Workers in the Louisville/Jefferson County Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $21.28 in May 2016, about 11 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 in 16 of the 22 major occupational groups, including arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media; architecture and engineering; and business and financial operations. One group—farming, fishing, and forestry—had a significantly higher wage than its respective national average.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 4 of the 22 occupational groups, including production and transportation and material moving. Conversely, 15 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including education, training, and library; business and financial operations; and sales and related. (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. Louisville/Jefferson County had 67,460 jobs in production, accounting for 10.5 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 6.5-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $18.04, compared to the national wage of $17.88.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included team assemblers (16,010), inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers (4,400), and metal and plastic cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders (3,910). Among the higher paying jobs were power plant operators and first-line supervisors of production and operating workers, with mean hourly wages of $40.02 and $27.31, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($9.88) and textile, garment, and related materials pressers ($9.96). (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_31140.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 Louisville/Jefferson County Metropolitan Statistical Area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the production group. For instance, team assemblers were employed at 3.1 times the national rate in Louisville/Jefferson County, and welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers, at 1.9 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, machinists had a location quotient of 1.0 in Louisville/Jefferson County, 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.

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 Louisville/Jefferson County Metropolitan Statistical Area included 4,967 establishments with a response rate of 76 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 Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN Metropolitan Statistical Area  includes Bullitt, Henry, Jefferson, Oldham, Shelby, Spencer, and Trimble Counties of Kentucky, and Clark, Floyd, Harrison, Scott, and Washington Counties of Indiana.

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.