Workers in the Lafayette Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $18.94 in May 2014, about 17 percent below the nationwide average of $22.71, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Regional Commissioner Stanley W. Suchman noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were higher than their respective national averages in 2 of the 22 major occupational groups including production workers. Seventeen groups had wages that were measurably lower than their respective national averages, including computer and mathematical; legal; and protective service.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 7 of the 22 occupational groups, including installation, maintenance, and repair; construction and extraction; and production. Conversely, ten groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including education, training, and library; business and financial operations; and computer and mathematical. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Lafayette Metropolitan Statistical Area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2014

Major occupational group	Percent of total employment			Mean hourly wage
	United States	Lafayette		United States	Lafayette		Percent difference(1)
Total, all occupations	100.0%	100.0%		$22.71	$18.94	*	-17
Management	5.0	3.6	*	54.08	47.12	*	-13
Business and financial operations	5.1	2.9	*	34.81	27.74	*	-20
Computer and mathematical	2.8	1.1	*	40.37	25.18	*	-38
Architecture and engineering	1.8	2.6	*	39.19	32.66	*	-17
Life, physical, and social science	0.8	0.6	*	33.69	33.80		0
Community and social service	1.4	1.1	*	21.79	20.04	*	-8
Legal	0.8	0.9		48.61	32.87	*	-32
Education, training, and library	6.2	3.8	*	25.10	24.05		-4
Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media	1.3	0.7	*	26.82	18.58	*	-31
Healthcare practitioners and technical	5.8	5.7		36.54	29.20	*	-20
Healthcare support	2.9	2.8		13.86	10.74	*	-23
Protective service	2.4	1.6	*	21.14	16.15	*	-24
Food preparation and serving related	9.1	9.1		10.57	9.45	*	-11
Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance	3.2	2.3	*	12.68	10.22	*	-19
Personal care and service	3.1	3.5	*	12.01	9.64	*	-20
Sales and related	10.5	12.3	*	18.59	15.28	*	-18
Office and administrative support	16.0	14.7	*	17.08	15.17	*	-11
Farming, fishing, and forestry	0.3	(2)		12.09	17.07	*	41
Construction and extraction	3.9	6.7	*	22.40	20.05	*	-10
Installation, maintenance, and repair	3.9	6.9	*	21.74	19.86	*	-9
Production	6.6	8.4	*	17.06	18.85	*	10
Transportation and material moving	6.8	8.5	*	16.57	17.11		3
(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in Lafayette is above the national mean wage, while a negative difference reflects a lower wage. (2) Estimates not released.
* The percent share of employment or mean hourly wage for this area is significantly different from the national average of all areas at the 90-percent confidence level.

One occupational group–production–was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Lafayette had 13,110 jobs in production, accounting for 8.4 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 6.6-percent national share. More importantly, at $18.85 per hour, the local average hourly wage for this occupational group was about 10 percent higher than the national average of $17.06.

With employment of 2,080, welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers was one of the largest occupations within the production group, as were machinists (1,870), and inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers (1,450). Among the higher paying jobs were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers, and petroleum pump system operators, refinery operators, and gaugers with mean hourly wages of $29.35 and $25.07, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($9.18) and meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers ($10.26). (Detailed occupational data for production are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of all detailed occupations, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_29180.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 Lafayette metropolitan area, above average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, petroleum pump system operators, refinery operators, and gaugers were employed at 11.3 times the national average in Lafayette, one of the higher location quotients among all metropolitan areas for this particular occupation. Additionally, welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers were employed at 4.9 times the national rate. On the other hand, laundry and dry-cleaning workers had a location quotient of 0.9 in Lafayette, indicating that this 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 Louisiana Workforce Commission.

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. Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands are also surveyed, but their data are not included in the national estimates. OES estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.2 million establishments. Forms are mailed to approximately 200,000 sampled establishments in May and November each year. May 2014 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2014, November 2013, May 2013, November 2012, May 2012, and November 2011. The overall national response rate for the six panels is 74.3 percent based on establishments and 70.5 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The unweighted employment of sampled establishments across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 57.1 percent of total national employment. (Response rates are slightly lower for these estimates due to the federal shutdown in October 2013.) The sample in the Lafayette Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,986 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 OES survey provides estimates of employment and hourly and annual wages for wage and salary workers in 22 major occupational groups and 821 detailed occupations for the nation, states, metropolitan statistical areas, metropolitan divisions, and nonmetropolitan areas. In addition, employment and wage estimates for 94 minor groups and 458 broad occupations are available in the national data. OES data by state and metropolitan/nonmetropolitan area are available from www.bls.gov/oes/current/oessrcst.htm and www.bls.gov/oes/current/oessrcma.htm, respectively.

The May 2014 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.

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 Lafayette Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) includes Lafayette and St. Martin Parishes in Louisiana.

Additional information
OES data are available on our regional web page at www.bls.gov/regions/southwest. 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, Lafayette Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2014

Occupation(1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level(2)	Location quotient(3)	Hourly	Annual(4)
Production occupations	13,110	1.3	$18.85	$39,210
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers	940	1.4	29.35	61,040
Structural metal fabricators and fitters	300	3.3	19.44	40,430
Team assemblers	400	0.3	14.33	29,800
Assemblers and fabricators, all other	180	0.6	15.04	31,290
Bakers	130	0.6	11.31	23,520
Butchers and meat cutters	180	1.1	13.85	28,810
Meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers	250	1.4	10.26	21,330
Food batchmakers	50	0.4	13.69	28,480
Computer-controlled machine tool operators, metal and plastic	230	1.3	19.49	40,540
Computer numerically controlled machine tool programmers, metal and plastic	140	4.7	22.54	46,880
Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	140	0.7	16.68	34,700
Drilling and boring machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	120	6.0	21.17	44,040
Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	(5)	(5)	15.67	32,600
Lathe and turning machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	80	1.6	20.23	42,080
Milling and planing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	70	2.7	21.44	44,600
Machinists	1,870	4.1	20.73	43,120
Tool and die makers	70	0.8	18.68	38,860
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers	2,080	4.9	19.33	40,200
Welding, soldering, and brazing machine setters, operators, and tenders	50	0.8	21.28	44,270
Printing press operators	50	0.3	15.55	32,340
Print binding and finishing workers	50	0.9	13.79	28,690
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers	220	0.9	9.18	19,080
Pressers, textile, garment, and related materials	150	2.6	10.12	21,060
Sewing machine operators	(5)	(5)	12.79	26,600
Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters	70	0.7	14.69	30,560
Stationary engineers and boiler operators	40	0.9	19.22	39,970
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators	90	0.7	18.35	38,160
Petroleum pump system operators, refinery operators, and gaugers	540	11.3	25.07	52,140
Plant and system operators, all other	150	11.0	29.38	61,120
Crushing, grinding, and polishing machine setters, operators, and tenders	60	1.6	12.81	26,640
Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders	110	1.5	18.34	38,150
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	1,450	2.6	19.95	41,490
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders	170	0.4	11.42	23,750
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders	70	0.6	13.77	28,640
Painters, transportation equipment	50	0.8	21.96	45,670
Molders, shapers, and casters, except metal and plastic	40	0.9	14.88	30,950
Helpers-production workers	780	1.6	12.20	25,370
Production workers, all other	530	2.1	18.98	39,470
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Lafayette MSA, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_29180.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) Estimates not released.