Occupations
Police Officer, Sheet Metal Worker, Steamfitter, and Electrician. Electrician is by far the largest occupation with 365 Registered Apprenticeship completers, representing 36% of all Registered Apprenticeship completers.
Table 2: occupation Groups
Given the large number of occupations, it is easier to analyze the wage outcomes by occupation groups, including: (a) Construction & Extraction Occupations; (b) Protective Services; (c) Installation, Maintenance & Repair; and (d) Production. Group assignments are included in Table 2. The occupation group with largest share of apprenticeship completers (80%) is Construction & Extraction Occupations, which includes sheet metal workers, steamfitters, and electricians (the three largest occupations). Protective Services, which includes the firefighters and police officers is the second largest group (11%). The final two groups, Installation, Maintenance, & Repair and Production combined to account for less than 10% of the apprenticeship completers.
Wages by Occupation Groups
For this analysis, Registered Apprenticeship completers who enrolled in college during the five years post program completion are excluded. This is because attending college, regardless of outcome (degree, no degree, or still in college), can result in lower wages due to time spent on college coursework rather than in the workforce. Accordingly, in order to evaluate outcomes of Registered Apprenticeship completers fully engaged in the workforce, these individuals were removed. Similarly, Registered Apprenticeship completers that do not have full-quarter wages five years post completion are also removed. As outlined in the data notes, there are 602 Registered Apprenticeship completers with no college and full-quarter wages (59% of all apprentices).
The wage outcomes for the occupation groups vary as shown in Chart 2 below. Protective Services occupations have the highest median quarterly wages at $22,047. This category is primarily made up of police officers (85%). Firefighters make up the remaining 15%. Police officers have one of the highest wages at five years post-completion. Production Occupations have a median quarterly wage of $12,699, which is almost $10,000 less than the median quarterly wage compared to Protective Services. Nonetheless, the Production Occupations still have a median quarterly wage that is almost $5,000 above the quarterly living wage and almost $2,000 above ACS median wage for all Marylanders. In fact, 93% of all apprenticeship completers with full-quarter wages have a quarterly wage above the living wage.
chart 2: Median Quarterly Wages by Occupation Group
Industries (NAICS)
To analyze wage by industry, the population is further restricted to Registered Apprenticeship completers whose full-quarter wages are with the same employer, five years after program completion. The stable employer restriction ensures that the worker is fully engaged in a specific industry. As shown in the data notes, five years after completion the number of Registered Apprenticeship completers with no college, full-quarter wages, and same employer is 550.
As shown in Table 3, there are seven industry categories in which Registered Apprenticeship completers are employed. Goods Production industries, which include the construction and manufacturing sectors, have almost two-thirds of all Registered Apprenticeship completers. Public Administration, which includes law enforcement and firefighting, is the second largest industry employing Registered Apprenticeship completers. The remaining industries combined only employ 12% of the Registered Apprenticeship completers.
Table 3. REGISTERED Apprenticeship Completers - Employment by Industry (NAICS) Category
Registered Apprenticeship completers in the Trade, Transportation & Utilities industry have the highest median quarterly wages at $23,442. Public Administration and Goods Production have the second and third highest median quarterly wages. Once again, Registered Apprenticeship completers in all of the industries have median quarterly wages that are well over the living wage and the median ACS wage for all Marylanders.
Chart 3. Registered Apprenticeship Completers in Goods Production Industries (NAICS)
One way to understand the interplay between occupation and industry is to compare median wages earned by different occupations in the same industry. For this purpose, the Goods Production industry offers a good comparison since it employs the most Registered Apprenticeship completers in the top three occupations: electrician, steamfitter, and sheet metal worker.
As shown in Chart 3, steamfitters in Goods Production industries have a median quarterly wage that is just over $22,000, or $88,000 annually. That annual median wage for Steamfitters is over $12,000 to $13,000 higher than the annual median wage of Electricians and Sheet Metal Workers employed in the same industry.