Workers in the Green Bay Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $21.19 in May 2017, about 13 percent below the nationwide average of $24.34, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Assistant Commissioner for Regional Operations Charlene Peiffer noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were lower than their respective national averages in 16 of the 22 major occupational groups, including legal; management; and architecture and engineering.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 2 of the 22 occupational groups: production and transportation and material moving. Conversely, 12 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including sales and related; food preparation and serving related; and management. (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. Green Bay had 19,980 jobs in production, accounting for 11.5 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 6.3-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $18.40, compared 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 (1,930); paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders (1,470); and first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (1,460). Among the higher paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers with mean hourly wages of $28.54 and water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators, $26.84. At the lower end of the wage scale were textile cutting machine setters, operators, and tenders ($10.28) and laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($11.59). (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_24580.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 Green Bay Metropolitan Statistical Area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders were employed at 12.8 times the national rate in Green Bay, and print binding and finishing workers, at 5.4 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, laundry and dry-cleaning workers had a location quotient of 1.1 in Green Bay, 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 Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development.

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 Green Bay Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,857 establishments with a response rate of 77 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 Green Bay, Wis. Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Brown, Kewaunee, and Oconto Counties.

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/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, Green Bay Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2017

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Production occupations	19,980	1.8	$18.40	$38,260
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers	1,460	2.0	28.54	59,370
Electrical, electronic, and electromechanical assemblers, except coil winders, tapers, and finishers	480	1.5	15.33	31,890
Structural metal fabricators and fitters	460	4.8	21.46	44,640
Assemblers and fabricators, all other, including team assemblers	1,930	1.2	14.94	31,080
Bakers	280	1.3	15.28	31,780
Butchers and meat cutters	200	1.2	18.06	37,560
Meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers	810	4.3	15.00	31,190
Slaughterers and meat packers	240	2.6	15.74	32,740
Food and tobacco roasting, baking, and drying machine operators and tenders	160	6.3	12.93	26,890
Food batchmakers	900	4.9	18.20	37,850
Food cooking machine operators and tenders	40	1.0	17.03	35,420
Food processing workers, all other	470	9.0	13.30	27,660
Computer-controlled machine tool operators, metal and plastic	350	2.0	21.31	44,330
Computer numerically controlled machine tool programmers, metal and plastic	60	2.1	23.76	49,420
Forging machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	(5)	(5)	14.66	30,490
Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	190	0.9	18.44	38,360
Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	(5)	(5)	13.70	28,490
Machinists	710	1.6	22.58	46,970
Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	(5)	(5)	14.71	30,590
Multiple machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	(5)	(5)	17.62	36,640
Tool and die makers	50	0.6	21.11	43,910
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers	820	1.8	19.90	41,400
Heat treating equipment setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	(5)	(5)	17.47	36,330
Prepress technicians and workers	190	5.1	17.61	36,630
Printing press operators	860	4.1	19.36	40,280
Print binding and finishing workers	320	5.4	15.51	32,250
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers	270	1.1	11.59	24,100
Sewing machine operators	120	0.7	12.00	24,950
Textile cutting machine setters, operators, and tenders	(5)	(5)	10.28	21,390
Upholsterers	40	1.0	16.94	35,230
Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters	290	2.5	16.69	34,710
Furniture finishers	120	5.7	14.79	30,760
Sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood	110	1.7	14.44	30,040
Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing	220	2.3	14.56	30,280
Stationary engineers and boiler operators	70	1.7	24.70	51,370
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators	90	0.6	26.84	55,830
Separating, filtering, clarifying, precipitating, and still machine setters, operators, and tenders	30	0.5	18.38	38,220
Crushing, grinding, and polishing machine setters, operators, and tenders	(5)	(5)	21.16	44,010
Grinding and polishing workers, hand	40	1.1	14.69	30,560
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders	410	2.6	20.26	42,130
Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders	250	3.5	18.40	38,270
Extruding, forming, pressing, and compacting machine setters, operators, and tenders	110	1.2	20.35	42,320
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	900	1.4	17.88	37,190
Dental laboratory technicians	(5)	(5)	16.07	33,420
Ophthalmic laboratory technicians	90	2.5	15.32	31,870
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders	1,360	2.9	17.91	37,250
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders	210	2.0	18.94	39,400
Painters, transportation equipment	(5)	(5)	20.02	41,630
Cleaning, washing, and metal pickling equipment operators and tenders	(5)	(5)	15.36	31,950
Molders, shapers, and casters, except metal and plastic	(5)	(5)	15.38	31,990
Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders	1,470	12.8	20.07	41,750
Helpers--production workers	900	1.8	16.78	34,900
Production workers, all other	180	0.6	15.36	31,950
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in Green Bay, WI, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_24580.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.