Workers in the Montgomery Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $19.55 in May 2016, about 18 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, 20 of the 22 major occupational groups had significantly lower wages than their respective national averages, including construction and extraction; sales and related; and transportation and material moving. 

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 6 of the 22 occupational groups, including production; transportation and material moving; and protective service. Conversely, nine groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including management; construction and extraction; and education, training, and library. (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. Montgomery had 16,800 jobs in production, accounting for 10.2 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 6.5-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $15.55, significantly below the national wage of $17.88.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included team assemblers (4,470), production workers' helpers (1,850), and inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers (1,360). Among the higher paying jobs were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers, and paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders, with mean hourly wages of $25.69 and $24.10, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($10.14) and electrical and electronic equipment assemblers ($10.99). (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_33860.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 Montgomery Metropolitan Statistical Area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the production group. For instance, metal and plastic extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders were employed at 3.8 times the national rate in Montgomery, and  production workers' helpers, at 3.7 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, metal and plastic cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders had a location quotient of 1.1 in Montgomery, 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 Alabama Department of Labor.

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 Montgomery Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,749 establishments with a response rate of 73 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 Montgomery, Ala. Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Autauga, Elmore, Lowndes, and Montgomery 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, Montgomery Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2016

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Production occupations	16,800	1.6	$15.55	$32,350
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers	1,010	1.4	25.69	53,430
Electrical and electronic equipment assemblers	40	0.1	10.99	22,860
Structural metal fabricators and fitters	190	2.2	14.73	30,640
Fiberglass laminators and fabricators	60	2.7	14.28	29,710
Team assemblers	4,470	3.4	15.27	31,760
Assemblers and fabricators, all other	400	1.5	14.77	30,730
Bakers	170	0.8	14.19	29,520
Butchers and meat cutters	130	0.8	13.86	28,820
Food batchmakers	(5)	(5)	12.28	25,550
Computer-controlled machine tool operators, metal and plastic	90	0.5	21.25	44,200
Extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	320	3.8	14.48	30,120
Rolling machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	40	1.3	17.14	35,640
Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	260	1.1	13.90	28,920
Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	50	0.6	16.77	34,870
Machinists	360	0.8	18.31	38,090
Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	240	1.4	16.32	33,950
Multiple machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	(5)	(5)	16.19	33,680
Tool and die makers	40	0.4	21.62	44,970
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers	580	1.3	15.19	31,590
Welding, soldering, and brazing machine setters, operators, and tenders	40	0.8	18.54	38,570
Prepress technicians and workers	(5)	(5)	15.77	32,800
Printing press operators	190	0.9	15.05	31,310
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers	310	1.3	10.14	21,090
Sewing machine operators	40	0.2	11.08	23,040
Tailors, dressmakers, and custom sewers	(5)	(5)	13.29	27,640
Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters	90	0.8	15.56	32,360
Sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood	80	1.3	(5)	(5)
Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing	80	0.9	11.99	24,930
Power distributors and dispatchers	50	4.0	32.89	68,400
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators	90	0.7	19.80	41,180
Petroleum pump system operators, refinery operators, and gaugers	(5)	(5)	20.16	41,940
Crushing, grinding, and polishing machine setters, operators, and tenders	160	4.7	15.48	32,190
Grinding and polishing workers, hand	30	1.0	11.25	23,390
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders	210	1.4	(5)	(5)
Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders	30	0.5	20.76	43,190
Extruding, forming, pressing, and compacting machine setters, operators, and tenders	190	2.3	16.88	35,110
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	1,360	2.2	14.51	30,170
Dental laboratory technicians	90	2.0	14.47	30,090
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders	290	0.6	13.95	29,010
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders	90	0.9	13.79	28,680
Painters, transportation equipment	100	1.5	21.70	45,140
Painting, coating, and decorating workers	80	4.2	11.93	24,810
Molders, shapers, and casters, except metal and plastic	60	1.3	11.14	23,170
Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders	150	1.4	24.10	50,140
Helpers--production workers	1,850	3.7	10.31	21,440
Production workers, all other	(5)	(5)	13.44	27,960
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Montgomery, AL Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_33860.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.