Workers in the Chattanooga Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $20.61 in May 2017, about 15 percent below the nationwide average of $24.34, 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 life, physical, and social science; management; and healthcare practitioners and technical.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 6 of the 22 occupational groups, including production; transportation and material moving; and office and administrative support. Conversely, 11 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including construction and extraction; business and financial operations; and personal care and service. (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. Chattanooga had 22,750 jobs in production occupations, accounting for 9.4 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 6.3-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $16.69, significantly below the national wage of $18.30.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included assemblers and fabricators, all other, including team assemblers (4,790), welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers (1,770), and first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (1,410). Among the higher paying jobs in this group were power plant operators and first-line supervisors of production and operating workers, with mean hourly wages of $35.09 and $26.60, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were pressers, textile, garment, and related materials ($9.82) and laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($9.88). (Detailed data for production occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available, go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_16860.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 Chattanooga Metropolitan Statistical Area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in several of the occupations within the production group. For instance, welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers were employed at 2.8 times the national rate in Chattanooga, and meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers, at 2.3 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, tool and die makers had a location quotient of 1.0 in Chattanooga, 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.

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 data available from BLS include cross-industry occupational employment and wage estimates for the nation; over 650 areas, including states and the District of Columbia, metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), metropolitan divisions, nonmetropolitan areas, and territories; national industry-specific estimates at the NAICS sector, 3-, 4-, and selected 5- and 6-digit industry levels; and national estimates 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. Each year, two semiannual panels of approximately 200,000 sampled establishments are contacted, one panel in May and the other in November. Responses are obtained by mail, Internet or other electronic means, email, telephone, or personal visit. The May 2017 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2017, November 2016, May 2016, November 2015, May 2015, and November 2014. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 72 percent based on establishments and 68 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The unweighted sample employment of 82 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 58 percent of total national employment. The sample in the Chattanooga Metropolitan Statistical Area included 2,657 establishments with a response rate of 72 percent. For more information about OES concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_tec.htm.

The May 2017 OES estimates are based on the 2010 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system and the 2017 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 2017 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 Chattanooga Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Catoosa, Dade, and Walker Counties in Georgia; Hamilton, Marion, and Sequatchie Counties in Tennessee.

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, Chattanooga Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2017

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Production occupations	22,750	1.5	$16.69	$34,720
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers	1,410	1.4	26.60	55,320
Electrical, electronic, and electromechanical assemblers, except coil winders, tapers, and finishers	160	0.4	15.64	32,520
Structural metal fabricators and fitters	520	4.0	15.07	31,330
Assemblers and fabricators, all other, including team assemblers	4,790	2.2	15.50	32,240
Bakers	430	1.4	11.00	22,890
Butchers and meat cutters	170	0.7	13.49	28,060
Meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers	600	2.3	10.58	22,000
Food batchmakers	350	1.4	14.63	30,430
Food processing workers, all other	290	4.0	11.38	23,680
Computer-controlled machine tool operators, metal and plastic	200	0.8	19.90	41,380
Extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	150	1.2	13.58	28,250
Forging machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	40	1.1	15.55	32,340
Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	480	1.5	15.67	32,580
Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	(5)	(5)	18.12	37,680
Machinists	400	0.6	22.46	46,710
Model makers, metal and plastic	40	4.0	24.76	51,490
Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	390	1.5	15.65	32,540
Multiple machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	260	1.3	16.98	35,310
Tool and die makers	120	1.0	22.20	46,180
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers	1,770	2.8	20.89	43,460
Layout workers, metal and plastic	30	2.2	22.70	47,230
Metal workers and plastic workers, all other	60	1.5	19.68	40,930
Prepress technicians and workers	80	1.6	16.07	33,420
Printing press operators	810	2.8	14.47	30,100
Print binding and finishing workers	240	2.9	16.60	34,520
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers	440	1.2	9.88	20,560
Pressers, textile, garment, and related materials	50	0.7	9.82	20,420
Sewing machine operators	210	0.9	11.47	23,850
Textile bleaching and dyeing machine operators and tenders	100	6.1	14.29	29,730
Textile cutting machine setters, operators, and tenders	90	3.7	14.45	30,060
Textile knitting and weaving machine setters, operators, and tenders	(5)	(5)	14.24	29,620
Textile winding, twisting, and drawing out machine setters, operators, and tenders	910	17.3	13.36	27,800
Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters	100	0.6	14.88	30,950
Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing	190	1.4	15.68	32,620
Power plant operators	80	1.4	35.09	72,990
Stationary engineers and boiler operators	(5)	(5)	24.22	50,390
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators	170	0.9	19.42	40,390
Chemical equipment operators and tenders	140	1.0	22.22	46,210
Separating, filtering, clarifying, precipitating, and still machine setters, operators, and tenders	(5)	(5)	20.10	41,810
Crushing, grinding, and polishing machine setters, operators, and tenders	40	0.8	15.53	32,290
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders	200	0.9	15.66	32,570
Cutters and trimmers, hand	(5)	(5)	13.69	28,480
Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders	80	0.7	13.06	27,170
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	1,070	1.2	17.32	36,030
Dental laboratory technicians	90	1.5	21.40	44,500
Ophthalmic laboratory technicians	(5)	(5)	13.94	28,990
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders	440	0.7	14.38	29,910
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders	210	1.5	18.10	37,650
Painters, transportation equipment	40	0.4	22.79	47,410
Photographic process workers and processing machine operators	630	16.7	13.19	27,440
Molders, shapers, and casters, except metal and plastic	140	2.0	13.99	29,100
Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders	60	0.4	12.77	26,560
Helpers--production workers	910	1.3	13.19	27,440
Production workers, all other	340	0.8	17.05	35,450
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Chattanooga Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_16860.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.