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News Release Information

18-923-PHI
Friday, May 25, 2018

Contacts Technical information: Media contact:

Occupational Employment and Wages in Scranton—Wilkes-Barre—Hazleton – May 2017

Workers in the ScrantonWilkes-BarreHazleton, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $20.18 in May 2017, roughly 17 percent below the nationwide average of $24.34, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Sheila Watkins, the Bureau’s regional commissioner, noted that, after testing for statistical significance, 16 of the 22 major occupational groups in the local area were significantly lower than their respective national averages, including legal; arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media; and computer and mathematical.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment shares were significantly higher in six occupational groups including, transportation and material moving, production, and office and administrative support. Conversely, 14 occupational groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation; these groups included business and financial operations, management, 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 Scranton–Wilkes-Barre–Hazleton Metropolitan Statistical Area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2017
Major occupational groupPercent of total employmentMean hourly wage
United StatesScrantonUnited StatesScrantonPercent difference (1)

Total, all occupations

100100$24.34$20.18*-17

    Management

5.13.4*57.6549.25*-15

    Business and financial operations

5.23.5*36.7030.16*-18

    Computer and mathematical

3.01.5*43.1831.71*-27

    Architecture and engineering

1.81.3*41.4434.87*-16

    Life, physical, and social science

0.80.5*35.7635.17-2

    Community and social service

1.52.0*23.1020.46*-11

    Legal

0.80.5*51.6231.08*-40

    Education, training, and library

6.15.2*26.6726.811

    Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.40.9*28.3420.00*-29

    Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.06.8*38.8332.33*-17

    Healthcare support

2.93.5*15.0514.980

    Protective service

2.42.2*22.6922.53-1

    Food preparation and serving related

9.38.8*11.8810.96*-8

    Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

3.13.113.9112.33*-11

    Personal care and service

3.63.2*13.1111.72*-11

    Sales and related

10.29.1*19.5616.07*-18

    Office and administrative support

15.417.1*18.2416.57*-9

    Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.30.1*13.8715.048

    Construction and extraction

4.03.2*24.0122.49*-6

    Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.94.023.0221.00*-9

    Production

6.38.8*18.3017.61-4

    Transportation and material moving

7.011.6*17.8216.71*-6

Footnotes:
(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in the Scranton–Wilkes-Barre–Hazleton Metropolitan Statistical Area is above the national mean wage, while a negative difference reflects a lower wage.

* 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. Scranton had 22,570 jobs in production, accounting for 8.8 percent of local area employment, significantly above the 6.3-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $17.61, close to the national wage of $18.30.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included assemblers and fabricators, all other, including team assemblers (4,520), production worker helpers (1,560), and paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders (1,500). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers, with a mean hourly wage of $27.04, and paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders with a wage of $22.60. At the lower end of the wage scale were slaughterers and meat packers ($12.96) and bakers ($12.85). (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_42540.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 as it does nationally. In Scranton, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, metal and plastic extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders were employed at 4.6 times the national rate in Scranton, and print binding and finishing workers at 3.0 times the U.S. average. In contrast, machinists had a location quotient of 0.9 in Scranton, 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 Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry.

Note on Occupational Employment Statistics Data

With the release of the May 2017 estimates, the OES program has replaced 21 detailed occupations found in the 2010 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) with 10 new aggregations of those occupations. In addition, selected 4- and 5-digit North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) industries previously published by OES will no longer be published separately. Some of the 4-digit NAICS industries that are no longer being published separately will instead be published as OES-specific industry aggregations. More information about the new occupational and industry aggregations is available at www.bls.gov/oes/changes_2017.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.


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 650 areas, including states and the District of Columbia, metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), metropolitan divisions, nonmetropolitan areas, and territories; national industry-specific estimates at the NAICS sector, 3-, 4-, 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.

OES estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.2 million establishments. Each year, two semiannual panels of approximately 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 2017 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2017, November 2016, May 2016, November 2015, May 2015, and November 2014. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 72 percent based on establishments and 68 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The unweighted sample employment of 82 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 58 percent of total national employment. The sample in the Scranton—Wilkes-Barre—Hazleton Metropolitan Statistical Area included 2,411 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.

The May 2017 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 Scranton—Wilkes-Barre—Hazleton, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Lackawanna, Luzerne, and Wyoming Counties in Pennsylvania.

Additional information

OES data are available on our regional web page at www.bls.gov/regions/mid-atlantic. 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, Scranton–Wilkes-Barre–Hazleton Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2017
Occupation(1)Employment(2)Mean wage
LevelLocation quotient(3)HourlyAnnual(4)

Production occupations

22,5701.4$17.61$36,620

    First-line supervisors of production and operating workers

1,2801.227.0456,240

    Electrical, electronic, and electromechanical assemblers, except coil winders, tapers, and finishers

800.217.1635,700

    Structural metal fabricators and fitters

(5)(5)21.7445,220

    Assemblers and fabricators, all other, including team assemblers

4,5201.915.1331,460

    Bakers

5701.712.8526,730

    Butchers and meat cutters

3201.314.4330,010

    Slaughterers and meat packers

2802.012.9626,950

    Food batchmakers

4601.714.6030,370

    Food cooking machine operators and tenders

601.115.0631,320

    Computer-controlled machine tool operators, metal and plastic

4801.816.6634,660

    Extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

6104.616.8234,980

    Rolling machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

1002.217.8537,130

    Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

7202.118.6038,680

    Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

700.517.5736,540

    Machinists

6300.920.5342,700

    Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

4301.616.5834,490

    Multiple machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

3201.519.2940,130

    Tool and die makers

600.524.2650,460

    Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers

5000.721.6244,980

    Welding, soldering, and brazing machine setters, operators, and tenders

1001.419.8241,220

    Plating and coating machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

1402.117.3236,030

    Metal workers and plastic workers, all other

(5)(5)19.7741,120

    Prepress technicians and workers

1903.316.0733,420

    Printing press operators

6402.118.6638,820

    Print binding and finishing workers

2603.015.6732,600

    Laundry and dry-cleaning workers

3200.912.6526,310

    Pressers, textile, garment, and related materials

1201.610.2021,210

    Sewing machine operators

3501.413.3327,730

    Tailors, dressmakers, and custom sewers

(5)(5)11.0122,900

    Textile cutting machine setters, operators, and tenders

(5)(5)14.2029,540

    Textile knitting and weaving machine setters, operators, and tenders

802.112.9126,840

    Upholsterers

400.715.7932,840

    Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters

400.217.4736,340

    Sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood

1301.414.6230,410

    Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing

900.714.6630,490

    Stationary engineers and boiler operators

601.024.0149,950

    Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators

2000.923.1548,160

    Gas plant operators

(5)(5)29.2860,910

    Chemical equipment operators and tenders

1701.220.8343,330

    Separating, filtering, clarifying, precipitating, and still machine setters, operators, and tenders

1001.1(5)(5)

    Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders

1900.820.2242,050

    Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders

1501.414.1929,520

    Extruding, forming, pressing, and compacting machine setters, operators, and tenders

900.715.7632,770

    Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers

1,2401.317.3336,050

    Dental laboratory technicians

(5)(5)24.2550,440

    Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders

1,1701.715.4632,160

    Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders

1000.714.2829,710

    Painters, transportation equipment

(5)(5)17.8337,090

    Photographic process workers and processing machine operators

(5)(5)11.8424,620

    Adhesive bonding machine operators and tenders

1104.014.8130,800

    Cooling and freezing equipment operators and tenders

402.614.3429,820

    Molders, shapers, and casters, except metal and plastic

(5)(5)14.9231,030

    Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders

1,5008.822.6047,010

    Helpers--production workers

1,5602.214.1829,490

    Production workers, all other

(5)(5)13.1427,330

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Scranton—Wilkes-Barre—Hazleton Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_42540.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.

 

Last Modified Date: Friday, May 25, 2018