Workers in the Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $16.86 in May 2010, roughly 21 percent below the nationwide average of $21.35, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Janet S. Rankin noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were significantly lower than their respective national averages in 20 of the 22 major occupational groups, including management, healthcare practitioners and technical, and sales and related.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 3 of the 22 occupational groups: production, transportation and material moving, and healthcare support. Conversely, 17 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including office and administrative support, business and financial operations, and computer and mathematical. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton had 26,780 jobs in production, accounting for 19.5 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 6.5-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $14.57, measurably below the national wage of $16.24.

With employment of 2,670, team assemblers was the largest occupation within the production group, followed by upholsterers (2,180) and production worker helpers (1,780). Among the higher paying jobs were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers and upholsterers, with mean hourly wages of $22.46 and $18.71, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers ($9.22) and laundry and dry cleaning workers ($9.29). (Detailed occupational data for production are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_25860.htm)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton Metropolitan Statistical Area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2010

Major occupational group	Percent of total employment		Mean hourly wage
	United States	Hickory	United States	Hickory
Total, all occupations	100.0	100.0	$21.35	$16.86*
Management	4.7	3.4*	50.69	45.14*
Business and financial operations	4.8	2.1*	32.54	26.75*
Computer and mathematical	2.6	0.7*	37.13	28.96*
Architecture and engineering	1.8	0.8*	36.32	27.88*
Life, physical, and social science	0.8	0.3*	31.92	24.72*
Community and social service	1.5	1.5	20.76	17.58*
Legal	0.8	0.4*	46.60	27.04*
Education, training, and library	6.7	6.2*	24.25	18.98*
Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media	1.4	0.7*	25.14	25.34
Healthcare practitioners and technical	5.8	5.4*	34.27	31.51*
Healthcare support	3.1	4.8*	12.94	11.46*
Protective service	2.5	2.4*	20.43	14.95*
Food preparation and serving related	8.7	8.3*	10.21	9.07*
Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance	3.3	2.2*	12.16	10.50*
Personal care and service	2.7	2.0*	11.82	10.28*
Sales and related	10.6	9.4*	17.69	15.16*
Office and administrative support	16.9	14.0*	16.09	14.09*
Farming, fishing, and forestry	0.3	0.2*	11.70	14.38*
Construction and extraction	4.0	2.4*	21.09	16.07*
Installation, maintenance, and repair	3.9	3.8	20.58	18.30*
Production	6.5	19.5*	16.24	14.57*
Transportation and material moving	6.7	9.5*	15.70	14.49*
Footnotes: (*) 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.

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 Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton Metropolitan Statistical Area, above average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, upholsterers were employed at 66.5 times the national rate in Hickory, and sewing machine operators, at 11.0 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, laundry and dry-cleaning workers had a location quotient of 1.1 in Hickory, 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 North Carolina Labor Market Information Division. The OES survey provides estimates of employment and hourly and annual wages for wage and salary workers in 22 major occupational groups and nearly 800 non-military detailed occupations for the nation, states, metropolitan statistical areas, metropolitan divisions, and nonmetropolitan areas.

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 also are surveyed, but their data are not included in this release. OES estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.2 million establishments. Forms are mailed to approximately 200,000 establishments in May and November of each year for a 3-year period. The nationwide response rate for the May 2010 survey was 78.2 percent based on establishments and 74.4 percent based on employment. May 2010 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2010, November 2009, May 2009, November 2008, May 2008, and November 2007. The sample in the Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,628 establishments with a response rate of 94 percent. For more information about OES concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.tn.htm.

The May 2010 OES estimates mark the first set of estimates based in part on data collected using the 2010 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system. Nearly all the occupations in this release are 2010 SOC occupations; however, some are not. The May 2012 OES data will reflect the full set of detailed occupations in the 2010 SOC. For a list of all occupations, including 2010 SOC occupations, and how data are collected on two structures were combined, see the OES Frequently Asked Questions online at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_ques.htm#Ques41.

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.

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 Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, N.C. Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Alexander, Burke, Caldwell, and Catawba Counties.

Additional information

OES data are available on the Southeast regional web page at www.bls.gov/ro4/home.htm. If you have additional questions, contact the Southeast Economic Analysis and Information Office at 404-893-4222 during the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. ET. Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: 202-691-5200; TDD message referral phone number: 1-800-877-8339.

Last Modified Date: October 21 2011

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