Technical information: (202)691-6569 USDL 07-1643 https://www.bls.gov/oes/ For release: Immediate Media contact: 691-5902 Wednesday, October 24, 2007 NONMETROPOLITAN AREA OCCUPATIONAL EMPLOYMENT AND WAGES, 2006 Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) data for nonmetropolitan areas are now available, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor announced today. Although BLS has previously released occupational employment and wage estimates for the nation, states, and metropolitan areas, this is the first time that OES data have been released for the parts of the states lying outside of metropolitan areas. The data consist of employment, hourly and annual mean wages, and percentile wage estimates by occupation for over 170 nonmetropolitan areas. Most states contain between one and six state-defined nonmetropolitan areas that, with the metro- politan areas, exhaust the geography of the state. New Jersey does not contain any nonmetropolitan areas. The data for nonmetropolitan and metro- politan areas can be found at https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oessrcma.htm. A complete list of available areas with the counties and towns that com- prise them is available at https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/msa_def.htm. In the future, these nonmetropolitan area estimates will be included as part of the annual OES data release. Additional Information The Occupational Employment Statistics program produces occupational employment and wage estimates nationwide and for all states, 409 metropol- itan areas, and over 170 nonmetropolitan areas. The OES program also pro- duces national occupational employment and wage estimates for several le- vels of industry detail. Wage data include mean hourly and annual wages and 10th, 25th, 50th (median), 75th, and 90th percentile wages. OES data are produced by a cooperative effort between BLS and State Workforce Agen- cies, and are based on a sample of 1.2 million business establishments, collected in 6 semiannual panels over a 3-year period. Complete May 2006 Occupational Employment Statistics data are available from the OES Web site at https://www.bls.gov/oes/.