Workers in the Appleton, WI Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $22.82 in May 2019, about 11 percent below the nationwide average of $25.72, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Assistant Commissioner for Regional Operations Charlene Peiffer noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were higher than their respective national averages in 2 of the 22 major occupational groups. Fourteen groups had significantly lower wages than their respective national averages, including arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media; legal; and computer and mathematical.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Appleton area employment was more highly concentrated in 5 of the 22 occupational groups, including production, construction and extraction, and sales and related. Conversely, twelve groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including management, protective service, and healthcare support. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Appleton had 16,960 jobs in production, accounting for 13.8 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 6.2-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $20.45, significantly above the national wage of $19.30.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators (2,280), packaging and filling machine operators and tenders (1,920), and first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (1,110). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers and extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic, with mean hourly wages of $33.62 and $24.23, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were pressers, textile, garment, and related materials ($11.17) and laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($11.50). (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_11540.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 Appleton area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, textile knitting and weaving machine setters, operators, and tenders were employed at 16.7 times the national rate in Appleton, and paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders, at 9.4 times the U.S. average. Electrical, electronic, and electromechanical assemblers, except coil winders, tapers, and finishers had a location quotient of 1.4 in Appleton, 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 Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development.

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 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. OES estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.1 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 2019 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2019, November 2018, May 2018, November 2017, May 2017, and November 2016. The unweighted sample employment of 83 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 71 percent based on establishments and 68 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Appleton, WI Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,496 establishments with a response rate of 76 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 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 May 2019 OES estimates are the first set of OES estimates to be based in part on survey data collected using the 2018 SOC. These estimates use a hybrid of the 2010 and 2018 SOC systems. More information on the hybrid classification system is available at www.bls.gov/oes/soc_2018.htm.

The May 2019 OES estimates are based on the 2017 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). More 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 Appleton, WI Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Calumet and Outagamie Counties.

For more information

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

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 for production occupations, Appleton, WI Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2019

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Production occupations	16,960	2.2	$20.45	$42,540
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers	1,110	2.1	33.62	69,930
Coil winders, tapers, and finishers	60	5.4	20.68	43,010
Electrical, electronic, and electromechanical assemblers, except coil winders, tapers, and finishers	330	1.4	15.82	32,910
Engine and other machine assemblers	140	3.7	17.12	35,600
Structural metal fabricators and fitters	220	3.5	20.78	43,220
Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators	2,280	2.0	16.58	34,500
Bakers	140	0.9	14.73	30,640
Butchers and meat cutters	(5)	(5)	18.62	38,730
Meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers	30	0.3	16.85	35,050
Food and tobacco roasting, baking, and drying machine operators and tenders	170	9.6	15.89	33,040
Food batchmakers	550	4.1	18.20	37,850
Food cooking machine operators and tenders	50	2.1	18.01	37,450
Extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	540	8.4	24.23	50,390
Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	410	2.5	20.75	43,150
Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	30	0.5	14.51	30,170
Machinists	780	2.4	20.42	42,480
Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	80	0.6	(5)	(5)
Tool and die makers	70	1.2	24.13	50,190
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers	680	2.0	23.86	49,640
Plating machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	50	1.5	17.34	36,060
Prepress technicians and workers	50	1.9	20.29	42,210
Printing press operators	500	3.4	20.34	42,300
Print binding and finishing workers	(5)	(5)	17.30	35,980
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers	140	0.8	11.50	23,920
Pressers, textile, garment, and related materials	50	1.6	11.17	23,240
Sewing machine operators	220	2.0	21.48	44,670
Textile knitting and weaving machine setters, operators, and tenders	300	16.7	24.13	50,190
Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters	50	0.6	17.27	35,930
Sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood	90	2.2	14.43	30,010
Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing	140	2.2	15.44	32,110
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators	110	1.1	23.29	48,430
Crushing, grinding, and polishing machine setters, operators, and tenders	40	1.5	21.00	43,690
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders	460	4.4	22.24	46,250
Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders	80	1.7	19.29	40,120
Extruding, forming, pressing, and compacting machine setters, operators, and tenders	(5)	(5)	16.37	34,040
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	900	1.9	22.93	47,700
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders	1,920	5.9	19.82	41,220
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders	480	3.9	18.21	37,870
Computer numerically controlled tool operators	530	4.1	23.38	48,630
Molders, shapers, and casters, except metal and plastic	50	1.3	16.61	34,560
Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders	790	9.4	22.25	46,280
Helpers--production workers	520	2.0	18.09	37,630
Production workers, all other	520	2.8	13.07	27,180
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Appleton, WI Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_11540.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. (5) Estimate not released.