Workers in the Elkhart-Goshen, IN Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $27.97 in May 2025, compared to the nationwide average of $33.54, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Assistant Commissioner for Regional Operations Michael Hirniak noted that higher paying major occupational groups included management ($65.09), legal ($55.14), and healthcare practitioners and technical ($49.58). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($15.20), personal care and service ($17.31), and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($18.84). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment shares in the Elkhart area included production (32.5 percent), office and administrative support (9.5 percent), and transportation and material moving (8.8 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.2 percent); life, physical, and social science (0.6 percent); and personal care and service (0.6 percent).

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Elkhart had 41,560 jobs in production, accounting for 32.5 percent of local area employment, compared to the 5.5-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $24.10, compared to the national wage of $24.81.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators (18,960); first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (2,300); and welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers (2,000). Among the higher paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers ($35.70) and computer numerically controlled tool programmers ($31.73). At the lower end of the wage scale were laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($14.59) and helpers--production workers ($17.44). (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/0021140/2025.)

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 Elkhart area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, fiberglass laminators and fabricators were employed at 78.83 times the national rate in Elkhart, and cabinetmakers and bench carpenters, at 28.93 times the U.S. average. Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders had a location quotient of 1.12 in Elkhart, 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 Indiana Department of 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 66.2 percent based on establishments and 67.2 percent based on weighted sampled employment. Sample sizes and response rates by metropolitan and nonmetropolitan area are available on the Additional OEWS data sets page.

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 Elkhart-Goshen, IN Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Elkhart 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.

If you are deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability, please dial 7-1-1 to access telecommunications relay services.

Table 1. Employment and wage data for production occupations, Elkhart metropolitan area, May 2025

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages ($)
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Production occupations	41,560	5.91	24.10	50,140
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers	2,300	4.15	35.70	74,250
Electrical, electronic, and electromechanical assemblers, except coil winders, tapers, and finishers	560	2.74	20.25	42,110
Structural metal fabricators and fitters	410	9.50	24.53	51,020
Fiberglass laminators and fabricators	1,050	78.83	24.82	51,630
Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators	18,960	16.43	23.82	49,540
Bakers	170	0.86	18.52	38,520
Butchers and meat cutters	60	0.51	19.13	39,790
Meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers	70	0.57	18.48	38,440
Slaughterers and meat packers	100	1.76	18.46	38,390
Food batchmakers	200	1.40	21.56	44,850
Extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	250	4.99	22.78	47,380
Rolling machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	140	6.65	23.07	47,980
Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	790	5.59	22.03	45,810
Drilling and boring machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	50	11.81	23.15	48,150
Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	220	4.05	23.27	48,400
Milling and planing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	190	18.27	28.09	58,430
Machinists	590	2.49	25.87	53,800
Foundry mold and coremakers	50	5.16	23.98	49,880
Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	530	4.32	21.04	43,760
Multiple machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	290	2.87	23.81	49,530
Tool and die makers	180	3.78	29.81	62,000
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers	2,000	5.86	27.30	56,770
Welding, soldering, and brazing machine setters, operators, and tenders	240	9.23	21.77	45,290
Plating machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	60	2.16	20.49	42,610
Printing press operators	160	1.35	22.38	46,550
Print binding and finishing workers	40	1.29	19.20	39,940
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers	80	0.46	14.59	30,360
Sewing machine operators	470	5.44	19.79	41,160
Upholsterers	230	13.74	21.65	45,020
Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters	1,830	28.93	21.24	44,190
Furniture finishers	310	25.84	26.13	54,340
Sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood	230	6.73	21.80	45,340
Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing	1,070	21.24	21.69	45,120
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators	60	0.60	28.06	58,350
Chemical equipment operators and tenders	280	2.44	23.68	49,260
Crushing, grinding, and polishing machine setters, operators, and tenders	30	1.59	21.23	44,160
Grinding and polishing workers, hand	150	16.97	18.81	39,130
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders	310	3.98	23.60	49,090
Cutters and trimmers, hand	70	13.96	19.19	39,910
Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders	350	9.60	21.72	45,180
Extruding, forming, pressing, and compacting machine setters, operators, and tenders	230	4.75	21.96	45,680
Furnace, kiln, oven, drier, and kettle operators and tenders	60	5.29	21.96	45,670
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	1,970	4.02	23.77	49,440
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders	440	1.41	19.20	39,930
Painting, coating, and decorating workers	60	8.54	23.63	49,140
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders	1,400	10.72	23.60	49,080
Computer numerically controlled tool operators	830	5.98	22.69	47,200
Computer numerically controlled tool programmers	90	3.96	31.73	66,000
Adhesive bonding machine operators and tenders	130	13.81	20.02	41,640
Cleaning, washing, and metal pickling equipment operators and tenders	40	3.48	22.29	46,350
Molders, shapers, and casters, except metal and plastic	90	3.18	22.49	46,780
Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders	90	1.12	21.73	45,190
Helpers--production workers	210	1.56	17.44	36,270
Production workers, all other	200	0.95	20.03	41,650
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Elkhart-Goshen, IN Metropolitan Statistical Area, see https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0021140/2025. (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.