Workers in the Bowling Green Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $18.79 in May 2016, about 21 percent below the nationwide average of $23.86, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Regional Commissioner Janet S. Rankin noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were lower than their respective national averages 19 of the 22 major occupational groups, including computer and mathematical; management; and business and financial operations.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 3 of the 22 occupational groups: production; food preparation and serving related; and education, training, and library. Conversely, nine groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including office and administrative support; business and financial operations; and computer and mathematical. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Bowling Green had 9,740 jobs in production, accounting for 13.5 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 6.5-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $17.56, compared to the national wage of $17.88.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included team assemblers (2,330), packaging and filling machine operators and tenders (900), and first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (620). Among the higher paying jobs were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers, and inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers, with mean hourly wages of $25.69 and $20.43, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($9.16) and production workers' helpers ($12.36). (Detailed occupational data for production are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_14540.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 Bowling Green Metropolitan Statistical Area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, metal and plastic forging machine setters, operators, and tenders were employed at 17.8 times the national rate in Bowling Green, and packaging and filling machine operators and tenders, at 4.5 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers had a location quotient of 1.1 in Bowling Green, indicating that this particular occupation’s local and national employment shares were similar.

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 Kentucky Department for Workforce Investment.

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. The OES data available from BLS include cross-industry occupational employment and wage estimates for the nation; over 650 areas, including states and the District of Columbia, metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), metropolitan divisions, nonmetropolitan areas, and territories; national industry-specific estimates at the NAICS sector, 3-, 4-, and selected 5- and 6-digit industry levels, and national estimates by ownership across all industries and for schools and hospitals. OES data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm.

OES estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.2 million establishments. Each year, two semiannual panels of approximately 200,000 sampled establishments are contacted, one panel in May and the other in November. Responses are obtained by mail, Internet or other electronic means, email, telephone, or personal visit. The May 2016 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2016, November 2015, May 2015, November 2014, May 2014, and November 2013. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 73 percent based on establishments and 69 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The unweighted employment of sampled establishments across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 58 percent of total national employment. The sample in the Bowling Green Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,060 establishments with a response rate of 74 percent. For more information about OES concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.tn.htm.

The May 2016 OES estimates are based on the 2010 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system and the 2012 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). Information about the 2010 SOC is available on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/soc and information about the 2012 NAICS is available at www.bls.gov/bls/naics.htm.

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 Bowling Green, Ky. Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Allen, Butler, Edmonson and Warren Counties.

Additional information

OES data are available on our regional web page at www.bls.gov/regions/southeast. 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/current/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: (800) 877-8339.

Table 1. Employment and wage data from the Occupational Employment Statistics survey, by occupation, Bowling Green Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2016

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Production occupations	9,740	2.1	$17.56	$36,520
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers	620	2.0	25.69	53,430
Structural metal fabricators and fitters	30	0.8	20.16	41,940
Team assemblers	2,330	4.1	18.55	38,590
Assemblers and fabricators, all other	430	3.6	12.47	25,950
Bakers	50	0.5	11.12	23,140
Butchers and meat cutters	50	0.7	12.47	25,930
Food batchmakers	70	0.9	16.97	35,290
Computer-controlled machine tool operators, metal and plastic	50	0.7	18.46	38,390
Forging machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	180	17.8	20.29	42,190
Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	310	3.1	16.44	34,200
Machinists	130	0.7	19.38	40,310
Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	240	3.2	15.53	32,310
Tool and die makers	130	3.6	24.30	50,540
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers	220	1.1	20.02	41,640
Welding, soldering, and brazing machine setters, operators, and tenders	170	7.2	17.86	37,150
Printing press operators	140	1.6	16.31	33,920
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers	120	1.1	9.16	19,040
Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters	30	0.7	14.33	29,810
Sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood	30	1.2	14.77	30,720
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators	(5)	(5)	18.70	38,890
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders	140	2.2	17.21	35,790
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	560	2.1	20.43	42,490
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders	900	4.5	18.55	38,590
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders	90	2.1	17.60	36,620
Photographic process workers and processing machine operators	40	2.9	11.56	24,040
Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders	310	6.4	18.72	38,940
Helpers--production workers	260	1.2	12.36	25,710
Production workers, all other	990	7.7	12.91	26,860
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Bowling Green, KY Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_14540.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.