Workers in the Grand Island, NE Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $24.91 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 ($49.79), legal ($43.10), and healthcare practitioners and technical ($41.28). Lower paying occupations included personal care and service ($14.41), food preparation and serving related ($14.90), and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($16.50). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Grand Island area included production (14.4 percent), transportation and material moving (11.1 percent), and office and administrative support (11.1 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.3 percent); life, physical, and social science (0.5 percent); and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (0.7 percent). (See table A.)

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Grand Island had 6,090 jobs in production, accounting for 14.4 percent of local area employment, compared to the 5.8-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $22.66, compared to the national wage of $22.90.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers (490), packaging and filling machine operators and tenders (480), and first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (400). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were power plant operators and first-line supervisors of production and operating workers, with mean hourly wages of $56.94 and $31.48, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($14.71) and bakers ($15.66). (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_24260.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 Grand Island area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, food cooking machine operators and tenders were employed at 10.1 times the national rate in Grand Island, and tool and die makers, at 5.4 times the U.S. average. Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators had a location quotient of 0.9 in Grand Island, 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 Nebraska Department of Labor.

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 Grand Island, NE Metropolitan Statistical Area included 806 establishments with a response rate of 77 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 Grand Island, NE Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Hall County, Hamilton County, Howard County, and Merrick 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, Grand Island metropolitan area, May 2023

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages ($)
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Production occupations	6,090	2.5	22.66	47,140
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers	400	2.1	31.48	65,470
Electrical, electronic, and electromechanical assemblers, except coil winders, tapers, and finishers	40	0.5	20.43	42,490
Structural metal fabricators and fitters	80	4.8	19.77	41,120
Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators	380	0.9	19.53	40,620
Bakers	60	1.0	15.66	32,570
Butchers and meat cutters	40	1.1	16.72	34,780
Food cooking machine operators and tenders	80	10.1	21.18	44,060
Machinists	70	0.9	24.15	50,220
Multiple machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	80	2.2	21.68	45,090
Tool and die makers	90	5.4	29.56	61,490
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers	260	2.2	23.14	48,140
Plating machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	30	3.4	22.35	46,490
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers	70	1.4	14.71	30,590
Power plant operators	50	5.3	56.94	118,430
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators	40	1.3	27.59	57,390
Chemical equipment operators and tenders	70	2.0	24.67	51,310
Separating, filtering, clarifying, precipitating, and still machine setters, operators, and tenders	30	2.3	20.53	42,710
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders	70	2.3	20.34	42,310
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	490	3.0	22.32	46,420
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders	480	4.6	21.20	44,100
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders	50	1.1	21.58	44,890
Computer numerically controlled tool operators	70	1.4	24.15	50,240
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Grand Island, NE Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_24260.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.