Workers in the Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $26.67 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 management ($49.82), healthcare practitioners and technical ($45.84), and architecture and engineering ($45.24). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($14.68), personal care and service ($15.80), and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($18.22). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Waterloo area included production (10.8 percent), transportation and material moving (10.7 percent), and office and administrative support (10.3 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.4 percent); life, physical, and social science (0.6 percent); and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (1.2 percent).

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Waterloo had 9,240 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 $24.19, compared to the national wage of $24.08.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators (1,670), inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers (770), and welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers (600). 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 $36.87 and $35.99, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($15.15) and bakers ($15.82). (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/0047940.)

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 Waterloo 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 6.07 times the national rate in Waterloo, and cabinetmakers and bench carpenters, at 5.65 times the U.S. average. Bakers had a location quotient of 1.01 in Waterloo, 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, Iowa 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 65.7 percent based on establishments and 65.9 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,249 establishments with a response rate of 65 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 Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Black Hawk County, Bremer County, and Grundy 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, Waterloo metropolitan area, May 2024

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages ($)
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Production occupations	9,240	1.91	24.19	50,310
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers	580	1.52	35.99	74,860
Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators	1,670	2.07	23.45	48,780
Bakers	130	1.01	15.82	32,910
Butchers and meat cutters	200	2.57	17.28	35,950
Food batchmakers	110	1.16	20.20	42,010
Food processing workers, all other	80	2.37	21.70	45,140
Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	90	0.94	23.79	49,490
Drilling and boring machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	50	16.65	26.88	55,920
Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	140	3.64	24.71	51,400
Machinists	200	1.21	26.74	55,620
Foundry mold and coremakers	30	4.37	21.91	45,570
Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	40	0.44	23.63	49,150
Multiple machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	(5)	(5)	23.64	49,180
Tool and die makers	90	2.98	29.37	61,100
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers	600	2.54	24.28	50,500
Welding, soldering, and brazing machine setters, operators, and tenders	80	4.09	25.09	52,190
Heat treating equipment setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	70	8.50	23.89	49,690
Printing press operators	110	1.37	19.78	41,140
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers	120	1.07	15.15	31,520
Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters	250	5.65	23.91	49,720
Power plant operators	30	2.02	36.87	76,690
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators	110	1.51	31.76	66,060
Grinding and polishing workers, hand	(5)	(5)	22.93	47,680
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders	60	1.16	25.04	52,090
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	770	2.34	25.40	52,820
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders	150	0.69	20.92	43,510
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders	210	2.38	22.38	46,550
Computer numerically controlled tool operators	600	6.07	25.15	52,320
Computer numerically controlled tool programmers	80	5.31	26.67	55,470
Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders	130	2.48	25.58	53,200
Helpers--production workers	430	4.65	21.85	45,440
Production workers, all other	440	2.90	21.71	45,160
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA Metropolitan Statistical Area, see https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0047940. (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.