Workers in the Youngstown-Warren-Boardman Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $18.39 in May 2014, about 19 percent below the nationwide average of $22.71, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Regional Commissioner Charlene Peiffer noted that, after testing for statistical significance, no wages in the local area were higher than their respective national averages in 22 major occupational groups. Eighteen groups had significantly lower wages than their respective national averages, including legal; computer and mathematical; and management.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 7 of the 22 occupational groups, including production; sales and related; and food preparation and serving related. Conversely, 12 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including business and financial operations; computer and mathematical; and office and administrative support. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Youngstown-Warren-Boardman had 23,170 jobs in production, accounting for 10.6 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 6.6-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $17.39, compared to the national wage of $17.06.

Some of the largest detailed occupations within the production group included team assemblers (4,840), first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (1,340), and cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic (1,170). Among the higher paying jobs were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers; and tool and die makers, with mean hourly wages of $26.36 and $22.86, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($9.39) and pressers, textile, garment, and related materials ($10.26). (Detailed occupational data for production are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/2014/may/oes_49660.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 Youngstown-Warren-Boardman Metropolitan Statistical Area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, rolling machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic were employed at 6.1 times the national rate in Youngstown, and tool and die makers, at 4.8 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, printing press operators had a location quotient of 0.9 in Youngstown, 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, Ohio Department of Job & Family Services and Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry.

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 Youngstown-Warren-Boardman Metropolitan Statistical Area included 2,907 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 Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, Ohio-Penn.  Metropolitan Statistical Area  includes Mahoning and Trumbull Counties of Ohio, and Mercer County of Pennsylvania.

Additional information

OES data are available on our regional web page at www.bls.gov/regions/midwest. 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/2014/may/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, Youngstown-Warren-Boardman Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2014

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Production Occupations	23,170	1.6	$17.39	$36,180
First-Line Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers	1,340	1.4	26.36	54,830
Coil Winders, Tapers, and Finishers	80	3.2	14.52	30,190
Electrical and Electronic Equipment Assemblers	420	1.3	14.82	30,820
Electromechanical Equipment Assemblers	200	2.6	16.65	34,630
Engine and Other Machine Assemblers	80	1.3	15.64	32,520
Structural Metal Fabricators and Fitters	270	2.1	20.77	43,190
Team Assemblers	4,840	2.7	(5)	(5)
Assemblers and Fabricators, All Other	770	2.0	14.03	29,180
Bakers	630	2.2	10.59	22,040
Butchers and Meat Cutters	250	1.1	14.61	30,380
Food Batchmakers	150	0.8	12.30	25,580
Computer-Controlled Machine Tool Operators, Metal and Plastic	260	1.1	16.96	35,270
Computer Numerically Controlled Machine Tool Programmers, Metal and Plastic	40	1.0	22.00	45,750
Extruding and Drawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic	480	4.1	14.80	30,790
Forging Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic	80	2.3	18.80	39,100
Rolling Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic	330	6.1	17.99	37,420
Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic	1,170	3.8	15.19	31,600
Drilling and Boring Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic	130	4.5	19.84	41,260
Grinding, Lapping, Polishing, and Buffing Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic	350	3.1	18.53	38,530
Lathe and Turning Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic	250	3.7	16.63	34,590
Milling and Planing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic	80	2.2	19.34	40,230
Machinists	1,090	1.7	17.21	35,800
Metal-Refining Furnace Operators and Tenders	110	3.2	18.54	38,560
Pourers and Casters, Metal	90	5.8	16.09	33,460
Foundry Mold and Coremakers	(5)	(5)	18.62	38,740
Molding, Coremaking, and Casting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic	170	0.8	14.65	30,480
Multiple Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic	500	3.1	14.94	31,080
Tool and Die Makers	590	4.8	22.86	47,550
Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers	970	1.6	16.14	33,560
Welding, Soldering, and Brazing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders	60	0.7	16.88	35,120
Heat Treating Equipment Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic	150	4.5	16.71	34,760
Plating and Coating Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic	130	2.3	14.45	30,050
Metal Workers and Plastic Workers, All Other	110	3.1	16.46	34,240
Prepress Technicians and Workers	60	1.0	16.53	34,380
Printing Press Operators	250	0.9	16.18	33,660
Laundry and Dry-Cleaning Workers	400	1.3	9.39	19,530
Pressers, Textile, Garment, and Related Materials	110	1.4	10.26	21,350
Sewing Machine Operators	250	1.1	11.19	23,280
Upholsterers	30	0.7	12.74	26,500
Cabinetmakers and Bench Carpenters	120	0.8	17.88	37,190
Sawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Wood	50	0.6	13.05	27,150
Woodworking Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Except Sawing	140	1.2	12.57	26,140
Stationary Engineers and Boiler Operators	40	0.7	20.97	43,610
Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operators	330	1.8	22.10	45,970
Separating, Filtering, Clarifying, Precipitating, and Still Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders	40	0.6	16.03	33,330
Crushing, Grinding, and Polishing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders	110	2.2	14.56	30,280
Grinding and Polishing Workers, Hand	60	1.2	13.91	28,940
Mixing and Blending Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders	100	0.5	17.64	36,680
Extruding, Forming, Pressing, and Compacting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders	130	1.2	15.01	31,230
Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers	1,070	1.4	17.80	37,010
Jewelers and Precious Stone and Metal Workers	40	1.1	15.22	31,660
Ophthalmic Laboratory Technicians	180	4.0	10.37	21,570
Packaging and Filling Machine Operators and Tenders	870	1.4	16.05	33,390
Coating, Painting, and Spraying Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders	260	1.8	13.70	28,490
Painters, Transportation Equipment	50	0.6	17.43	36,250
Painting, Coating, and Decorating Workers	(5)	(5)	13.94	28,990
Photographic Process Workers and Processing Machine Operators	(5)	(5)	15.54	32,330
Etchers and Engravers	(5)	(5)	12.54	26,090
Molders, Shapers, and Casters, Except Metal and Plastic	80	1.5	15.28	31,780
Helpers--Production Workers	1,010	1.5	12.30	25,590
Production Workers, All Other	490	1.4	12.77	26,570
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, OH-PA, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_49660.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) Estimate not released.