Department of Labor Logo United States Department of Labor
Dot gov

The .gov means it's official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you're on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

News Release Information

16-1301-ATL
Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Contacts Technical information: Media contact:
  • (404) 893-4220

Occupational Employment and Wages in Greenville-Anderson-Mauldin — May 2015

Workers in the Greenville-Anderson-Mauldin Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $19.72 in May 2015, about 15 percent below the nationwide average of $23.23, 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 lower than their respective national averages in 18 of the 22 major occupational groups, including computer and mathematical; construction and extraction; and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance. 

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 4 of the 22 occupational groups, including production, and transportation and material moving. Conversely, 14 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including business and financial operations; computer and mathematical; and education, training, and library. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Greenville-Anderson-Mauldin Metropolitan Statistical Area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2015
Major occupational groupPercent of total employmentMean hourly wage
United StatesGreenvilleUnited StatesGreenvillePercent difference (1)

Total, all occupations

100.0%100.0%$23.23$19.72*-15

Management

5.04.4*55.3046.24*-16

Business and Financial Operations

5.13.8*35.4829.86*-16

Computer and Mathematical

2.91.8*41.4332.01*-23

Architecture and Engineering

1.82.0*39.8937.19*-7

Life, Physical, and Social Science

0.80.4*34.2426.60*-22

Community and Social Services

1.40.9*22.1919.67*-11

Legal

0.80.5*49.7454.049

Education, Training, and Library

6.25.3*25.4823.12-9

Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media

1.31.0*27.3923.13*-16

Healthcare Practitioner and Technical

5.85.737.4037.18-1

Healthcare Support

2.92.6*14.1912.82*-10

Protective Service

2.41.9*21.4516.53*-23

Food Preparation and Serving Related

9.19.110.989.51*-13

Building and Grounds Cleaning and Maintenance

3.23.213.0210.47*-20

Personal Care and Service

3.12.4*12.3310.67*-13

Sales and Related

10.510.518.9016.60*-12

Office and Administrative Support

15.815.2*17.4715.85*-9

Farming, Fishing, and Forestry

0.30.1*12.6713.023

Construction and Extraction

4.03.3*22.8818.07*-21

Installation, Maintenance, and Repair

3.94.2*22.1119.63*-11

Production

6.613.8*17.4116.54*-5

Transportation and Material Moving

6.97.8*16.9014.26*-16

Footnotes:
(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in Greenville-Anderson-Mauldin is above the national mean wage, while a negative difference reflects a lower wage.
* 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.
 

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Greenville-Anderson-Mauldin had 53,360 jobs in production, accounting for 13.8 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 6.6-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $16.54, significantly below the national wage of $17.41.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included team assemblers (16,610), machinists (3,640), and first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (2,970). Among the higher paying jobs were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers, and tool and die makers, with mean hourly wages of $28.67 and $27.06, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($9.60) and bakers ($10.35). (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_24860.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 Greenville-Anderson-Mauldin Metropolitan Statistical Area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, textile knitting and weaving machine setters, operators, and tenders were employed at 22.6 times the national rate in Greenville, and textile winding, twisting, and drawing out machine setters, operators, and tenders, at 10.0 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers had a location quotient of 1.0 in Greenville, 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 South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce.

Notes on Occupational Employment Statistics Data

With the issuance of data for May 2015, the OES program has incorporated redefined metropolitan area definitions as designated by the Office of Management and Budget. OES data are available for 394 metropolitan areas, 38 metropolitan divisions, and 167 OES-defined nonmetropolitan areas. A listing of the areas and their definitions can be found at www.bls.gov/oes/current/msa_def.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.


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. The OES program produces employment and wage estimates for over 800 occupations for all industries combined in the nation; the 50 states and the District of Columbia; 432 metropolitan areas and divisions; 167 nonmetropolitan areas; and Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. National estimates are also available by industry for NAICS sectors, 3-, 4-, and selected 5- and 6-digit industries, and by ownership across all industries and for schools and hospitals. OES data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm.

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. May 2015 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2015, November 2014, May 2014, November 2013, May 2013, and November 2012. The overall national response rate for the six panels is 73.5 percent based on establishments and 69.6 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The unweighted employment of sampled establishments across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 57.9 percent of total national employment. (Response rates are slightly lower for these estimates due to the federal shutdown in October 2013.) The sample in the Greenville-Anderson-Mauldin Metropolitan Statistical Area included 3,375 establishments with a response rate of 71 percent. For more information about OES concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.tn.htm.

The May 2015 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.

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 Greenville-Anderson-Mauldin, S.C. Metropolitan Statistical Area  includes Anderson, Greenville, Laurens, and Pickens 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/current/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, Greenville-Anderson-Mauldin Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2015
Occupation (1)EmploymentMean wages
Level (2)Location quotient (3)HourlyAnnual (4)

Production Occupations

53,3602.1$16.54$34,400

First-Line Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers

2,9701.828.6759,620

Electrical and Electronic Equipment Assemblers

7301.214.8230,820

Engine and Other Machine Assemblers

3403.119.8141,210

Structural Metal Fabricators and Fitters

7103.218.9539,410

Fiberglass Laminators and Fabricators

1602.713.6228,330

Team Assemblers

16,6105.313.8628,830

Assemblers and Fabricators, All Other

5600.911.2123,330

Bakers

5501.110.3521,540

Butchers and Meat Cutters

4501.212.4225,840

Food Batchmakers

2200.612.2425,460

Computer-Controlled Machine Tool Operators, Metal and Plastic

5801.417.4836,350

Computer Numerically Controlled Machine Tool Programmers, Metal and Plastic

2303.223.0347,910

Extruding and Drawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic

1,0905.423.5649,010

Rolling Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic

500.620.4342,500

Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic

7401.417.3136,000

Grinding, Lapping, Polishing, and Buffing Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic

2301.118.0937,620

Lathe and Turning Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic

600.617.3836,160

Machinists

3,6403.321.1944,070

Foundry Mold and Coremakers

(5)(5)16.2033,700

Molding, Coremaking, and Casting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic

7402.015.0831,360

Multiple Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic

2600.921.1544,000

Tool and Die Makers

(5)(5)27.0656,280

Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers

1,0801.018.3538,180

Welding, Soldering, and Brazing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders

1901.316.0233,320

Heat Treating Equipment Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic

(5)(5)16.2133,710

Plating and Coating Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic

400.416.1833,640

Prepress Technicians and Workers

1001.017.1635,690

Printing Press Operators

6001.318.1637,770

Print Binding and Finishing Workers

700.514.9231,030

Laundry and Dry-Cleaning Workers

5901.19.6019,960

Pressers, Textile, Garment, and Related Materials

2201.610.0620,920

Sewing Machine Operators

7702.010.2921,400

Tailors, Dressmakers, and Custom Sewers

(5)(5)15.3031,810

Textile Bleaching and Dyeing Machine Operators and Tenders

2507.613.1627,380

Textile Cutting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders

2706.611.5924,110

Textile Knitting and Weaving Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders

1,43022.614.0529,210

Textile Winding, Twisting, and Drawing Out Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders

78010.012.8226,660

Extruding and Forming Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Synthetic and Glass Fibers

1803.316.5134,330

Cabinetmakers and Bench Carpenters

3201.216.4034,120

Furniture Finishers

300.713.4828,040

Sawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Wood

(5)(5)11.2923,480

Woodworking Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Except Sawing

1700.813.9328,980

Stationary Engineers and Boiler Operators

400.423.4548,780

Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operators

3701.120.0141,620

Chemical Plant and System Operators

(5)(5)25.5053,030

Chemical Equipment Operators and Tenders

4302.318.6838,860

Separating, Filtering, Clarifying, Precipitating, and Still Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders

1200.9(5)(5)

Mixing and Blending Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders

6401.819.0239,570

Cutting and Slicing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders

2601.517.9337,290

Extruding, Forming, Pressing, and Compacting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders

2501.319.6440,860

Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers

2,7702.018.7739,040

Jewelers and Precious Stone and Metal Workers

300.423.3348,530

Medical Appliance Technicians

(5)(5)16.5534,430

Ophthalmic Laboratory Technicians

400.513.8228,740

Packaging and Filling Machine Operators and Tenders

1,2301.213.7328,560

Coating, Painting, and Spraying Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders

3001.216.3333,960

Painters, Transportation Equipment

1300.919.2239,980

Cleaning, Washing, and Metal Pickling Equipment Operators and Tenders

(5)(5)12.6526,310

Molders, Shapers, and Casters, Except Metal and Plastic

(5)(5)14.1829,500

Paper Goods Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders

(5)(5)18.1937,830

Tire Builders

(5)(5)17.9937,420

Helpers--Production Workers

2,9002.411.2423,370

Production Workers, All Other

1900.319.6640,900

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in Greenville-Anderson-Mauldin, SC, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_24860.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.
 

 

Last Modified Date: Wednesday, July 20, 2016