Workers in the Fort Wayne, IN Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $28.66 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 ($60.63), legal ($54.31), and healthcare practitioners and technical ($50.08). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($15.24), personal care and service ($16.37), and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($18.59). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment shares in the Fort Wayne area included production (11.7 percent), transportation and material moving (10.6 percent), and office and administrative support (10.5 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.5 percent); life, physical, and social science (0.6 percent); and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (1.1 percent).

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Fort Wayne had 26,380 jobs in production, accounting for 11.7 percent of local area employment, compared to the 5.5-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $25.08, compared to the national wage of $24.81.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators (8,260); first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (1,880); and inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers (1,530). Among the higher paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers ($33.60) and computer numerically controlled tool programmers ($31.08). At the lower end of the wage scale were laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($15.09) and bakers ($18.18). (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/0023060/2025.)

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 Fort Wayne area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, tire builders were employed at 23.93 times the national rate in Fort Wayne, and extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic, at 9.00 times the U.S. average.

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 Fort Wayne, IN Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Allen County, Wells County, and Whitley 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, Fort Wayne metropolitan area, May 2025

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages ($)
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Production occupations	26,380	2.12	25.08	52,170
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers	1,880	1.93	33.60	69,890
Coil winders, tapers, and finishers	110	5.76	23.89	49,700
Electrical, electronic, and electromechanical assemblers, except coil winders, tapers, and finishers	1,420	3.96	20.61	42,860
Structural metal fabricators and fitters	200	2.66	26.45	55,020
Fiberglass laminators and fabricators	80	3.33	21.29	44,290
Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators	8,260	4.05	27.03	56,220
Bakers	180	0.54	18.18	37,800
Butchers and meat cutters	130	0.65	20.54	42,730
Food batchmakers	200	0.80	18.47	38,420
Extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	790	9.00	25.03	52,070
Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	770	3.10	21.60	44,930
Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	200	2.03	23.03	47,910
Lathe and turning machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	80	3.11	25.08	52,170
Milling and planing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	40	2.30	27.07	56,300
Machinists	1,030	2.47	25.97	54,020
Metal-refining furnace operators and tenders	130	5.23	24.58	51,120
Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	400	1.85	22.75	47,310
Multiple machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	390	2.19	20.85	43,370
Tool and die makers	340	4.13	29.81	62,000
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers	890	1.47	25.10	52,210
Welding, soldering, and brazing machine setters, operators, and tenders	70	1.52	21.96	45,680
Heat treating equipment setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	50	2.66	21.13	43,950
Plating machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	130	2.72	20.13	41,880
Prepress technicians and workers	40	1.06	25.42	52,870
Printing press operators	300	1.42	22.79	47,400
Print binding and finishing workers	70	1.41	20.12	41,840
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers	210	0.74	15.09	31,390
Sewing machine operators	220	1.44	18.73	38,960
Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters	250	2.23	21.22	44,140
Furniture finishers	100	4.69	22.39	46,580
Sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood	50	0.82	19.98	41,570
Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing	80	0.93	20.17	41,960
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators	130	0.67	28.90	60,100
Chemical equipment operators and tenders	120	0.61	24.08	50,080
Separating, filtering, clarifying, precipitating, and still machine setters, operators, and tenders	80	0.96	22.67	47,140
Crushing, grinding, and polishing machine setters, operators, and tenders	30	0.81	25.19	52,400
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders	330	2.37	22.78	47,370
Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders	130	1.94	22.65	47,110
Extruding, forming, pressing, and compacting machine setters, operators, and tenders	150	1.73	23.77	49,430
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	1,530	1.76	23.54	48,960
Dental laboratory technicians	90	1.79	25.37	52,770
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders	870	1.59	21.13	43,940
Painting, coating, and decorating workers	40	3.40	19.39	40,320
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders	420	1.84	23.31	48,490
Computer numerically controlled tool operators	960	3.90	23.75	49,400
Computer numerically controlled tool programmers	190	4.64	31.08	64,650
Molders, shapers, and casters, except metal and plastic	90	1.91	22.61	47,020
Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders	210	1.49	22.92	47,680
Tire builders	720	23.93	25.33	52,680
Helpers--production workers	100	0.42	20.63	42,900
Production workers, all other	90	0.25	20.91	43,480
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Fort Wayne, IN Metropolitan Statistical Area, see https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0023060/2025. (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.