Workers in the Bowling Green, KY Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $25.28 in May 2024, compared to the nationwide average of $32.66, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Victoria G. Lee noted that higher paying major occupational groups included management ($49.46), legal ($42.94), and healthcare practitioners and technical ($42.02). Lower paying occupational groups included food preparation and serving related ($13.80), personal care and service ($15.90), and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($16.10). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Bowling Green area included production (12.7 percent), office and administrative support (11.7 percent), and transportation and material moving (10.6 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal as well as life, physical, and social science (0.6 percent each).

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Bowling Green had 10,200 jobs in production, accounting for 12.7 percent of local area employment, compared to the 5.7-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $24.57, compared to the national wage of $24.08.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators (2,030); first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (720); and inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers (700). Among the higher paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers ($34.46) and tool and die makers ($31.08). At the lower end of the wage scale were textile, garment, and related materials pressers ($12.74) and laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($13.25). (Detailed data for the production occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0014540.)

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 2.00 indicates that an occupation accounts for twice the share of employment in the area than it does nationally. In the Bowling Green area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, tool and die makers were employed at 7.25 times the national rate in Bowling Green, and packaging and filling machine operators and tenders, at 2.76 times the U.S. average. Laundry and dry-cleaning workers had a location quotient of 0.98 in Bowling Green, indicating that this particular occupation’s local and national employment shares were similar.

The statistics in this release are from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, a cooperative effort between BLS and the State Workforce Agencies (SWAs). BLS funds the survey and provides the procedures and technical support. State Workforce Agencies collect most of the data: in this case, the Kentucky Education and Labor Cabinet.

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 530 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. Full OEWS data tables are available online.

Additional information about the OEWS estimates and methodology is available in the national Technical Notes. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 65.7 percent based on establishments and 65.9 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Bowling Green, KY Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,097 establishments with a response rate of 64 percent.

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 County, Butler County, Edmonson County, and Warren County.

For more information

Answers to frequently asked questions about the OEWS data, as well as general program documentation, are available on the OEWS website.

Information in this release will be made available to individuals with sensory impairments upon request. Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; Telecommunications Relay Service: 7-1-1.

Table 1. Employment and wage data for production occupations, Bowling Green metropolitan area, May 2024

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages ($)
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Production occupations	10,200	2.24	24.57	51,100
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers	720	2.02	34.46	71,670
Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators	2,030	2.67	20.72	43,090
Bakers	170	1.42	17.76	36,930
Butchers and meat cutters	50	0.71	15.43	32,100
Food batchmakers	380	4.29	21.86	45,470
Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	390	4.24	25.74	53,540
Machinists	230	1.47	26.37	54,840
Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	270	3.32	22.00	45,770
Tool and die makers	210	7.25	31.08	64,640
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers	470	2.15	24.12	50,160
Printing press operators	110	1.50	20.93	43,540
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers	100	0.98	13.25	27,560
Pressers, textile, garment, and related materials	60	4.56	12.74	26,500
Sewing machine operators	40	0.64	17.06	35,490
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators	90	1.40	22.54	46,890
Chemical equipment operators and tenders	160	2.35	30.72	63,900
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	700	2.29	21.31	44,310
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders	550	2.76	20.17	41,960
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders	110	1.30	23.20	48,260
Computer numerically controlled tool operators	150	1.65	25.65	53,360
Computer numerically controlled tool programmers	40	2.50	30.10	62,610
Helpers--production workers	60	0.73	19.47	40,490
Production workers, all other	150	1.03	22.40	46,580
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Bowling Green, KY Metropolitan Statistical Area, see https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0014540. (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.