Workers in the Bowling Green Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $19.35 in May 2018, about 23 percent below the nationwide average of $24.98, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Regional Commissioner Janet S. Rankin noted that, after testing for statistical significance, 19 of the 22 major occupational groups had average wages in the local area that were significantly lower than their respective national averages, including legal; computer and mathematical; and management.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 4 of the 22 occupational groups, including production, and food preparation and serving related. Conversely, 12 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including business and financial operations; computer and mathematical; and office and administrative support. (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 9,870 jobs in production, accounting for 13.3 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 6.3-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $18.06, not significantly different from the national wage of $18.84.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included assemblers and fabricators, all other, including team assemblers (2,290); packaging and filling machine operators and tenders (890); and first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (520). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers, and tool and die makers, with mean hourly wages of $28.32 and $25.16, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were bakers ($8.58) and laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($10.06). (Detailed data for production occupations 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, packaging and filling machine operators and tenders were employed at 4.4 times the national rate in Bowling Green, and welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers, at 2.2 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, production workers' helpers had a location quotient of 1.0 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 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 580 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. OES data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm.

The OES survey is a cooperative effort between BLS and the State Workforce Agencies (SWAs). BLS funds the survey and provides the procedures and technical support, while the State Workforce Agencies collect most of the data. OES estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.2 million establishments. Each year, two semiannual panels of approximately 180,000 to 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 2018 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2018, November 2017, May 2017, November 2016, May 2016, and November 2015. The unweighted sample employment of 83 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 58 percent of total national employment. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 71 percent based on establishments and 68 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Bowling Green Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,047 establishments with a response rate of 71 percent. For more information about OES concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_tec.htm.

A value that is statistically different from another does not necessarily mean that the difference has economic or practical significance. Statistical significance is concerned with the ability to make confident statements about a universe based on a sample. It is entirely possible that a large difference between two values is not significantly different statistically, while a small difference is, since both the size and heterogeneity of the sample affect the relative error of the data being tested.

The May 2018 OES estimates are based on the 2010 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system and the 2017 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 2017 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 2018

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Production occupations	9,870	2.1	$18.06	$37,570
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers	520	1.6	28.32	58,900
Assemblers and fabricators, all other, including team assemblers	2,290	3.3	19.22	39,980
Bakers	(5)	(5)	8.58	17,840
Butchers and meat cutters	(5)	(5)	12.10	25,170
Computer-controlled machine tool operators, metal and plastic	160	2.1	13.10	27,240
Computer numerically controlled machine tool programmers, metal and plastic	40	3.3	(5)	(5)
Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	190	2.0	19.39	40,340
Machinists	270	1.4	21.70	45,130
Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	(5)	(5)	16.39	34,090
Tool and die makers	170	4.6	25.16	52,330
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers	440	2.2	17.38	36,150
Welding, soldering, and brazing machine setters, operators, and tenders	120	6.4	20.24	42,100
Printing press operators	170	1.9	14.79	30,770
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers	130	1.2	10.06	20,920
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators	40	0.7	16.48	34,280
Chemical equipment operators and tenders	(5)	(5)	22.39	46,570
Grinding and polishing workers, hand	(5)	(5)	13.82	28,750
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders	200	3.0	14.86	30,910
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	490	1.7	18.24	37,940
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders	890	4.4	19.85	41,280
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders	70	1.5	19.59	40,740
Photographic process workers and processing machine operators	40	4.3	10.94	22,750
Molders, shapers, and casters, except metal and plastic	50	2.3	13.75	28,590
Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders	(5)	(5)	18.73	38,970
Helpers--production workers	180	1.0	13.91	28,920
Production workers, all other	700	5.9	12.06	25,090
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.