Workers in the Green Bay, WI Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $22.79 in May 2019, about 11 percent below the nationwide average of $25.72, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Assistant Commissioner for Regional Operations Charlene Peiffer noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were higher than their respective national averages in 1 of the 22 major occupational groups. Fifteen groups had significantly lower wages than their respective national averages, including legal; computer and mathematical; and life, physical, and social science.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Green Bay area employment was more highly concentrated in 1 of the 22 occupational groups: production. Conversely, eleven groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including management, food preparation and serving related, and educational instruction and library. (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 21,800 jobs in production, accounting for 12.5 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 6.2-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $19.10, compared to the national wage of $19.30.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included packaging and filling machine operators and tenders (2,230), miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators (2,000), and paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders (1,770). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers and water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators, with mean hourly wages of $30.93 and $26.74, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were food and tobacco roasting, baking, and drying machine operators and tenders ($10.37) and laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($11.50). (Detailed data for the 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 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 14.9 times the national rate in Green Bay, and print binding and finishing workers, at 6.0 times the U.S. average. Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators had a location quotient of 1.2 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 580 areas, including states and the District of Columbia, metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), nonmetropolitan areas, and territories; national industry-specific estimates at the NAICS sector, 3-digit, most 4-digit, 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.

The OES survey is a cooperative effort between BLS and the State Workforce Agencies (SWAs). BLS funds the survey and provides the procedures and technical support, while the State Workforce Agencies collect most of the data. OES estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.1 million establishments. Each year, two semiannual panels of approximately 180,000 to 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 2019 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2019, November 2018, May 2018, November 2017, May 2017, and November 2016. The unweighted sample employment of 83 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 57 percent of total national employment. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 71 percent based on establishments and 68 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Green Bay, WI Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,801 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.

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.

The May 2019 OES estimates are the first set of OES estimates to be based in part on survey data collected using the 2018 SOC. These estimates use a hybrid of the 2010 and 2018 SOC systems. More information on the hybrid classification system is available at www.bls.gov/oes/soc_2018.htm.

The May 2019 OES estimates are based on the 2017 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). More 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, WI Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Brown, Kewaunee, and Oconto Counties.

For more information

Answers to frequently asked questions about the OES data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_ques.htm. Detailed information about the OES program is available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_doc.htm.

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 for production occupations, Green Bay, WI Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2019

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Production occupations	21,800	2.0	$19.10	$39,730
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers	1,570	2.1	30.93	64,340
Electrical, electronic, and electromechanical assemblers, except coil winders, tapers, and finishers	240	0.7	20.66	42,980
Engine and other machine assemblers	40	0.8	20.77	43,210
Structural metal fabricators and fitters	420	4.6	21.51	44,750
Fiberglass laminators and fabricators	180	7.4	16.46	34,230
Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators	2,000	1.2	15.45	32,140
Bakers	370	1.7	13.28	27,620
Butchers and meat cutters	120	0.8	17.65	36,710
Meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers	970	5.3	14.77	30,710
Slaughterers and meat packers	340	3.9	17.09	35,540
Food and tobacco roasting, baking, and drying machine operators and tenders	130	5.4	10.37	21,560
Food batchmakers	660	3.5	17.46	36,330
Food cooking machine operators and tenders	(5)	(5)	19.31	40,160
Food processing workers, all other	350	6.8	13.49	28,050
Extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	(5)	(5)	20.12	41,850
Rolling machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	30	0.8	16.23	33,750
Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	300	1.3	20.44	42,510
Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	50	0.5	21.33	44,370
Machinists	580	1.3	22.44	46,680
Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	200	1.0	17.75	36,910
Multiple machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	(5)	(5)	21.27	44,240
Tool and die makers	60	0.7	21.96	45,680
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers	840	1.7	21.10	43,880
Plating machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	(5)	(5)	13.47	28,020
Prepress technicians and workers	220	6.1	19.93	41,460
Printing press operators	990	4.8	19.27	40,080
Print binding and finishing workers	320	6.0	15.39	32,010
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers	220	0.9	11.50	23,920
Pressers, textile, garment, and related materials	(5)	(5)	12.11	25,200
Sewing machine operators	110	0.7	13.91	28,940
Tailors, dressmakers, and custom sewers	(5)	(5)	15.05	31,300
Upholsterers	40	1.1	16.77	34,880
Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters	270	2.3	18.25	37,970
Furniture finishers	70	3.6	15.47	32,170
Sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood	80	1.3	15.24	31,690
Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing	(5)	(5)	15.36	31,950
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators	90	0.7	26.74	55,630
Plant and system operators, all other	(5)	(5)	26.60	55,320
Chemical equipment operators and tenders	40	0.4	15.50	32,230
Separating, filtering, clarifying, precipitating, and still machine setters, operators, and tenders	50	0.9	20.34	42,300
Crushing, grinding, and polishing machine setters, operators, and tenders	(5)	(5)	22.14	46,050
Grinding and polishing workers, hand	(5)	(5)	15.77	32,790
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders	350	2.3	23.32	48,500
Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders	(5)	(5)	17.92	37,270
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	1,170	1.7	19.21	39,970
Dental laboratory technicians	170	4.0	17.24	35,850
Ophthalmic laboratory technicians	50	1.5	20.03	41,660
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders	2,230	4.8	17.52	36,430
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders	310	1.8	18.46	38,390
Computer numerically controlled tool operators	740	4.1	23.20	48,250
Computer numerically controlled tool programmers	50	1.7	24.93	51,850
Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders	1,770	14.9	20.30	42,220
Helpers--production workers	510	1.4	16.42	34,160
Production workers, all other	(5)	(5)	15.12	31,440
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Green Bay, WI Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_24580.htm. (2) Estimates for detailed occupations may not sum to the totals due to rounding, and because the totals may include occupations that are 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.