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News Release Information

19-1010-ATL
Tuesday, June 25, 2019

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

Occupational Employment and Wages in Chattanooga — May 2018

Workers in the Chattanooga Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $21.10 in May 2018, about 16 percent below the nationwide average of $24.98, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Regional Commissioner Janet S. Rankin noted that, after testing for statistical significance, 20 of the 22 major occupational groups had average wages in the local area that were significantly lower than their respective national averages, including life, physical, and social science; business and financial operations; and management. One group—farming, fishing, and forestry—had a significantly higher wage than its respective national average.

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, 10 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including personal care and service; construction and extraction; 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 Chattanooga Metropolitan Statistical Area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2018
Major occupational groupPercent of total employmentMean hourly wage
United StatesChattanoogaUnited StatesChattanoogaPercent difference (1)

Total, all occupations

100.0100.0$24.98$21.10*-16

Management

5.35.458.4448.28*-17

Business and financial operations

5.34.2*36.9829.36*-21

Computer and mathematical

3.01.9*44.0138.20*-13

Architecture and engineering

1.81.4*42.0135.53*-15

Life, physical, and social science

0.80.4*36.6227.50*-25

Community and social service

1.51.1*23.6921.09*-11

Legal

0.80.6*52.25(2)(3)

Education, training, and library

6.14.727.2223.96*-12

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.31.1*28.7423.22*-19

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.06.9*39.4232.93*-16

Healthcare support

2.82.915.5714.41*-7

Protective service

2.41.9*23.3618.83*-19

Food preparation and serving related

9.29.8*12.3010.38*-16

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

3.13.314.4311.94*-17

Personal care and service

3.82.6*13.5111.91*-12

Sales and related

10.010.220.0917.57*-13

Office and administrative support

15.115.318.7517.19*-8

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.30.214.4918.07*25

Construction and extraction

4.13.0*24.6220.92*-15

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.94.4*23.5422.23*-6

Production

6.310.3*18.8416.97*-10

Transportation and material moving

7.18.4*18.4116.85*-8

Footnotes:
(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in the Chattanooga Metropolitan Statistical Area is above the national mean wage, while a negative difference reflects a lower wage.
(2) Estimate not released.
(3) One or more components of this calculation do not exist or do not meet BLS or State agency disclosure standards.
* The mean hourly wage or percent share of employment 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. Chattanooga had 25,410 jobs in production, accounting for 10.3 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 6.3-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $16.97, significantly below the national wage of $18.84.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included assemblers and fabricators, all other, including team assemblers (4,940); first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (1,680); and welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers (1,600). 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 $34.69 and $26.24, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($9.83) and sewing machine operators ($11.22). (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 many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, textile knitting and weaving machine setters, operators, and tenders were employed at 20.1 times the national rate in Chattanooga, and structural metal fabricators and fitters, at 5.1 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers had a location quotient of 1.1 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.

Area Changes to the May 2018 Occupational Employment Statistics (OES)

OES continues to publish data for metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas that cover the full geography of the United States. However, the level of detail available has decreased.

OES no longer publishes data for metropolitan divisions. Data for the 11 large metropolitan areas that contain divisions are now available at the Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) or New England City and Town Area (NECTA) level only.

In addition, some smaller nonmetropolitan areas have been combined to form larger nonmetropolitan areas. The May 2018 OES estimates contain data for 134 nonmetropolitan areas, compared with 167 nonmetropolitan areas in the May 2017 estimates.

More information on these area changes is available at www.bls.gov/oes/areas_2018.htm.

Implementing the 2018 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) System

The OES program plans to begin implementing the 2018 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system with the May 2019 estimates, to be released by early April of 2020. Because each set of OES estimates is produced by combining three years of survey data, estimates for May 2019 and May 2020 will be based on a combination of survey data collected under the 2010 SOC and data collected under the 2018 SOC, and will use a hybrid of the two classification systems. The May 2021 OES estimates, to be released by early April of 2022, will be the first set of estimates based fully on the 2018 SOC. For more information, please see www.bls.gov/oes/soc_2018.htm.


Technical Note

The Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey is a semiannual 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 580 areas, including states and the District of Columbia, metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), nonmetropolitan areas, and territories; national industry-specific estimates at the NAICS sector, 3-digit, most 4-digit, 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.

The OES survey is a cooperative effort between BLS and the State Workforce Agencies (SWAs). BLS funds the survey and provides the procedures and technical support, while the State Workforce Agencies collect most of the data. OES estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.2 million establishments. Each year, two semiannual panels of approximately 180,000 to 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 2018 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2018, November 2017, May 2017, November 2016, May 2016, and November 2015. The unweighted sample employment of 83 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 58 percent of total national employment. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 71 percent based on establishments and 68 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Chattanooga Metropolitan Statistical Area included 2,656 establishments with a response rate of 71 percent. For more information about OES concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_tec.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.

The May 2018 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, TN-GA Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Catoosa, Dade, and Walkers 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 2018
Occupation (1)EmploymentMean wages
Level (2)Location quotient (3)HourlyAnnual (4)

Production occupations

25,4101.6$16.97$35,290

First-line supervisors of production and operating workers

1,6801.626.2454,570

Electrical, electronic, and electromechanical assemblers, except coil winders, tapers, and finishers

1800.415.5132,250

Structural metal fabricators and fitters

6605.116.8835,120

Assemblers and fabricators, all other, including team assemblers

4,9402.115.6932,640

Bakers

5201.712.2625,500

Butchers and meat cutters

1300.615.4132,060

Food batchmakers

5001.815.5432,320

Food processing workers, all other

3805.211.7224,380

Computer-controlled machine tool operators, metal and plastic

2300.920.4042,430

Extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

(5)(5)14.7630,710

Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

4401.418.2337,910

Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

(5)(5)18.4538,370

Machinists

5100.820.3442,300

Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

2000.716.3534,000

Multiple machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

3601.615.4232,080

Tool and die makers

1301.123.4148,690

Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers

1,6002.421.1143,910

Plating and coating machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

801.217.5436,480

Metal workers and plastic workers, all other

601.318.8639,240

Prepress technicians and workers

801.516.9535,250

Printing press operators

8002.715.4832,200

Print binding and finishing workers

(5)(5)16.7034,730

Laundry and dry-cleaning workers

5501.59.8320,450

Sewing machine operators

2100.911.2223,330

Textile cutting machine setters, operators, and tenders

703.214.5430,240

Textile knitting and weaving machine setters, operators, and tenders

73020.116.3734,060

Textile winding, twisting, and drawing out machine setters, operators, and tenders

75013.914.3729,880

Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters

800.516.4634,240

Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing

1801.417.5236,450

Power plant operators

801.434.6972,160

Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators

1900.919.4340,400

Chemical equipment operators and tenders

1200.8(5)(5)

Separating, filtering, clarifying, precipitating, and still machine setters, operators, and tenders

(5)(5)19.0039,530

Crushing, grinding, and polishing machine setters, operators, and tenders

901.716.6534,630

Grinding and polishing workers, hand

(5)(5)11.8424,630

Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders

1800.817.0535,450

Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders

1101.015.7132,670

Extruding, forming, pressing, and compacting machine setters, operators, and tenders

2301.813.8628,820

Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers

1,0101.117.3536,090

Dental laboratory technicians

901.621.4144,530

Ophthalmic laboratory technicians

(5)(5)13.3727,820

Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders

(5)(5)13.7928,680

Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders

3602.418.7138,910

Painters, transportation equipment

400.424.2650,450

Painting, coating, and decorating workers

(5)(5)14.8130,800

Cleaning, washing, and metal pickling equipment operators and tenders

(5)(5)12.0525,070

Cooling and freezing equipment operators and tenders

(5)(5)14.3029,750

Molders, shapers, and casters, except metal and plastic

901.314.6230,420

Helpers--production workers

6401.115.0831,380

Production workers, all other

8402.114.6830,540

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Chattanooga, TN-GA 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.

 

Last Modified Date: Tuesday, June 25, 2019