Workers in the York-Hanover Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $19.58 in May 2012, 11 percent below the nationwide average of $22.01, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Sheila Watkins, the Bureau’s regional commissioner, noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were significantly lower than their respective national averages in 11 of the 22 major occupational groups, including arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media; architecture and engineering; and community and social service. Only one group had an hourly wage that was significantly higher than its respective national average—production. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

When compared to the nationwide distribution, York employment was more highly concentrated in 4 of the 22 occupational groups—production; transportation and material moving; construction and extraction; and installation, maintenance, and repair. Conversely, 11 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation; these groups included business and financial operations, computer and mathematical, and management.

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. York had 22,480 jobs in production, accounting for 12.9 percent of local area employment, nearly twice the 6.6-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $17.51, measurably above the national wage of $16.59.

With employment of 2,430, team assemblers was the largest occupation within the production group, followed by production helpers, with 1,470 jobs, and inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers, with 1,440. Among the higher-paying jobs were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers and machinists, with mean hourly wages of $26.96 and $20.19, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were production helpers ($11.83) and bakers ($12.12). (Detailed occupational data for business and financial operations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_49620.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 as it does nationally. In the York area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, engine and other machine assemblers were employed at over nine times the national rate in York, and welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers, at over two-and-a-half times the U.S. average.

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 Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry.

With the release of the May 2012 estimates, OES data are based on the 2010 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system for the first time. The OES survey provides estimates of employment and hourly and annual wages for wage and salary workers in 22 major occupational groups and more than 800 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 for the first time. Information about the 2010 SOC is available on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/soc/.

The May 2012 OES estimates are the first to be produced using the 2012 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). Information about the 2012 NAICS is available on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/bls/naics.htm.

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 for a 3-year period. May 2012 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected in May 2012, November 2011, May 2011, November 2010, May 2010, and November 2009. The overall national response rate for the six panels is 76.6 percent based on establishments and 72.9 percent based on employment. The sample in the York-Hanover Metropolitan Statistical Area included 2,009 establishments with a response rate of 77 percent. For more information about OES concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.tn.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 York-Hanover, Pa. Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) includes York County in Pennsylvania.

Additional information

OES data are available on our regional web page at http://www.bls.gov/ro3. 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/2012/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: 1-800-877-8339.

Table 1. Employment and wage data from the Occupational Employment Statistics survey, by occupation, York-Hanover Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2012

Occupation(1)	Employment(2)		Mean wages
	Level	Location quotient(3)	Hourly	Annual(4)
Production occupations	22,480	1.9	$17.51	$ 36,410
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers	1,400	1.8	26.96	56,070
Coil winders, tapers, and finishers	80	4.1	13.89	28,900
Electrical and electronic equipment assemblers	410	1.6	12.80	26,620
Electromechanical equipment assemblers	(5)	(5)	20.29	42,210
Engine and other machine assemblers	500	9.2	12.76	26,550
Structural metal fabricators and fitters	380	3.6	22.12	46,010
Team assemblers	2,430	1.8	16.41	34,120
Assemblers and fabricators, all other	170	0.5	12.19	25,350
Bakers	380	1.8	12.12	25,210
Butchers and meat cutters	390	2.2	12.70	26,410
Meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers	(5)	(5)	11.27	23,440
Food batchmakers	280	2.1	15.10	31,410
Food cooking machine operators and tenders	200	4.5	13.80	28,700
Computer-controlled machine tool operators, metal and plastic	280	1.5	21.10	43,890
Computer numerically controlled machine tool programmers, metal and plastic	40	1.1	25.82	53,700
Extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	150	1.5	14.99	31,180
Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	800	3.3	17.15	35,670
Drilling and boring machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	30	1.2	15.56	32,370
Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffering machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	410	4.4	20.22	42,050
Lathe and turning machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	(5)	(5)	16.95	35,270
Milling and planing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	100	3.4	18.93	39,370
Machinists	1,020	1.9	20.19	41,990
Metal-refining furnace operators and tenders	50	1.8	16.86	35,060
Pourers and casters, metal	(5)	(5)	15.30	31,810
Patternmakers, metal and plastic	30	5.6	17.68	36,770
Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	350	2.1	14.51	30,190
Multiple machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	370	3.3	18.17	37,800
Tool and die makers	290	2.9	21.89	45,530
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers	1,150	2.6	20.05	41,700
Welding, soldering, and brazing machine setters, operators, and tenders	(5)	(5)	18.59	38,670
Heat treating equipment setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	(5)	(5)	$19.67	$40,920
Plating and coating machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	(5)	(5)	19.16	39,860
Tool grinders, filers, and sharpeners	(5)	(5)	16.41	34,140
Metal workers and plastic workers, all other	50	1.7	16.28	33,860
Prepress technicians and workers	140	2.5	17.52	36,440
Printing press operators	660	2.9	18.15	37,760
Print binding and finishing workers	210	2.9	15.18	31,570
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers	200	0.8	10.33	21,490
Pressers, textile, garment, and related materials	50	0.8	9.91	20,610
Sewing machine operators	250	1.3	12.29	25,570
Textile cutting machine setters, operators, and tenders	40	1.7	10.27	21,360
Upholsterers	40	1.1	11.70	24,340
Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters	100	0.9	17.15	35,680
Furniture finishers	60	3.5	16.08	33,450
Sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood	60	1.2	13.55	28,170
Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing	420	5.2	13.08	27,200
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators	180	1.2	20.90	43,470
Chemical equipment operators and tenders	140	1.8	17.94	37,320
Grinding and polishing workers, hand	60	1.5	12.84	26,700
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders	200	1.2	17.62	36,650
Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders	300	4.0	16.82	34,980
Extruding, forming, pressing, and compacting machine setters, operators, and tenders	(5)	(5)	16.31	33,920
Furnace, kiln, oven, drier, and kettle operators and tenders	70	2.4	16.10	33,480
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	1,440	2.4	18.34	38,140
Ophthalmic laboratory technicians	50	1.3	14.25	29,640
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders	980	2.0	14.11	29,350
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders	180	1.7	15.69	32,640
Painters, transportation equipment	80	1.3	19.50	40,570
Painting, coating, and decorating workers	(5)	(5)	16.83	35,010
Photographic process workers and processing machine operators	(5)	(5)	11.67	24,260
Molders, shapers, and casters, except metal and plastic	40	1.0	14.17	29,480
Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders	(5)	(5)	21.15	44,000
Helpers--production workers	1,470	2.6	11.83	24,610
Production workers, all other	(5)	(5)	16.46	34,240
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the York-Hanover MSA, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_49620.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) Estimates not available.

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