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News Release Information

24-1279-CHI
Thursday, July 25, 2024

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

Occupational Employment and Wages in Rockford — May 2023

Workers in the Rockford, IL Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $27.52 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 ($55.59), healthcare practitioners and technical ($46.79), and legal ($44.42). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($15.78), personal care and service ($16.61), and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($17.59). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Rockford area included production (12.7 percent), transportation and material moving (11.9 percent), and office and administrative support (11.0 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.4 percent); life, physical, and social science (0.4 percent); and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (0.9 percent). (See table A.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Rockford metropolitan area, May 2023
Major occupational group Percent of total employment Mean hourly wage ($)
United States Rockford United States Rockford

Total, all occupations

100.0 100.0 31.48 27.52

Management

6.9 6.7 66.23 55.59

Business and financial operations

6.6 3.5 43.55 35.38

Computer and mathematical

3.4 1.3 54.39 43.28

Architecture and engineering

1.7 1.6 47.64 42.45

Life, physical, and social science

0.9 0.4 42.24 39.10

Community and social service

1.6 1.5 28.36 26.09

Legal

0.8 0.4 64.34 44.42

Educational instruction and library

5.8 5.4 31.92 28.73

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.4 0.9 36.31 23.93

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.1 7.4 49.07 46.79

Healthcare support

4.7 4.6 18.37 18.83

Protective service

2.3 1.9 27.74 26.92

Food preparation and serving related

8.7 8.7 16.58 15.78

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.9 2.9 18.43 17.59

Personal care and service

2.0 1.5 18.48 16.61

Sales and related

8.8 8.1 25.62 21.96

Office and administrative support

12.2 11.0 23.05 21.82

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.3 0.1 19.22 18.50

Construction and extraction

4.1 3.2 29.57 35.31

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.9 4.4 28.13 28.40

Production

5.8 12.7 22.90 21.97

Transportation and material moving

9.1 11.9 22.45 20.95

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Rockford had 17,580 jobs in production, accounting for 12.7 percent of local area employment, compared to the 5.8-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $21.97, compared to the national wage of $22.90.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators (4,070), machinists (1,730), and computer numerically controlled tool operators (1,390). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators with mean hourly wages of $34.97, first-line supervisors of production and operating workers ($31.41), and computer numerically controlled tool programmers ($30.95). At the lower end of the wage scale were laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($15.71) and pressers, textile, garment, and related materials ($16.11). (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_40420.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 Rockford area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, computer numerically controlled tool operators were employed at 8.1 times the national rate in Rockford, and machinists, at 6.5 times the U.S. average. Bakers had a location quotient of 1.1 in Rockford, 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 Illinois Department of Employment Security.


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 Rockford, IL Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,546 establishments with a response rate of 62 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 Rockford, IL Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Boone County and Winnebago 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, Rockford metropolitan area, May 2023
Occupation (1) Employment Mean wages ($)
Level (2) Location quotient (3) Hourly Annual (4)

Production occupations

17,580 2.2 21.97 45,700

First-line supervisors of production and operating workers

1,190 1.9 31.41 65,340

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

360 1.5 19.66 40,890

Structural metal fabricators and fitters

110 2.0 25.08 52,170

Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators

4,070 3.0 20.18 41,970

Bakers

230 1.1 16.29 33,870

Butchers and meat cutters

190 1.5 17.12 35,610

Food batchmakers

260 1.7 21.55 44,820

Food processing workers, all other

30 0.5 16.24 33,780

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

30 0.6 22.81 47,450

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

40 1.9 26.45 55,020

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

490 3.0 20.28 42,170

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

530 7.7 19.67 40,910

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

90 5.3 24.27 50,490

Machinists

1,730 6.5 24.21 50,350

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

320 2.2 19.61 40,780

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

220 1.9 20.14 41,890

Tool and die makers

350 6.6 26.38 54,860

Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers

870 2.3 23.24 48,340

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

160 11.8 18.42 38,320

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

170 5.8 17.46 36,320

Printing press operators

80 0.6 20.74 43,150

Laundry and dry-cleaning workers

250 1.5 15.71 32,690

Pressers, textile, garment, and related materials

40 1.7 16.11 33,500

Sewing machine operators

60 0.5 16.20 33,690

Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters

50 0.6 22.58 46,960

Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing

70 1.2 16.70 34,730

Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators

130 1.1 34.97 72,730

Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders

40 0.9 20.75 43,160

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

50 1.0 18.60 38,680

Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers

1,240 2.3 21.49 44,690

Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders

1,060 3.1 19.01 39,530

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

290 2.0 22.00 45,770

Computer numerically controlled tool operators

1,390 8.1 22.30 46,380

Computer numerically controlled tool programmers

90 3.6 30.95 64,370

Molders, shapers, and casters, except metal and plastic

50 1.5 22.11 46,000

Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders

70 0.8 (5) (5)

Helpers--production workers

210 1.3 18.59 38,670

Production workers, all other

190 0.9 18.34 38,160

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Rockford, IL Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_40420.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.
(5) Estimate not released.

 

Last Modified Date: Thursday, July 25, 2024