Workers in the Niles-Benton Harbor, MI Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $23.92 in May 2021, 15 percent below the nationwide average of $28.01, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Jason Palmer noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were lower than their respective national averages in 18 of the 22 major occupational groups, including computer and mathematical; arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media; and management.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Niles area employment was more highly concentrated in 7 of the 22 occupational groups, including production, food preparation and serving related, and architecture and engineering. Twelve groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including computer and mathematical, business and financial operations, and transportation and material moving. (See table A.)

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Niles had 7,180 jobs in production, accounting for 12.9 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 6.0-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $20.90, compared to the national wage of $20.71.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators (1,460), machinists (640), and first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (580). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers and computer numerically controlled tool programmers, with mean hourly wages of $37.56 and $26.59, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($13.18) and bakers ($13.51). (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_35660.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 Niles area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, tool and die makers were employed at 8.9 times the national rate in Niles, and cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic, at 5.2 times the U.S. average. Electrical, electronic, and electromechanical assemblers, except coil winders, tapers, and finishers had a location quotient of 1.1 in Niles, indicating that this particular occupation’s local and national employment shares were similar.

These statistics are from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, a federal-state cooperative program between BLS and State Workforce Agencies, in this case, the Michigan Department of Technology, Management & Budget.

Technical Note

The Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey is a semiannual survey measuring occupational employment and wage rates for wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments in the United States. The OEWS 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. OEWS data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm.

The OEWS 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. OEWS estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.1 million establishments. Each year, two semiannual panels of approximately 179,000 to 187,000 sampled establishments are contacted, one panel in May and the other in November. Responses are obtained by Internet or other electronic means, mail, email, telephone, or personal visit. The May 2021 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2021, November 2020, May 2020, November 2019, May 2019, and November 2018. The unweighted sampled employment of 82 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 62 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 67.2 percent based on establishments and 64.5 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Niles-Benton Harbor, MI Metropolitan Statistical Area included 929 establishments with a response rate of 75 percent. For more information about OEWS 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.

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 Niles-Benton Harbor, MI Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Berrien County.

For more information

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

Information in this release will be made available to individuals with sensory impairments upon request. Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; Telecommunications Relay Service: 7-1-1.

Table 1. Employment and wage data for production occupations, Niles metropolitan area, May 2021

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Production occupations	7,180	2.2	$20.90	$43,480
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers	580	2.3	37.56	78,130
Electrical, electronic, and electromechanical assemblers, except coil winders, tapers, and finishers	120	1.1	18.32	38,110
Structural metal fabricators and fitters	120	4.9	21.64	45,000
Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators	1,460	2.8	17.59	36,590
Bakers	70	0.9	13.51	28,110
Butchers and meat cutters	80	1.4	15.57	32,380
Food batchmakers	70	1.1	19.83	41,240
Rolling machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	70	5.4	20.59	42,830
Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	370	5.2	18.21	37,890
Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	140	5.1	16.66	34,660
Machinists	640	4.9	20.37	42,360
Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	260	4.0	17.61	36,630
Multiple machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	120	2.2	20.65	42,960
Tool and die makers	220	8.9	25.22	52,450
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers	340	2.2	21.09	43,860
Welding, soldering, and brazing machine setters, operators, and tenders	(5)	(5)	17.34	36,080
Heat treating equipment setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	40	6.6	15.99	33,250
Printing press operators	130	2.2	17.80	37,030
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers	80	1.3	13.18	27,410
Sewing machine operators	40	0.8	14.21	29,550
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators	100	2.0	25.75	53,560
Separating, filtering, clarifying, precipitating, and still machine setters, operators, and tenders	30	1.8	17.59	36,580
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders	30	0.7	18.01	37,460
Extruding, forming, pressing, and compacting machine setters, operators, and tenders	110	5.1	14.39	29,930
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	460	2.1	19.73	41,040
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders	100	0.7	16.41	34,130
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders	130	2.3	18.08	37,600
Computer numerically controlled tool operators	240	3.8	20.65	42,940
Computer numerically controlled tool programmers	60	5.6	26.59	55,320
Helpers--production workers	50	0.7	14.96	31,130
Production workers, all other	110	1.4	15.57	32,380
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Niles-Benton Harbor, MI Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_35660.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.