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News Release Information

18-426-CHI
Thursday, May 17, 2018

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

Occupational Employment and Wages in Elgin — May 2017

Workers in the Elgin Metropolitan Division had an average (mean) hourly wage of $23.51 in May 2017, about 3 percent below the nationwide average of $24.34, 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 8 of the 22 major occupational groups, including management; legal; and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media. Seven groups had significantly higher wages than their respective national averages, including construction and extraction; education, training, and library; and protective service.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 4 of the 22 occupational groups, including production; transportation and material moving; and education, training, and library. Conversely, 14 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including business and financial operations; computer and mathematical; and personal care and service. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Elgin Metropolitan Division, and measures of statistical significance, May 2017
Major occupational group Percent of total employment Mean hourly wage
United States Elgin United States Elgin Percent difference (1)

Total, all occupations

100.0 100.0 $24.34 $23.51* -3

Management

5.1 6.8* 57.65 49.04* -15

Business and financial operations

5.2 3.4* 36.70 30.76* -16

Computer and mathematical

3.0 1.5* 43.18 37.62* -13

Architecture and engineering

1.8 1.4* 41.44 36.25* -13

Life, physical, and social science

0.8 0.4* 35.76 31.47* -12

Community and social service

1.5 1.5 23.10 24.01 4

Legal

0.8 0.4* 51.62 43.67* -15

Education, training, and library

6.1 7.9* 26.67 31.40* 18

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.4 1.1* 28.34 22.33* -21

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.0 5.2* 38.83 38.05 -2

Healthcare support

2.9 2.5* 15.05 16.11* 7

Protective service

2.4 1.9* 22.69 26.92* 19

Food preparation and serving related

9.3 8.4* 11.88 11.00* -7

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

3.1 3.0 13.91 14.94* 7

Personal care and service

3.6 2.5* 13.11 13.51 3

Sales and related

10.2 9.2* 19.56 18.96 -3

Office and administrative support

15.4 14.5* 18.24 18.05 -1

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.3 0.1* 13.87 15.40* 11

Construction and extraction

4.0 3.9 24.01 31.33* 30

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.9 4.0 23.02 25.11* 9

Production

6.3 10.6* 18.30 17.99 -2

Transportation and material moving

7.0 9.7* 17.82 16.17 -9

Footnotes:
(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in the Elgin Metropolitan Division is above the national mean wage, while a negative difference reflects a lower wage.
* The percent share of employment or mean hourly wage for this area 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. Elgin had 26,820 jobs in production, accounting for 10.6 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 6.3-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $17.99, compared to the national wage of $18.30.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included machinists (3,110); assemblers and fabricators, all other, including team assemblers (2,310); and packaging and filling machine operators and tenders (1,830). Among the higher paying jobs in this group were water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators with mean hourly wages of $28.81 and first-line supervisors of production and operating workers, $27.97. At the lower end of the wage scale were meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers ($10.42) and pressers, textile, garment, and related materials ($10.49). (Detailed data for production occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_20994.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 Elgin Metropolitan Division, 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 4.8 times the national rate in Elgin, and machinists, at 4.7 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, assemblers and fabricators, all other, including team assemblers had a location quotient of 1.0 in Elgin, 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.

Notes on Occupational Employment Statistics Data

With the release of the May 2017 estimates, the OES program has replaced 21 detailed occupations found in the 2010 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) with 10 new aggregations of those occupations. In addition, selected 4- and 5-digit North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) industries previously published by OES will no longer be published separately. Some of the 4-digit NAICS industries that are no longer being published separately will instead be published as OES-specific industry aggregations. More information about the new occupational and industry aggregations is available at www.bls.gov/oes/changes_2017.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.


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 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 2017 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2017, November 2016, May 2016, November 2015, May 2015, and November 2014. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 72 percent based on establishments and 68 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The unweighted sample employment of 82 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 58 percent of total national employment. The sample in the Elgin Metropolitan Division included 2,433 establishments with a response rate of 66 percent. For more information about OES concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_tec.htm.

The May 2017 OES estimates are based on the 2010 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system and the 2017 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 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 Elgin, Ill. Metropolitan Division includes DeKalb and Kane 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.

Table 1. Employment and wage data from the Occupational Employment Statistics survey, by occupation, Elgin Metropolitan Division, May 2017
Occupation (1) Employment Mean wages
Level (2) Location quotient (3) Hourly Annual (4)

Production occupations

26,820 1.7 $17.99 $37,420

First-line supervisors of production and operating workers

1,500 1.4 27.97 58,180

Coil winders, tapers, and finishers

(5) (5) 18.72 38,930

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

430 0.9 17.34 36,070

Engine and other machine assemblers

(5) (5) 20.98 43,650

Structural metal fabricators and fitters

60 0.4 18.04 37,530

Assemblers and fabricators, all other, including team assemblers

2,310 1.0 15.84 32,940

Bakers

180 0.6 11.57 24,060

Butchers and meat cutters

400 1.7 14.06 29,250

Meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers

70 0.3 10.42 21,680

Slaughterers and meat packers

250 1.9 13.90 28,920

Food and tobacco roasting, baking, and drying machine operators and tenders

80 2.1 16.16 33,620

Food batchmakers

220 0.8 17.65 36,710

Computer-controlled machine tool operators, metal and plastic

200 0.8 19.31 40,170

Computer numerically controlled machine tool programmers, metal and plastic

60 1.5 25.63 53,320

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

110 0.8 14.35 29,850

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

40 1.4 14.44 30,030

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

650 2.0 18.31 38,090

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

140 1.1 16.65 34,620

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

130 2.5 20.58 42,800

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

50 1.6 19.94 41,480

Machinists

3,110 4.7 16.77 34,890

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

370 1.4 16.35 34,000

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

1,030 4.8 17.08 35,530

Tool and die makers

310 2.4 27.01 56,170

Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers

560 0.8 19.67 40,920

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

70 1.0 20.23 42,080

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

(5) (5) 17.52 36,450

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

200 3.0 14.70 30,580

Prepress technicians and workers

50 0.9 22.65 47,100

Printing press operators

860 2.8 19.81 41,210

Print binding and finishing workers

(5) (5) 17.80 37,030

Laundry and dry-cleaning workers

210 0.6 11.09 23,080

Pressers, textile, garment, and related materials

40 0.6 10.49 21,810

Sewing machine operators

330 1.4 11.86 24,660

Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters

80 0.5 17.88 37,200

Sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood

40 0.4 15.89 33,060

Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing

70 0.5 13.96 29,030

Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators

180 0.9 28.81 59,910

Chemical equipment operators and tenders

80 0.6 17.72 36,850

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

70 0.9 23.02 47,870

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

50 0.8 15.99 33,260

Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders

450 2.0 17.00 35,360

Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders

220 2.1 22.35 46,500

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

140 1.0 17.45 36,290

Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers

1,650 1.7 18.40 38,280

Jewelers and precious stone and metal workers

30 0.7 23.43 48,740

Dental laboratory technicians

(5) (5) 18.50 38,480

Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders

1,830 2.6 14.22 29,580

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

120 0.8 16.44 34,190

Painters, transportation equipment

80 0.9 26.92 55,990

Cleaning, washing, and metal pickling equipment operators and tenders

50 1.7 14.09 29,300

Etchers and engravers

(5) (5) 10.95 22,780

Molders, shapers, and casters, except metal and plastic

180 2.5 15.77 32,800

Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders

300 1.8 17.85 37,140

Helpers--production workers

880 1.2 12.96 26,960

Production workers, all other

(5) (5) 18.78 39,070

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in Elgin, IL Metropolitan Division, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_20994.htm.
(2) Estimates for detailed occupations do not sum to the totals because the totals include occupations 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.

 

Last Modified Date: Thursday, May 17, 2018