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News Release Information

16-1099-ATL
Friday, June 03, 2016

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

Occupational Employment and Wages in Knoxville — May 2015

Workers in the Knoxville Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $20.19 in May 2015, about 13 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, 19 groups had significantly lower wages than their respective national averages, including computer and mathematical; construction and extraction; and management. No major occupational group in the local area had wages that were measurably higher than their respective national averages.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 7 of the 22 occupational groups, including office and administrative support; production; and management. Conversely, 12 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including business and financial operations; education, training, and library; and computer and mathematical. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Knoxville Metropolitan Statistical Area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2015
Major occupational groupPercent of total employmentMean hourly wage
United StatesKnoxvilleUnited StatesKnoxvillePercent difference (1)

Total, all occupations

100.0%100.0%$23.23$20.19*-13

Management

5.06.1*55.3045.59*-18

Business and financial operations

5.13.6*35.4829.96*-16

Computer and mathematical

2.92.0*41.4331.45*-24

Architecture and engineering

1.82.239.8939.910

Life, physical, and social science

0.80.834.2431.69*-7

Community and social services

1.41.2*22.1917.30*-22

Legal

0.80.5*49.7450.652

Education, training, and library

6.25.2*25.4821.52*-16

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.31.0*27.3920.90*-24

Healthcare practitioner and technical

5.86.7*37.4032.92*-12

Healthcare support

2.92.6*14.1912.95*-9

Protective service

2.42.2*21.4517.42*-19

Food preparation and serving related

9.19.310.989.67*-12

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

3.23.7*13.0211.92*-8

Personal care and service

3.12.7*12.3310.75*-13

Sales and related

10.59.9*18.9015.89*-16

Office and administrative support

15.817.1*17.4715.91*-9

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.30.1*12.6712.04-5

Construction and extraction

4.03.6*22.8818.59*-19

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.94.5*22.1119.96*-10

Production

6.67.7*17.4116.21*-7

Transportation and material moving

6.97.4*16.9015.49*-8

Footnotes:
(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in Knoxville 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—office and administrative support—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Knoxville had 63,840 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 17.1 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 15.8-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $15.91, significantly below the national wage of $17.47.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included general office clerks (8,370), customer service representatives (8,270), and secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (7,560). Among the higher paying jobs were production, planning, and expediting clerks; and first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers, with mean hourly wages of $31.05 and $25.40, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were stock clerks and order fillers ($11.46) and tellers ($12.86). (Detailed occupational data for office and administrative support are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_28940.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 Knoxville Metropolitan Statistical Area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, bill and account collectors were employed at 2.3 times the national rate in Knoxville, and order clerks, at 2.1 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, payroll and timekeeping clerks had a location quotient of 1.0 in Knoxville, 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 Tennessee Department of Labor & Workforce Development.

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 Knoxville Metropolitan Statistical Area included 3,154 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 Knoxville, Tenn. Metropolitan Statistical Area  includes Anderson, Blount, Campbell, Grainger, Knox, Loudon, Morgan, Roane, and Union 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, Knoxville Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2015
Occupation (1)EmploymentMean wages
Level (2)Location quotient (3)HourlyAnnual (4)

Office and Administrative Support Occupations

63,8401.1$15.91$33,090

First-Line Supervisors of Office and Administrative Support Workers

4,2001.125.4052,830

Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service

3801.412.6426,280

Bill and Account Collectors

1,9402.314.6630,480

Billing and Posting Clerks

1,5601.214.5030,160

Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks

4,7601.116.7834,900

Payroll and Timekeeping Clerks

4501.019.9841,550

Procurement Clerks

1400.816.5534,420

Tellers

1,0800.812.8626,740

Financial Clerks, All Other

800.819.2640,060

Brokerage Clerks

1100.722.0245,790

Correspondence Clerks

402.214.3729,890

Court, Municipal, and License Clerks

5901.716.3634,020

Credit Authorizers, Checkers, and Clerks

1101.015.4632,150

Customer Service Representatives

8,2701.214.5630,290

Eligibility Interviewers, Government Programs

2900.816.2333,750

File Clerks

4101.112.0625,080

Hotel, Motel, and Resort Desk Clerks

8601.39.0118,750

Interviewers, Except Eligibility and Loan

8901.812.8626,740

Library Assistants, Clerical

1600.613.1227,280

Loan Interviewers and Clerks

7801.315.8733,010

New Accounts Clerks

(5)(5)12.9927,020

Order Clerks

1,0502.112.7226,460

Human Resources Assistants, Except Payroll and Timekeeping

4401.215.1531,520

Receptionists and Information Clerks

2,3300.912.9126,840

Reservation and Transportation Ticket Agents and Travel Clerks

(5)(5)15.0231,230

Information and Record Clerks, All Other

3100.717.9137,240

Cargo and Freight Agents

500.218.0637,570

Couriers and Messengers

900.512.5025,990

Police, Fire, and Ambulance Dispatchers

1800.714.4029,960

Dispatchers, Except Police, Fire, and Ambulance

4900.924.5150,980

Meter Readers, Utilities

1501.519.9341,460

Postal Service Clerks

1800.922.9747,770

Postal Service Mail Carriers

8401.024.7551,480

Postal Service Mail Sorters, Processors, and Processing Machine Operators

3901.323.4848,850

Production, Planning, and Expediting Clerks

1,4501.731.0564,580

Shipping, Receiving, and Traffic Clerks

1,9501.113.1327,320

Stock Clerks and Order Fillers

5,9201.111.4623,840

Weighers, Measurers, Checkers, and Samplers, Recordkeeping

2101.121.8645,460

Executive Secretaries and Executive Administrative Assistants

1,5300.922.9947,810

Legal Secretaries

4600.818.7739,050

Medical Secretaries

1,0800.813.9929,100

Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive

7,5601.214.9030,990

Computer Operators

2501.818.4538,370

Data Entry Keyers

3200.612.5526,100

Word Processors and Typists

300.218.2537,970

Insurance Claims and Policy Processing Clerks

2400.315.8532,960

Mail Clerks and Mail Machine Operators, Except Postal Service

1400.512.6026,210

Office Clerks, General

8,3701.114.1929,510

Office Machine Operators, Except Computer

1400.811.8024,550

Office and Administrative Support Workers, All Other

3000.515.6732,580

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in Knoxville, TN, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_28940.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: Friday, June 03, 2016