Workers in the Logan Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $16.90 in May 2012, about 23 percent below the nationwide average of $22.01, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Regional Commissioner Stanley W. Suchman noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were significantly lower than their respective national averages in 20 of the 22 major occupational groups, including legal, management, sales and related, and production.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 3 of the 22 occupational groups: production; education, training, and library; and life, physical, and social science. Conversely, 10 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including business and financial operations, food preparation and serving related, and healthcare practitioners and technical. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Logan Metropolitan Statistical Area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2012

Major occupational group	Percent of total employment		Mean hourly wage
	United States	Logan	United States	Logan	Percent difference (1)
Total, all occupations	100.0%	100.0%	$22.01	$16.90*	-23
Management	4.9	3.8*	52.20	39.71*	-24
Business and financial operations	4.9	2.7*	33.44	26.30*	-21
Computer and mathematical	2.7	1.5*	38.55	25.20*	-35
Architecture and engineering	1.8	1.7	37.98	30.42*	-20
Life, physical, and social science	0.8	1.6*	32.87	24.77*	-25
Community and social services	1.4	1.4	21.27	18.71*	-12
Legal	0.8	0.4*	47.39	26.19*	-45
Education, training, and library	6.4	8.2*	24.62	21.00	-15
Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media	1.3	1.0*	26.20	20.94*	-20
Healthcare practitioner and technical	5.9	4.4*	35.35	27.92*	-21
Healthcare support	3.0	2.8	13.36	11.14*	-17
Protective service	2.5	1.0*	20.70	16.26*	-21
Food preparation and serving related	8.9	7.2*	10.28	9.39*	-9
Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance	3.3	3.3	12.34	10.45*	-15
Personal care and service	2.9	2.4*	11.80	10.28*	-13
Sales and related	10.6	10.9	18.26	13.76*	-25
Office and administrative support	16.4	17.0	16.54	13.37*	-19
Farming, fishing, and forestry	0.3	0.1*	11.65	15.91*	37
Construction and extraction	3.8	4.0	21.61	16.79*	-22
Installation, maintenance, and repair	3.9	3.6	21.09	17.60*	-17
Production	6.6	14.7*	16.59	14.76*	-11
Transportation and material moving	6.7	6.2	16.15	13.46*	-17
Footnotes: (1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in Logan is above the national mean wage, while a negative difference reflects a lower wage. * The percent share of employment or mean hourly wage for this area is significantly different from the national average of all areas at the 90-percent confidence level.

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Logan had 7,160 jobs in production, accounting for 14.7 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 6.6-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $14.76, measurably below the national wage of $16.59.

With employment of 640, team assemblers was one of the largest occupations within the production group. Among the higher paying jobs were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers and machinists, with mean hourly wages of $23.27 and $21.28, respectively. Occupations at the lower end of the wage scale included bakers ($10.55). (Detailed occupational data for production are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/2012/may/oes_30860.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 Logan Metropolitan Statistical Area, above average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, printing press operators were employed at 3.0 times the national rate in Logan, and team assemblers, at 1.7 times the U.S. average.

These statistics are from the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey, a federal-state cooperative program between BLS and State Workforce Agencies, in this case, the Utah Department of Workforce Services.

With the release of the May 2012 estimates, OES data are based on the 2010 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system for the first time. The OES survey provides estimates of employment and hourly and annual wages for wage and salary workers in 22 major occupational groups and more than 800 detailed occupations for the nation, states, metropolitan statistical areas, metropolitan divisions, and nonmetropolitan areas. In addition, employment and wage estimates for 94 minor groups and 458 broad occupations are available in the national data for the first time. Information about the 2010 SOC is available on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/soc.

The May 2012 OES estimates are the first to be produced using the 2012 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). Information about the 2012 NAICS is available on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/bls/naics.htm.

Technical Note

The Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey is a semiannual mail survey measuring occupational employment and wage rates for wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments in the United States. Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands are also surveyed, but their data are not included in the national estimates. OES estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.2 million establishments. Forms are mailed to approximately 200,000 sampled establishments in May and November each year for a 3-year period. May 2012 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected in May 2012, November 2011, May 2011, November 2010, May 2010, and November 2009. The overall national response rate for the six panels is 76.6 percent based on establishments and 72.9 percent based on employment. The sample in the Logan Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,049 establishments with a response rate of 80 percent. For more information about OES concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.tn.htm.

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 Logan, Utah Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Cache County, UT and Franklin County, ID.

Additional information

OES data are available on our regional web page at www.bls.gov/regions/mountain-plains/home.htm. Answers to frequently asked questions about the OES data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_ques.htm. Detailed technical information about the OES survey is available in our Survey Methods and Reliability Statement on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/oes/2012/may/methods_statement.pdf. Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request – Voice phone: 202-691-5200; Federal Relay Service: 1-800-877-8339.

 

Table 1. Employment and wage data from the Occupational Employment Statistics survey, by occupation, Logan Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2012

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual(4)
Production Occupations	7,160	2.2	$14.76	$30,710
First-Line Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers	510	2.4	23.27	48,410
Electrical and Electronic Equipment Assemblers	310	4.1	12.75	26,530
Structural Metal Fabricators and Fitters	(5)	(5)	14.68	30,540
Team Assemblers	640	1.7	11.70	24,340
Assemblers and Fabricators, All Other	140	1.3	10.89	22,650
Bakers	100	1.7	10.55	21,950
Slaughterers and Meat Packers	(5)	(5)	14.13	29,380
Food Batchmakers	400	10.7	15.24	31,700
Food Cooking Machine Operators and Tenders	60	4.9	15.14	31,500
Computer-Controlled Machine Tool Operators, Metal and Plastic	70	1.3	14.15	29,430
Extruding and Drawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic	250	9.0	15.24	31,690
Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic	100	1.5	13.81	28,730
Machinists	210	1.4	21.28	44,260
Molding, Coremaking, and Casting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic	60	1.3	12.34	25,670
Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers	250	2.0	15.31	31,850
Plating and Coating Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic	50	3.8	11.08	23,040
Printing Press Operators	190	3.0	17.79	36,990
Print Binding and Finishing Workers	60	2.8	14.40	29,940
Laundry and Dry-Cleaning Workers	40	0.6	9.05	18,830
Cabinetmakers and Bench Carpenters	(5)	(5)	14.46	30,080
Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operators	40	1.1	16.35	34,000
Separating, Filtering, Clarifying, Precipitating, and Still Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders	60	4.1	13.65	28,390
Mixing and Blending Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders	220	5.0	15.71	32,680
Cutting and Slicing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders	(5)	(5)	12.98	27,000
Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers	370	2.2	14.17	29,460
Packaging and Filling Machine Operators and Tenders	590	4.3	12.99	27,010
Coating, Painting, and Spraying Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders	80	2.7	11.72	24,370
Helpers--Production Workers	190	1.2	11.28	23,460
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in Logan, UT-ID, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_30860.htm. (2) Estimates for detailed occupations do not sum to the totals because the totals include occupations 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.