Workers in the Norwich-New London-Willimantic, CT Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $34.52 in May 2025, compared to the nationwide average of $33.54, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Mark J. Maggi noted that higher paying major occupational groups included management ($72.15); life, physical, and social science ($55.77); and healthcare practitioners and technical ($54.37). Lower paying occupations included building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($20.11), food preparation and serving related ($20.60), and healthcare support ($21.23). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment shares in the Norwich area included food preparation and serving related (11.1 percent) and office and administrative support (10.0 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.5 percent); arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (1.1 percent); and life, physical, and social science (1.3 percent).

One occupational group—protective service—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 20 major occupational categories for which data is available. Norwich had 3,670 jobs in protective service, accounting for 2.9 percent of local area employment, compared to the 2.4-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $30.68, compared to the national wage of $29.19.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the protective service group included security guards (970), police and sheriff's patrol officers (650), and correctional officers and jailers (590). Among the higher paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of police and detectives ($52.64), detectives and criminal investigators ($44.62), and first-Line supervisors of firefighting and prevention workers ($44.41). At the lower end of the wage scale were lifeguards, ski patrol, and other recreational protective service workers ($17.64) and security guards ($20.61). (Detailed data for the protective service occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0035980/2025.)

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 Norwich area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the protective service group. For instance, correctional officers and jailers were employed at 1.89 times the national rate in Norwich. Security guards had a location quotient of 0.93 in Norwich, 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 Connecticut 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 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 66.2 percent based on establishments and 67.2 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Norwich-New London-Willimantic, CT Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,330 establishments with a response rate of 54 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 Norwich-New London-Willimantic, CT Metropolitan Statistical Area is comprised of the Southeastern Connecticut Planning Region.

For more information

Answers to frequently asked questions about the OEWS data, as well as general program documentation, are available on the OEWS website.

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Table 1. Employment and wage data for protective service occupations, Norwich metropolitan area, May 2025

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages ($)
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Protective service occupations	3,670	1.20	30.68	63,820
First-line supervisors of police and detectives	180	1.45	52.64	109,500
First-line supervisors of firefighting and prevention workers	110	1.42	44.41	92,370
First-line supervisors of security workers	30	0.46	37.78	78,570
First-line supervisors of protective service workers, all other	100	5.99	28.67	59,630
Firefighters	340	1.22	30.80	64,070
Fire inspectors and investigators	50	4.62	37.35	77,690
Correctional officers and jailers	590	1.89	30.62	63,700
Detectives and criminal investigators	50	0.56	44.62	92,820
Police and sheriff's patrol officers	650	1.20	39.08	81,290
Private detectives and investigators	30	1.19	(5)	(5)
Security guards	970	0.93	20.61	42,870
Crossing guards and flaggers	140	1.85	26.84	55,820
Lifeguards, ski patrol, and other recreational protective service workers	90	0.68	17.64	36,690
Protective service workers, all other	80	1.23	21.13	43,960
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Norwich-New London-Willimantic, CT Metropolitan Statistical Area, see https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0035980/2025. (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.