Workers in the Mobile, AL Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $22.43 in May 2020, about 17 percent below the nationwide average of $27.07, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Janet S. Rankin noted that one occupational group—production—had a significantly higher wage than its respective national average. Nineteen groups had significantly lower wages than their respective national averages, including computer and mathematical, healthcare practitioners and technical, and sales and related.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Mobile area employment was more highly concentrated in 5 of the 22 occupational groups, including production; installation, maintenance, and repair; and construction and extraction. Eight groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including educational instruction and library, business and financial operations, and computer and mathematical. (See table A.)

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Mobile had 14,020 jobs in production occupations, accounting for 8.3 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 6.1-percent national share. The local average hourly wage for this occupational group was $23.13, significantly higher than the national average of $20.08.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers (1,600); helpers of production worker (1,270); and first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (1,080). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were chemical plant and system operators and also first-line supervisors of production and operating workers, with mean hourly wages of $36.67 and $36.09, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers ($10.55) and textile, garment, and related materials pressers ($10.97). (Detailed data for the production occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations, go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_33660.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 Mobile area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the production group. For instance, chemical plant and system operators were employed at 16.8 times the national rate in Mobile, and chemical equipment operators and tenders, at 4.7 times the U.S. average. Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers had a location quotient of 0.9 in Mobile, indicating that this particular occupation’s local and national employment shares were similar.

These statistics are from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) 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 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 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. OEWS data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm.

The OEWS 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. OEWS estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.1 million establishments. Each year, two semiannual panels of approximately 180,000 to 185,000 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 2020 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2020, November 2019, May 2019, November 2018, May 2018, and November 2017. The unweighted sample employment of 83 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 56 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 69 percent based on establishments and 66 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Mobile, AL Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,810 establishments with a response rate of 75 percent. For more information about OEWS 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.

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 Mobile, AL Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Mobile County.

For more information

Answers to frequently asked questions about the OEWS data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_ques.htm. Detailed information about the OEWS program is available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_doc.htm.

Information in this release will be made available to individuals with sensory impairments upon request. Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; Federal Relay Service: (800) 877-8339.

Table 1. Employment and wage data for production occupations, Mobile metropolitan area, May 2020

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Production occupations	14,020	1.4	$23.13	$48,120
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers	1,080	1.5	36.09	75,060
Aircraft structure, surfaces, rigging, and systems assemblers	(5)	(5)	28.84	59,990
Electrical, electronic, and electromechanical assemblers, except coil winders, tapers, and finishers	90	0.3	14.46	30,070
Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators	490	0.3	16.87	35,090
Bakers	130	0.6	12.18	25,340
Butchers and meat cutters	190	1.1	15.45	32,130
Meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers	360	2.0	10.55	21,950
Food batchmakers	160	0.9	11.97	24,900
Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	330	1.5	23.44	48,750
Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	40	0.4	24.09	50,100
Machinists	570	1.3	24.05	50,020
Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	130	0.7	21.20	44,090
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers	1,600	3.3	25.22	52,460
Plating machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	40	0.8	17.87	37,170
Printing press operators	110	0.6	13.97	29,070
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers	250	1.1	11.08	23,050
Pressers, textile, garment, and related materials	(5)	(5)	10.97	22,810
Sewing machine operators	(5)	(5)	12.05	25,070
Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters	110	1.0	16.02	33,310
Sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood	50	0.8	12.24	25,450
Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing	(5)	(5)	15.99	33,260
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators	260	1.8	18.28	38,020
Chemical plant and system operators	610	16.8	36.67	76,270
Petroleum pump system operators, refinery operators, and gaugers	180	3.6	29.72	61,820
Chemical equipment operators and tenders	530	4.7	29.55	61,470
Crushing, grinding, and polishing machine setters, operators, and tenders	(5)	(5)	14.22	29,580
Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders	70	1.1	14.98	31,160
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	600	0.9	26.01	54,110
Jewelers and precious stone and metal workers	(5)	(5)	23.13	48,110
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders	240	0.5	18.32	38,100
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders	200	1.2	20.55	42,740
Computer numerically controlled tool operators	(5)	(5)	19.88	41,360
Helpers--production workers	1,270	4.4	12.20	25,380
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Mobile, AL Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_33660.htm. (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.