Workers in the Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $17.63 in May 2013, 21 percent below the nationwide average of $22.33, 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 significantly lower than their respective national averages in 21 of the 22 major occupational groups, including education, training, and library; construction and extraction; and sales and related.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 5 of the 22 occupational groups, including production, transportation and material moving, and healthcare practitioners and technical. Conversely, 15 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including office and administrative support, business and financial operations, and management. (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 29,630 jobs in production, accounting for 20.6 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 6.6-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $14.85, measurably below the national wage of $16.79.

With employment of 4,180, team assemblers was the largest occupation within the production group, followed by upholsterers (2,590) and sewing machine operators (1,900). Among the higher paying jobs were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers, and upholsterers, with mean hourly wages of $23.93 and $18.34, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were team assemblers ($12.51) and production workers helpers ($12.78). (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.)

OES wage and employment data for the 22 major occupational groups in the Hickory Metropolitan Statistical Area were compared to their respective national averages based on statistical significance testing. Only those occupations with wages or employment shares above or below the national wage or share after testing for significance at the 90-percent confidence level meet the criteria.

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 for a 3-year period. May 2013 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected in May 2013, November 2012, May 2012, November 2011, May 2011, and November 2010. The overall national response rate for the six panels is 75.3 percent based on establishments and 71.6 percent based on employment. The sample in the Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,696 establishments with a response rate of 91 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 2013 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 Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, N.C. Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Alexander, Burke, Caldwell, and Catawba 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/2013/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, Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2013

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual(4)
Production Occupations	29,630	3.1	$14.85	$30,890
First-Line Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers	1,740	2.8	23.93	49,770
Coil Winders, Tapers, and Finishers	100	6.1	14.01	29,140
Electrical and Electronic Equipment Assemblers	150	0.7	13.65	28,380
Structural Metal Fabricators and Fitters	90	1.0	14.13	29,380
Team Assemblers	4,180	3.7	12.51	26,010
Assemblers and Fabricators, All Other	110	0.4	11.64	24,220
Bakers	240	1.3	9.87	20,530
Butchers and Meat Cutters	160	1.0	13.48	28,030
Food Batchmakers	(5)	(5)	9.53	19,810
Extruding and Drawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic	600	7.5	18.51	38,500
Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic	470	2.3	13.00	27,040
Machinists	860	2.0	15.22	31,650
Molding, Coremaking, and Casting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic	230	1.7	15.40	32,030
Tool and Die Makers	110	1.3	21.04	43,760
Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers	400	1.1	14.66	30,480
Welding, Soldering, and Brazing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders	40	0.7	18.17	37,790
Heat Treating Equipment Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic	70	3.1	13.60	28,280
Plating and Coating Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic	50	1.2	13.49	28,050
Prepress Technicians and Workers	(5)	(5)	15.63	32,510
Printing Press Operators	280	1.6	16.11	33,500
Print Binding and Finishing Workers	110	1.9	14.77	30,730
Laundry and Dry-Cleaning Workers	300	1.4	9.70	20,180
Pressers, Textile, Garment, and Related Materials	120	2.1	10.07	20,950
Sewing Machine Operators	1,900	12.2	14.41	29,960
Tailors, Dressmakers, and Custom Sewers	(5)	(5)	8.81	18,330
Textile Bleaching and Dyeing Machine Operators and Tenders	520	41.5	12.61	26,230
Textile Cutting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders	290	17.6	16.07	33,430
Textile Knitting and Weaving Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders	670	27.7	12.96	26,960
Textile Winding, Twisting, and Drawing Out Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders	290	10.2	12.22	25,410
Extruding and Forming Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Synthetic and Glass Fibers	230	11.0	13.94	29,000
Fabric and Apparel Patternmakers	250	38.3	19.29	40,130
Upholsterers	2,590	82.9	18.34	38,150
Cabinetmakers and Bench Carpenters	340	3.8	14.86	30,900
Furniture Finishers	850	54.2	13.88	28,880
Model Makers, Wood	140	106.2	17.37	36,120
Patternmakers, Wood	80	88.8	17.75	36,920
Sawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Wood	470	10.3	13.50	28,080
Woodworking Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Except Sawing	1,120	15.5	12.79	26,590
Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operators	140	1.2	16.04	33,360
Grinding and Polishing Workers, Hand	350	10.2	12.86	26,750
Mixing and Blending Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders	340	2.7	13.75	28,590
Cutters and Trimmers, Hand	580	38.9	15.52	32,280
Cutting and Slicing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders	560	8.8	14.16	29,450
Extruding, Forming, Pressing, and Compacting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders	100	1.3	16.10	33,500
Furnace, Kiln, Oven, Drier, and Kettle Operators and Tenders	50	2.4	17.06	35,480
Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers	1,240	2.4	13.78	28,670
Dental Laboratory Technicians	40	1.0	17.77	36,970
Packaging and Filling Machine Operators and Tenders	700	1.7	13.04	27,120
Coating, Painting, and Spraying Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders	400	4.3	14.32	29,790
Painting, Coating, and Decorating Workers	(5)	(5)	16.55	34,430
Photographic Process Workers and Processing Machine Operators	70	1.7	(5)	(5)
Adhesive Bonding Machine Operators and Tenders	230	11.7	12.52	26,040
Molders, Shapers, and Casters, Except Metal and Plastic	(5)	(5)	11.49	23,890
Paper Goods Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders	200	2.0	16.48	34,280
Helpers-Production Workers	1,770	3.8	12.78	26,580
Production Workers, All Other	550	2.4	16.95	35,250
Footnotes (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_25860.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.