Department of Labor Logo United States Department of Labor
Dot gov

The .gov means it's official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you're on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

News Release Information

15-2420-KAN
Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Contacts Technical information: Media contact:
  • (816) 285-7000

Occupational Employment and Wages in Great Falls, May 2014

Workers in the Great Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $17.97 in May 2014, about 21 percent below the nationwide average of $22.71, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Regional Commissioner Stanley W. Suchman 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. Seventeen groups had significantly lower wages than their respective national averages, including computer and mathematical; management; and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 6 of the 22 occupational groups, including sales and related; healthcare practitioners and technical; and food preparation and serving related. Conversely, six groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including production; management; and transportation and material moving. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Great Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2014
Major occupational groupPercent of total employmentMean hourly wage
United StatesGreat FallsUnited StatesGreat FallsPercent difference (1)

Total, all occupations

100.0%100.0%$22.71$17.97*-21

Management

5.02.8*54.0841.18*-24

Business and Financial Operations

5.14.4*34.8125.32*-27

Computer and Mathematical

2.81.8*40.3720.98*-48

Architecture and Engineering

1.80.9*39.1930.01*-23

Life, Physical, and Social Science

0.80.933.69(2) 

Community and Social Services

1.42.9*21.7914.98*-31

Legal

0.80.948.6138.08-22

Education, Training, and Library

6.25.525.1018.77*-25

Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media

1.31.926.8216.53*-38

Healthcare Practitioner and Technical

5.87.8*36.5431.00*-15

Healthcare Support

2.92.613.8613.16*-5

Protective Service

2.42.621.1418.75*-11

Food Preparation and Serving Related

9.110.8*10.5710.36-2

Building and Grounds Cleaning and Maintenance

3.23.612.6811.32*-11

Personal Care and Service

3.14.412.0111.03*-8

Sales and Related

10.512.6*18.5914.14*-24

Office and Administrative Support

16.015.417.0814.53*-15

Farming, Fishing, and Forestry

0.30.312.0910.59*-12

Construction and Extraction

3.94.8*22.4020.37*-9

Installation, Maintenance, and Repair

3.95.2*21.7420.76-5

Production

6.62.9*17.0617.322

Transportation and Material Moving

6.85.1*16.5715.27*-8

Footnotes:
(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in Great Falls is above the national mean wage, while a negative difference reflects a lower wage.
(2) Estimate not released
* The percent share of employment or mean hourly wage for this area is significantly different from the national average of all areas at the 90-percent confidence level.
 

One occupational group—healthcare practitioners and technical—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Great Falls had 2,740 jobs in healthcare practitioners and technical, accounting for 7.8 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 5.8-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $31.00, significantly below the national wage of $36.54.

Some of the largest detailed occupations within the healthcare practitioners and technical group included registered nurses (960), licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses (280), and pharmacists (110). Among the higher paying jobs were pharmacists and nurse practitioners, with mean hourly wages of $53.68 and $44.22, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were veterinary technologists and technicians ($13.62) and pharmacy technicians ($15.18). (Detailed occupational data for healthcare practitioners and technical are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/2014/may/oes_24500.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 Great Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the healthcare practitioners and technical group. For instance, physical therapists were employed at 1.9 times the national rate in Great Falls, and radiologic technologists, at 1.8 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, pharmacy technicians had a location quotient of 1.0 in Great Falls, 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 Montana Department of Labor and Industry.

Note

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.


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 Great Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area included 825 establishments with a response rate of 79 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 Great Falls, Mont. Metropolitan Statistical Area  includes Cascade County.

Additional information

OES data are available on our regional web page at www.bls.gov/regions/mountain-plains. 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, Great Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2014
Occupation (1)EmploymentMean wages
Level (2)Location quotient (3)HourlyAnnual (4)

Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations

2,7401.4$31.00$64,480

Pharmacists

1101.453.68111,660

Physicians and Surgeons, All Other

600.7105.91220,280

Physical Therapists

1001.928.0358,290

Respiratory Therapists

602.123.2548,350

Veterinarians

402.228.6459,560

Registered Nurses

9601.429.1860,680

Nurse Practitioners

501.544.2291,970

Medical and Clinical Laboratory Technologists

701.629.2760,870

Dental Hygienists

701.333.6670,020

Diagnostic Medical Sonographers

302.132.9368,490

Radiologic Technologists

901.825.3252,660

Pharmacy Technicians

1001.015.1831,570

Veterinary Technologists and Technicians

401.913.6228,330

Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses

2801.618.7639,010

Medical Records and Health Information Technicians

300.717.2535,880

Opticians, Dispensing

703.515.5432,330

Occupational Health and Safety Specialists

301.932.4967,580

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in Great Falls, MT, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_24500.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.
 

 

Last Modified Date: Wednesday, December 16, 2015