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News Release Information

25-607-CHI
Monday, May 19, 2025

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

Occupational Employment and Wages in Niles — May 2024

Workers in the Niles, MI Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $27.92 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 legal ($57.55) and management ($56.74). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($16.92), healthcare support ($17.30), building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($17.67), and personal care and service ($17.75). (See table A.)

Food preparation and serving related occupations accounted for 11.8 percent of Niles area employment, followed by office and administrative support occupations (11.0 percent) and production occupations (10.8 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.3 percent) and life, physical, and social science (0.6 percent).

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Niles metropolitan area, May 2024
Major occupational group Percent of total employment Mean hourly wage ($)
United States Niles United States Niles

Total, all occupations

100.0 100.0 32.66 27.92

Management

7.1 6.7 68.15 56.74

Business and financial operations

6.7 5.0 45.04 39.00

Computer and mathematical

3.4 1.5 56.16 44.08

Architecture and engineering

1.7 2.8 49.99 48.14

Life, physical, and social science

0.9 0.6 43.12 44.80

Community and social service

1.7 1.5 30.31 26.80

Legal

0.8 0.3 66.19 57.55

Educational instruction and library

5.8 5.3 31.69 27.07

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.4 1.3 37.04 28.94

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.2 5.9 50.59 46.60

Healthcare support

4.8 3.9 19.06 17.30

Protective service

2.4 2.8 29.33 23.99

Food preparation and serving related

8.8 11.8 17.32 16.92

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.9 3.5 19.01 17.67

Personal care and service

2.0 2.2 18.95 17.75

Sales and related

8.7 8.4 26.00 21.58

Office and administrative support

11.8 11.0 24.12 22.01

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.3 0.5 20.06 18.08

Construction and extraction

4.1 2.8 30.73 29.19

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.9 4.6 29.63 28.48

Production

5.7 10.8 24.08 23.84

Transportation and material moving

8.9 7.0 23.44 20.30

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Niles had 6,430 jobs in production, accounting for 10.8 percent of local area employment, compared to the 5.7-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $23.84, compared to the national wage of $24.08.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators (1,020), first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (530), and machinists (520). Among the higher paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers ($39.35) and computer numerically controlled tool programmers ($32.00). At the lower end of the wage scale were laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($15.14) and bakers ($16.25). (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/0035660.)

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 Niles area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, foundry mold and coremakers were employed at 26.57 times the national rate in Niles, and welding, soldering, and brazing machine setters, operators, and tenders, at 10.22 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 Michigan Department of Technology, Management & Budget.

Changes to the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) Data

Effective with the May 2024 OEWS news release, the OEWS program has implemented new metropolitan area definitions based on the 2020 decennial census and delineated by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Bulletin 23-01. This news release does not include data for Colorado and its areas because of quality concerns with Colorado’s Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) data. See the national OEWS news release for more information.


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 Niles, MI Metropolitan Statistical Area included 932 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 Niles, MI Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Berrien 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, Niles metropolitan area, May 2024
Occupation (1) Employment Mean wages ($)
Level (2) Location quotient (3) Hourly Annual (4)

Production occupations

6,430 1.9 23.84 49,580

First-line supervisors of production and operating workers

530 2.01 39.35 81,850

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

90 0.86 (5) (5)

Structural metal fabricators and fitters

130 6.13 28.88 60,070

Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators

1,020 1.80 20.02 41,640

Bakers

130 1.46 16.25 33,790

Butchers and meat cutters

70 1.32 17.48 36,360

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

50 2.14 22.96 47,750

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

400 5.94 19.56 40,680

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

130 4.68 19.87 41,320

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

40 6.03 20.99 43,660

Machinists

520 4.47 24.11 50,140

Foundry mold and coremakers

130 26.57 20.83 43,330

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

190 3.11 19.20 39,930

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

90 1.73 21.97 45,700

Tool and die makers

130 6.19 27.60 57,420

Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers

260 1.58 24.99 51,990

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

140 10.22 22.03 45,820

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

60 5.16 18.98 39,470

Printing press operators

100 1.79 21.39 44,480

Print binding and finishing workers

50 3.32 18.90 39,310

Laundry and dry-cleaning workers

80 1.08 15.14 31,490

Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators

80 1.64 27.74 57,690

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

50 2.50 23.19 48,240

Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders

40 0.93 21.67 45,070

Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers

470 2.04 21.04 43,760

Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders

70 0.48 17.44 36,280

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

170 2.79 20.79 43,240

Computer numerically controlled tool operators

170 2.42 23.14 48,130

Computer numerically controlled tool programmers

40 3.62 32.00 66,560

Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders

100 2.68 21.87 45,480

Helpers--production workers

50 0.85 18.52 38,530

Production workers, all other

80 0.78 18.20 37,860

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Niles, MI Metropolitan Statistical Area, see https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0035660.
(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.

 

Last Modified Date: Monday, May 19, 2025