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News Release Information

15-956-ATL
Wednesday, June 03, 2015

Contacts Technical information: Media contact:
  • (404) 893-4220

Occupational Employment and Wages in Lexington-Fayette – May 2014

Workers in the Lexington-Fayette Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $20.04 in May 2014, about 12 percent below the nationwide average of $22.71, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Regional Commissioner Janet S. Rankin 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 management; healthcare practitioners and technical; and office and administrative support.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 5 of the 22 occupational groups, including production; healthcare practitioners and technical; and installation, maintenance, and repair. Conversely, nine groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including business and financial operations; office and administrative support; and sales and related. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Lexington-Fayette Metropolitan Statistical Area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2014
Major occupational groupPercent of total employmentMean hourly wage
United StatesLexingtonUnited StatesLexingtonPercent difference (1)

Total, all occupations

100.0%100.0%$22.71$20.04*-12

Management

5.04.854.0843.92*-19

Business and financial operations

5.13.5*34.8128.86*-17

Computer and mathematical

2.82.1*40.3728.52*-29

Architecture and engineering

1.82.139.1933.79*-14

Life, physical, and social science

0.81.0*33.6922.21*-34

Community and social services

1.41.1*21.7920.35*-7

Legal

0.80.6*48.6141.28*-15

Education, training, and library

6.26.225.1026.626

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.31.326.8220.99*-22

Healthcare practitioner and technical

5.87.1*36.5431.63*-13

Healthcare support

2.92.913.8613.50-3

Protective service

2.42.421.1416.39*-22

Food preparation and serving related

9.19.310.579.66*-9

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

3.22.9*12.6811.43*-10

Personal care and service

3.12.5*12.0111.22*-7

Sales and related

10.59.5*18.5916.07*-14

Office and administrative support

16.014.9*17.0815.56*-9

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.30.6*12.0913.41*11

Construction and extraction

3.93.0*22.4020.08*-10

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.94.3*21.7420.48*-6

Production

6.69.6*17.0618.508

Transportation and material moving

6.88.316.5715.25*-8

Footnotes:
(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in Lexington is above the national mean wage, while a negative difference reflects a lower wage.
* 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—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Lexington-Fayette had 25,010 jobs in production, accounting for 9.6 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 6.6-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $18.50, compared to the national wage of $17.06.

Some of the largest detailed occupations within the production group included team assemblers (5,050), inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers (1,710), and production workers helpers (1,580). Among the higher paying jobs were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers; and metal and plastic forging machine setters, operators, and tenders, with mean hourly wages of $30.47 and $24.15, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were laundry and dry cleaning workers ($9.45) and metal and plastic molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders ($13.61). (Detailed occupational data for production are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/2014/may/oes_30460.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 Lexington-Fayette Metropolitan Statistical Area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the production group. For instance, metal and plastic forging machine setters, operators, and tenders were employed at 23.4 times the national rate in Lexington, and team assemblers, at 2.3 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, first-line supervisors of production and operating workers had a location quotient of 1.3 in Lexington, 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 Kentucky Department for Workforce Investment.

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 Lexington-Fayette Metropolitan Statistical Area included 2,408 establishments with a response rate of 75 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 Lexington-Fayette, Ky. Metropolitan Statistical Area  includes Bourbon, Clark, Fayette, Jessamine, Scott, and Woodford Counties.

Additional information

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

Production Occupations

25,0101.5$18.50$38,470

First-Line Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers

1,4601.330.4763,390

Electrical and Electronic Equipment Assemblers

4501.114.7630,710

Structural Metal Fabricators and Fitters

2101.416.7234,780

Team Assemblers

5,0502.321.7745,270

Assemblers and Fabricators, All Other

(5)(5)14.4630,070

Bakers

1600.510.0320,870

Butchers and Meat Cutters

1200.514.9431,070

Meat, Poultry, and Fish Cutters and Trimmers

1000.49.2119,160

Food Processing Workers, All Other

500.611.7524,440

Computer-Controlled Machine Tool Operators, Metal and Plastic

1200.413.4327,930

Extruding and Drawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic

3202.3(5)(5)

Forging Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic

96023.424.1550,220

Rolling Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic

601.016.7734,880

Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic

4601.315.2031,620

Machinists

6200.819.8441,270

Molding, Coremaking, and Casting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic

3001.213.6128,310

Multiple Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic

1500.817.3736,120

Tool and Die Makers

2201.529.1760,670

Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers

4100.619.8441,260

Prepress Technicians and Workers

901.318.0537,550

Printing Press Operators

3201.018.4538,380

Print Binding and Finishing Workers

1701.715.2131,640

Laundry and Dry-Cleaning Workers

2000.59.4519,660

Pressers, Textile, Garment, and Related Materials

(5)(5)9.8820,550

Sewing Machine Operators

(5)(5)9.3119,360

Cabinetmakers and Bench Carpenters

1200.719.6940,950

Woodworking Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Except Sawing

400.314.3429,820

Power Distributors and Dispatchers

(5)(5)39.6582,470

Power Plant Operators

801.125.5353,110

Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operators

1400.619.0939,720

Chemical Equipment Operators and Tenders

5504.4(5)(5)

Separating, Filtering, Clarifying, Precipitating, and Still Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders

801.016.4734,260

Crushing, Grinding, and Polishing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders

2404.218.2137,870

Grinding and Polishing Workers, Hand

400.815.6232,500

Mixing and Blending Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders

1900.814.9731,140

Cutting and Slicing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders

1701.515.0631,330

Extruding, Forming, Pressing, and Compacting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders

(5)(5)16.3934,090

Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers

1,7101.818.8639,220

Dental Laboratory Technicians

1001.518.7438,980

Ophthalmic Laboratory Technicians

801.413.1327,310

Packaging and Filling Machine Operators and Tenders

3000.415.6532,550

Coating, Painting, and Spraying Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders

6003.4(5)(5)

Painters, Transportation Equipment

700.822.2646,310

Painting, Coating, and Decorating Workers

1204.014.0729,260

Photographic Process Workers and Processing Machine Operators

(5)(5)14.8030,790

Etchers and Engravers

302.010.3721,570

Molders, Shapers, and Casters, Except Metal and Plastic

1201.913.2527,570

Helpers--Production Workers

1,5802.010.6722,190

Production Workers, All Other

7401.89.2219,170

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in Lexington-Fayette, KY, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_30460.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.
 

 

Last Modified Date: Wednesday, June 03, 2015