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News Release Information

23-984-CHI
Tuesday, June 06, 2023

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

Occupational Employment and Wages in Rockford — May 2022

Workers in the Rockford, IL Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $26.45 in May 2022, 11 percent below the nationwide average of $29.76, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Jason Palmer noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were lower than their respective national averages in 15 of the 22 major occupational groups, including legal; arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media; and computer and mathematical. Four groups had significantly higher wages than their respective national averages, including construction and extraction, protective service, and production.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Rockford area employment was more highly concentrated in 3 of the 22 occupational groups: production, transportation and material moving, and healthcare practitioners and technical. Fifteen groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including business and financial operations, computer and mathematical, and construction and extraction. (See table A.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Rockford metropolitan area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2022
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 $29.76 $26.45* -11

Management

6.7 6.6 63.08 52.55* -17

Business and financial operations

6.5 3.8* 41.39 35.53* -14

Computer and mathematical

3.4 1.5* 51.99 40.19* -23

Architecture and engineering

1.7 1.6 45.52 41.15* -10

Life, physical, and social science

0.9 0.4* 40.21 34.07* -15

Community and social service

1.6 1.5 26.81 24.78* -8

Legal

0.8 0.4* 59.87 44.17* -26

Educational instruction and library

5.7 5.3* 30.41 26.64* -12

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.4 0.9* 36.78 23.54* -36

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.1 7.1* 46.52 46.25 -1

Healthcare support

4.6 4.2* 17.10 17.18 0

Protective service

2.3 1.7* 25.97 27.15* 5

Food preparation and serving related

8.5 8.2* 15.45 14.71* -5

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.9 2.7* 17.26 16.74* -3

Personal care and service

1.9 1.5* 17.41 15.53* -11

Sales and related

8.9 8.1* 24.22 20.96* -13

Office and administrative support

12.6 11.8* 21.90 20.73* -5

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.3 (2)* 18.21 18.75 3

Construction and extraction

4.1 3.2* 28.08 34.28* 22

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.9 4.0 26.77 27.37* 2

Production

5.9 13.5* 21.81 22.65* 4

Transportation and material moving

9.2 12.0* 21.12 19.24* -9

Footnotes:
(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in the Rockford, IL Metropolitan Statistical Area is above the national mean wage, while a negative difference reflects a lower wage.
(2) Indicates a value of less than 0.05 percent.
* 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. Rockford had 18,520 jobs in production, accounting for 13.5 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 5.9-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $22.65, significantly above the national wage of $21.81.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators (5,070); machinists (2,940); inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers (1,400); and first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (1,200). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators and first-line supervisors of production and operating workers, with mean hourly wages of $33.41 and $31.88, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($14.77) and bakers ($15.13). (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_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 area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, machinists were employed at 10.0 times the national rate in Rockford, and tool and die makers, at 6.6 times the U.S. average. Electrical, electronic, and electromechanical assemblers, except coil winders, tapers, and finishers had a location quotient of 1.1 in Rockford, 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 Illinois Department of Employment Security.

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 Rockford, IL Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,560 establishments with a response rate of 58 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 Rockford, IL Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Boone County and Winnebago 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, Rockford metropolitan area, May 2022
Occupation (1) Employment Mean wages
Level (2) Location quotient (3) Hourly Annual (4)

Production occupations

18,520 2.3 $22.65 $47,100

First-line supervisors of production and operating workers

1,200 2.0 31.88 66,310

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

280 1.1 19.57 40,710

Structural metal fabricators and fitters

130 2.3 23.52 48,920

Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators

5,070 3.8 24.06 50,040

Bakers

250 1.3 15.13 31,480

Butchers and meat cutters

210 1.8 16.42 34,160

Food batchmakers

240 1.5 19.25 40,030

Food cooking machine operators and tenders

40 1.6 18.45 38,370

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

50 0.8 18.54 38,570

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

60 2.4 23.90 49,710

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

460 2.7 20.07 41,740

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

420 6.1 19.17 39,880

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

90 4.9 24.32 50,580

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

40 3.1 23.03 47,890

Machinists

2,940 10.0 23.82 49,550

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

350 2.3 18.66 38,810

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

230 1.8 20.19 42,000

Tool and die makers

380 6.6 28.10 58,450

Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers

710 1.9 22.27 46,320

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

130 9.0 18.81 39,130

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

170 5.6 16.16 33,610

Printing press operators

100 0.7 18.39 38,240

Laundry and dry-cleaning workers

230 1.4 14.77 30,730

Pressers, textile, garment, and related materials

50 1.8 15.73 32,710

Sewing machine operators

60 0.5 15.58 32,400

Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters

60 0.6 21.13 43,940

Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing

50 0.9 18.15 37,740

Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators

100 0.9 33.41 69,500

Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders

30 0.7 19.09 39,720

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

40 0.7 16.75 34,850

Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers

1,400 2.6 20.59 42,830

Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders

620 1.8 17.44 36,260

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

260 1.9 20.55 42,750

Computer numerically controlled tool operators

740 4.5 20.76 43,190

Computer numerically controlled tool programmers

130 4.9 29.88 62,160

Molders, shapers, and casters, except metal and plastic

80 2.1 22.77 47,360

Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders

80 0.9 22.69 47,190

Helpers--production workers

170 0.9 16.42 34,160

Production workers, all other

240 1.1 16.42 34,150

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Rockford, IL Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_40420.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: Tuesday, June 06, 2023