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News Release Information

24-893-CHI
Friday, August 02, 2024

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

Occupational Employment and Wages in Akron — May 2023

Workers in the Akron, OH Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $28.24 in May 2023, compared to the nationwide average of $31.48, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Jason Palmer noted that higher paying major occupational groups included management ($56.40), legal ($51.49), and healthcare practitioners and technical ($45.88). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($14.90), personal care and service ($16.97), and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($17.04). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Akron area included office and administrative support (12.3 percent), transportation and material moving (11.0 percent), and sales and related (8.7 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.6 percent); life, physical, and social science (0.6 percent); and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (1.1 percent). (See table A.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Akron metropolitan area, May 2023
Major occupational group Percent of total employment Mean hourly wage ($)
United States Akron United States Akron

Total, all occupations

100.0 100.0 31.48 28.24

Management

6.9 6.8 66.23 56.40

Business and financial operations

6.6 5.9 43.55 37.13

Computer and mathematical

3.4 2.6 54.39 43.59

Architecture and engineering

1.7 1.8 47.64 41.40

Life, physical, and social science

0.9 0.6 42.24 35.93

Community and social service

1.6 1.6 28.36 26.43

Legal

0.8 0.6 64.34 51.49

Educational instruction and library

5.8 5.7 31.92 31.81

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.4 1.1 36.31 25.77

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.1 7.2 49.07 45.88

Healthcare support

4.7 3.9 18.37 17.59

Protective service

2.3 1.9 27.74 26.78

Food preparation and serving related

8.7 8.7 16.58 14.90

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.9 2.8 18.43 17.04

Personal care and service

2.0 1.7 18.48 16.97

Sales and related

8.8 8.7 25.62 23.72

Office and administrative support

12.2 12.3 23.05 21.83

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.3 0.1 19.22 20.39

Construction and extraction

4.1 3.3 29.57 30.03

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.9 3.9 28.13 26.04

Production

5.8 7.9 22.90 21.58

Transportation and material moving

9.1 11.0 22.45 20.74

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Akron had 25,300 jobs in production, accounting for 7.9 percent of local area employment, compared to the 5.8-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $21.58, compared to the national wage of $22.90.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators (4,100); first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (1,750); and inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers (1,620). Mean hourly wages among the higher-paying jobs in this group were power distributors and dispatchers ($45.95), first-line supervisors of production and operating workers ($31.74), and computer numerically controlled tool programmers ($30.53). At the lower end of the wage scale were laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($13.73) and sewing machine operators ($15.47). (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_10420.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 Akron area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, heat treating equipment setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic were employed at 3.3 times the national rate in Akron, and computer numerically controlled tool operators, at 2.9 times the U.S. average. Laundry and dry-cleaning workers had a location quotient of 1.1 in Akron, indicating that this particular occupation’s local and national employment shares were similar.

The statistics in this release are from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, a cooperative effort between BLS and the State Workforce Agencies (SWAs). BLS funds the survey and provides the procedures and technical support. State Workforce Agencies collect most of the data: in this case, the Ohio Department of Job & Family Services.


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. Full OEWS data tables are available online.

Additional information about the OEWS estimates and methodology are available in the national Technical Notes. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 65.8 percent based on establishments and 64.3 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Akron, OH Metropolitan Statistical Area included 2,716 establishments with a response rate of 64 percent.

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 Akron, OH Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Portage County and Summit County.

For more information

Answers to frequently asked questions about the OEWS data, as well as general program documentation, are available on the OEWS website.

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, Akron metropolitan area, May 2023
Occupation (1) Employment Mean wages ($)
Level (2) Location quotient (3) Hourly Annual (4)

Production occupations

25,300 1.4 21.58 44,880

First-line supervisors of production and operating workers

1,750 1.2 31.74 66,020

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

830 1.5 19.09 39,700

Structural metal fabricators and fitters

70 0.5 22.05 45,860

Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators

4,100 1.3 19.63 40,820

Bakers

550 1.2 15.96 33,190

Butchers and meat cutters

380 1.3 16.29 33,880

Meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers

90 0.3 15.89 33,050

Food batchmakers

410 1.1 17.05 35,460

Food processing workers, all other

170 1.2 15.89 33,040

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

240 1.8 19.35 40,250

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

80 4.1 22.81 47,440

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

80 1.5 21.61 44,950

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

900 2.4 20.49 42,620

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

420 2.7 18.82 39,140

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

70 1.7 20.47 42,570

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

80 2.8 21.41 44,530

Machinists

970 1.6 23.16 48,170

Metal-refining furnace operators and tenders

70 1.7 21.29 44,280

Foundry mold and coremakers

90 3.4 18.76 39,010

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

930 2.8 19.51 40,570

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

880 3.3 19.05 39,620

Tool and die makers

290 2.3 27.96 58,160

Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers

1,230 1.4 23.67 49,240

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

120 1.7 23.24 48,350

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

100 3.3 23.49 48,870

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

90 1.4 20.03 41,670

Prepress technicians and workers

60 1.2 24.17 50,270

Printing press operators

740 2.3 20.24 42,110

Print binding and finishing workers

140 1.7 18.84 39,190

Laundry and dry-cleaning workers

440 1.1 13.73 28,560

Sewing machine operators

230 0.9 15.47 32,180

Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters

70 0.4 21.57 44,860

Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing

60 0.5 18.34 38,140

Power distributors and dispatchers

210 11.0 45.95 95,580

Stationary engineers and boiler operators

30 0.4 28.32 58,900

Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators

300 1.2 27.28 56,730

Chemical equipment operators and tenders

470 1.9 25.51 53,060

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

80 0.7 20.47 42,590

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

50 1.0 17.27 35,920

Grinding and polishing workers, hand

50 1.8 18.63 38,750

Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders

310 1.4 20.79 43,250

Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders

160 1.4 20.13 41,870

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

510 4.2 20.01 41,630

Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers

1,620 1.3 21.87 45,500

Jewelers and precious stone and metal workers

150 3.0 22.29 46,370

Dental laboratory technicians

130 1.8 24.33 50,600

Medical appliance technicians

70 2.6 23.76 49,410

Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders

560 0.7 17.92 37,280

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

520 1.6 22.82 47,470

Computer numerically controlled tool operators

1,160 2.9 23.97 49,860

Computer numerically controlled tool programmers

130 2.3 30.53 63,500

Cleaning, washing, and metal pickling equipment operators and tenders

40 1.3 18.18 37,810

Molders, shapers, and casters, except metal and plastic

130 1.7 19.85 41,280

Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders

280 1.4 21.03 43,740

Helpers--production workers

230 0.6 17.32 36,030

Production workers, all other

540 1.1 20.62 42,890

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Akron, OH Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_10420.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: Friday, August 02, 2024