Workers in the Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $21.71 in May 2019, about 16 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, no wages in the local area were higher than their respective national averages in 22 major occupational groups. Sixteen groups had significantly lower wages than their respective national averages, including legal, management, and computer and mathematical.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Waterloo area employment was more highly concentrated in 4 of the 22 occupational groups, including production, educational instruction and library, and transportation and material moving. Conversely, eight groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including office and administrative support, business and financial operations, and computer and mathematical. (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. Waterloo had 9,180 jobs in production, accounting for 10.4 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 6.2-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $19.47, compared to the national wage of $19.30.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators (1,610); first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (620); and welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers (540). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers and tool and die makers, with mean hourly wages of $34.42 and $22.78, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($12.12) and photographic process workers and processing machine operators ($13.04). (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_47940.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 Waterloo area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, food cooking machine operators and tenders were employed at 8.7 times the national rate in Waterloo, and coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders, at 4.4 times the U.S. average. Laundry and dry-cleaning workers had a location quotient of 1.3 in Waterloo, 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, Iowa 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 Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,240 establishments with a response rate of 74 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 Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Black Hawk, Bremer, and Grundy 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, Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2019

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Production occupations	9,180	1.7	$19.47	$40,500
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers	620	1.6	34.42	71,590
Structural metal fabricators and fitters	110	2.4	18.15	37,760
Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators	1,610	2.0	17.29	35,970
Bakers	90	0.8	13.49	28,060
Butchers and meat cutters	150	1.8	13.24	27,530
Slaughterers and meat packers	80	1.9	16.35	34,000
Food batchmakers	40	0.5	13.31	27,690
Food cooking machine operators and tenders	160	8.7	(5)	(5)
Food processing workers, all other	50	1.9	17.25	35,880
Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	70	0.6	20.54	42,720
Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	60	1.3	19.78	41,140
Machinists	410	1.8	19.53	40,610
Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	100	1.0	19.55	40,670
Tool and die makers	80	1.8	22.78	47,390
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers	540	2.2	18.07	37,590
Welding, soldering, and brazing machine setters, operators, and tenders	(5)	(5)	18.91	39,340
Plating machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	(5)	(5)	16.88	35,100
Metal workers and plastic workers, all other	(5)	(5)	21.17	44,030
Printing press operators	(5)	(5)	18.21	37,890
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers	160	1.3	12.12	25,210
Sewing machine operators	(5)	(5)	13.39	27,850
Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters	200	3.3	21.07	43,820
Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing	200	4.2	15.36	31,950
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators	60	0.8	22.41	46,610
Crushing, grinding, and polishing machine setters, operators, and tenders	50	2.6	20.14	41,890
Grinding and polishing workers, hand	60	3.3	17.65	36,720
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders	50	0.7	18.61	38,720
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	490	1.4	19.57	40,710
Dental laboratory technicians	60	3.0	22.52	46,830
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders	160	0.7	16.08	33,440
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders	390	4.4	17.00	35,360
Photographic process workers and processing machine operators	60	8.7	13.04	27,120
Computer numerically controlled tool operators	350	3.9	20.11	41,830
Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders	60	0.9	19.57	40,710
Helpers--production workers	450	2.5	16.76	34,870
Production workers, all other	40	0.3	16.18	33,660
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_47940.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.