Workers in the Dubuque, IA Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $28.12 in May 2024, compared to the nationwide average of $32.66, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Acting Regional Commissioner Julie Wilson noted that higher paying major occupational groups included management ($54.49), architecture and engineering ($48.44), and computer and mathematical ($42.92). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($15.14), personal care and service ($16.82), and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($18.18). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Dubuque area included office and administrative support (12.1 percent), transportation and material moving (10.1 percent), and production (8.9 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.3 percent); life, physical, and social science (0.4 percent); and protective service (1.2 percent).

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Dubuque had 5,250 jobs in production, accounting for 8.9 percent of local area employment, compared to the 5.7-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $24.16, compared to the national wage of $24.08.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators (890), first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (510), and computer numerically controlled tool operators (330). Among the higher paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers and tool and die makers, with mean hourly wages of $35.05 and $30.47, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($16.07) and butchers and meat cutters ($17.46). (Detailed data for the production occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0020220.)

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 2.00 indicates that an occupation accounts for twice the share of employment in the area than it does nationally. In the Dubuque area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, multiple machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic were employed at 6.80 times the national rate in Dubuque, and computer numerically controlled tool operators, at 4.95 times the U.S. average. Machinists had a location quotient of 1.02 in Dubuque, 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, Iowa Workforce Development.

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 530 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 is 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 65.7 percent based on establishments and 65.9 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Dubuque, IA Metropolitan Statistical Area included 975 establishments with a response rate of 74 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 Dubuque, IA Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Dubuque 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, Dubuque metropolitan area, May 2024

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages ($)
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Production occupations	5,250	1.57	24.16	50,240
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers	510	1.95	35.05	72,910
Electrical, electronic, and electromechanical assemblers, except coil winders, tapers, and finishers	110	1.15	20.61	42,870
Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators	890	1.60	21.64	45,020
Bakers	90	1.07	19.12	39,760
Butchers and meat cutters	100	1.85	17.46	36,310
Food batchmakers	160	2.45	24.85	51,690
Food processing workers, all other	40	1.92	23.57	49,030
Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	130	1.90	23.89	49,700
Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	90	3.21	22.05	45,860
Machinists	120	1.02	26.72	55,580
Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	90	1.56	22.29	46,360
Multiple machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	340	6.80	22.39	46,560
Tool and die makers	50	2.49	30.47	63,370
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers	310	1.94	25.74	53,540
Welding, soldering, and brazing machine setters, operators, and tenders	(5)	(5)	24.99	51,970
Printing press operators	70	1.27	19.37	40,280
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers	70	0.89	16.07	33,430
Sewing machine operators	50	1.27	18.85	39,200
Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters	60	1.82	22.80	47,420
Sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood	60	3.45	21.44	44,600
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators	50	1.13	29.88	62,150
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders	60	1.67	(5)	(5)
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	240	1.05	24.35	50,660
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders	180	1.21	21.17	44,030
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders	140	2.24	21.81	45,360
Computer numerically controlled tool operators	330	4.95	24.20	50,340
Computer numerically controlled tool programmers	70	6.20	26.93	56,020
Helpers--production workers	80	1.19	22.29	46,360
Production workers, all other	90	0.82	23.26	48,370
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Dubuque, IA Metropolitan Statistical Area, see https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0020220. (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.