Workers in the Elkhart-Goshen, IN Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $23.60 in May 2021, 16 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 19 of the 22 major occupational groups, including legal, computer and mathematical, and architecture and engineering. Two groups had significantly higher wages than their respective national averages: production and sales and related.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Elkhart area employment was more highly concentrated in 4 of the 22 occupational groups, including production; installation, maintenance, and repair; and transportation and material moving. Eighteen groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including business and financial operations, office and administrative support, and food preparation and serving related. (See table A.)

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Elkhart had 48,490 jobs in production, accounting for 36.3 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 6.0-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $21.78, significantly above the national wage of $20.71.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators (18,480) and cabinetmakers and bench carpenters (3,460). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers ($31.24), computer numerically controlled tool programmers ($26.58), and fiberglass laminators and fabricators ($26.21). At the lower end of the wage scale were laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($11.56), bakers ($14.54), and butchers and meat cutters ($14.71). (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_21140.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 Elkhart area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, fiberglass laminators and fabricators were employed at 59.9 times the national rate in Elkhart, and cabinetmakers and bench carpenters, at 39.1 times the U.S. average. Butchers and meat cutters had a location quotient of 0.9 in Elkhart, 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 Indiana Department of Workforce Development.

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 Elkhart-Goshen, IN Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,271 establishments with a response rate of 79 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 Elkhart-Goshen, IN Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Elkhart 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, Elkhart metropolitan area, May 2021

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Production occupations	48,490	6.1	$21.78	$45,290
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers	2,790	4.7	31.24	64,980
Coil winders, tapers, and finishers	30	3.0	19.15	39,840
Electrical, electronic, and electromechanical assemblers, except coil winders, tapers, and finishers	650	2.5	22.09	45,940
Structural metal fabricators and fitters	550	9.4	21.14	43,980
Fiberglass laminators and fabricators	990	59.9	26.21	54,520
Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators	18,480	14.7	22.87	47,570
Bakers	110	0.6	14.54	30,250
Butchers and meat cutters	130	0.9	14.71	30,590
Food batchmakers	110	0.8	15.68	32,620
Extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	350	6.2	17.12	35,610
Rolling machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	190	6.3	18.83	39,170
Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	2,300	13.5	18.77	39,040
Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	550	8.5	19.68	40,930
Lathe and turning machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	60	3.3	19.76	41,090
Milling and planing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	100	7.0	22.52	46,850
Machinists	980	3.1	20.99	43,660
Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	930	6.0	18.03	37,500
Multiple machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	590	4.7	17.46	36,320
Tool and die makers	240	3.9	25.71	53,490
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers	2,730	7.2	21.83	45,400
Welding, soldering, and brazing machine setters, operators, and tenders	250	9.0	20.39	42,410
Plating machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	100	3.3	18.09	37,630
Prepress technicians and workers	40	1.5	16.99	35,340
Printing press operators	170	1.3	18.36	38,200
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers	100	0.7	11.56	24,040
Sewing machine operators	680	6.2	16.02	33,310
Textile cutting machine setters, operators, and tenders	90	8.0	16.25	33,790
Upholsterers	480	18.1	20.27	42,150
Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters	3,460	39.1	22.26	46,300
Furniture finishers	390	24.9	18.29	38,040
Sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood	400	9.3	17.04	35,450
Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing	760	12.0	18.54	38,560
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators	50	0.4	23.88	49,680
Chemical equipment operators and tenders	140	1.4	16.37	34,050
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders	360	3.5	20.25	42,120
Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders	290	5.5	19.62	40,820
Extruding, forming, pressing, and compacting machine setters, operators, and tenders	240	4.5	16.64	34,600
Furnace, kiln, oven, drier, and kettle operators and tenders	70	5.3	18.85	39,210
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	1,980	3.8	20.94	43,550
Dental laboratory technicians	30	1.0	21.08	43,850
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders	720	2.1	16.38	34,070
Painting, coating, and decorating workers	180	15.8	18.82	39,150
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders	1,490	10.8	20.76	43,190
Computer numerically controlled tool operators	520	3.5	20.18	41,980
Computer numerically controlled tool programmers	40	1.6	26.58	55,280
Adhesive bonding machine operators and tenders	140	11.8	15.48	32,190
Molders, shapers, and casters, except metal and plastic	40	1.2	18.66	38,810
Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders	110	1.3	19.01	39,540
Helpers--production workers	1,130	5.9	19.09	39,700
Production workers, all other	300	1.6	17.20	35,780
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Elkhart-Goshen, IN Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_21140.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.