 37,200 |
Drilling and boring machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic | 50 | 3.8 | 19.87 | 41,330 |
Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic | 410 | 5.2 | 16.28 | 33,860 |
Lathe and turning machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic | 220 | 6.2 | 19.19 | 39,910 |
Milling and planing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic | (5) | (5) | 15.03 | 31,260 |
Machinists | 2,740 | 6.6 | 18.28 | 38,020 |
Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic | (5) | (5) | 22.15 | 46,070 |
Multiple machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic | (5) | (5) | 17.39 | 36,160 |
Tool and die makers | 570 | 7.5 | 24.57 | 51,110 |
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers | 720 | 1.8 | 18.36 | 38,190 |
Welding, soldering, and brazing machine setters, operators, and tenders | 90 | 1.9 | 16.20 | 33,700 |
Heat treating equipment setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic | 180 | 8.7 | 16.11 | 33,500 |
Plating and coating machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic | (5) | (5) | 15.47 | 32,190 |
Prepress technicians and workers | (5) | (5) | 19.10 | 39,720 |
Printing press operators | 160 | 0.9 | 21.28 | 44,260 |
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers | 260 | 1.2 | 11.35 | 23,610 |
Pressers, textile, garment, and related materials | 190 | 4.0 | 10.17 | 21,160 |
Sewing machine operators | 30 | 0.2 | 13.00 | 27,040 |
Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters | 130 | 1.3 | 20.34 | 42,300 |
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators | 110 | 0.9 | 26.36 | 54,820 |
Separating, filtering, clarifying, precipitating, and still machine setters, operators, and tenders | (5) | (5) | 19.00 | 39,520 |
Grinding and polishing workers, hand | (5) | (5) | 14.58 | 30,320 |
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders | 80 | 0.6 | 20.31 | 42,240 |
Furnace, kiln, oven, drier, and kettle operators and tenders | (5) | (5) | 10.69 | 22,240 |
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers | 1,210 | 2.2 | 19.12 | 39,770 |
Dental laboratory technicians | 40 | 1.0 | (5) | (5) |
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders | 360 | 0.9 | 16.60 | 34,520 |
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders | 160 | 1.8 | 16.41 | 34,130 |
Painters, transportation equipment | 70 | 1.3 | 23.56 | 49,010 |
Helpers--production workers | 440 | 1.0 | 14.32 | 29,790 |
Production workers, all other | 1,510 | 5.7 | 15.97 | 33,210 |
Footnotes: |
Last Modified Date: Wednesday, June 21, 2017