Workers in the Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $25.07 in May 2019, about 3 percent below the nationwide average of $25.72, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Janet S. Rankin noted that, after testing for statistical significance, 3 of the 22 major occupational groups had average wages in the local area that were significantly higher than their respective national averages: sales and related, management, and business and financial operations. Thirteen groups had significantly lower wages than their respective national averages, including construction and extraction, architecture and engineering, and healthcare practitioners and technical.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Charlotte area employment was more highly concentrated in 6 of the 22 occupational groups, including transportation and material moving, sales and related, and business and financial operations. Twelve groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including healthcare support, educational instruction and library, and healthcare practitioners and technical. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

One occupational group—transportation and material moving—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Charlotte had 128,790 jobs in transportation and material moving occupations, accounting for 10.3 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 8.5-percent share nationally. The local average hourly wage for this occupational group was $16.94, significantly lower than the national wage of $18.23.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the transportation and material moving group included laborers and hand freight, stock, and material movers (32,970); stockers and order fillers (21,170); and heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers (18,430). Among the higher paying jobs were crane and tower operators, and heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers, with mean hourly wages of $23.83 and $21.92, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were parking attendants ($10.97) and cleaners of vehicles and equipment ($11.63). (Detailed data for the transportation and material moving occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_16740.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 Charlotte Area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the transportation and material moving group. For instance, flight attendants were employed at 3.8 times the national rate in Charlotte, and commercial pilots, at 2.4 times the U.S. average. Light truck drivers had a location quotient of 1.0 in Charlotte, 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 North Carolina Department of Commerce.

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 1.1 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 2019 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2019, November 2018, May 2018, November 2017, May 2017, and November 2016. The unweighted sampled employment of 83 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 57 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 Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC Metropolitan Statistical Area included 6,809 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.

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 2019 OES estimates are the first set of OES estimates to be based in part on survey data collected using the 2018 SOC. These estimates use a hybrid of the 2010 and 2018 SOC systems. More information on the hybrid classification system is available at www.bls.gov/oes/soc_2018.htm.

The May 2019 OES estimates are based on the 2017 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). More 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 Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Cabarrus, Gaston, Iredell, Lincoln, Mecklenburg, Rowan, and Union Counties in North Carolina and Chester, Lancaster, and York Counties in South Carolina.

For more information

Answers to frequently asked questions about the OES data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_ques.htm. Detailed information about the OES program is available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_doc.htm.

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 for transportation and material moving occupations, Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2019  

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Transportation and material moving occupations	128,790	1.2	$16.94	$35,240
First-line supervisors of transportation and material moving workers, except aircraft cargo handling supervisors	5,710	1.5	25.68	53,410
Airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers	(5)	(5)	(6)	104,100
Commercial pilots	760	2.4	(6)	81,100
Airfield operations specialists	90	1.0	18.93	39,380
Flight attendants	3,900	3.8	(6)	56,190
Driver/sales workers	4,760	1.3	12.27	25,520
Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers	18,430	1.2	21.92	45,590
Light truck drivers	8,050	1.0	16.72	34,770
Bus drivers, transit and intercity	920	0.6	18.20	37,860
Passenger vehicle drivers, except bus drivers, transit and intercity	4,060	0.7	13.46	27,990
Motor vehicle operators, all other	910	1.9	10.97	22,820
Parking attendants	1,210	1.0	10.97	22,830
Automotive and watercraft service attendants	960	1.0	12.61	26,240
Traffic technicians	(5)	(5)	18.89	39,300
Transportation inspectors	50	0.2	39.69	82,550
Passenger attendants	(5)	(5)	12.44	25,880
Aircraft service attendants and transportation workers, all other	300	1.0	13.29	27,640
Conveyor operators and tenders	150	0.7	17.21	35,800
Crane and tower operators	380	1.0	23.83	49,560
Industrial truck and tractor operators	7,160	1.3	16.96	35,280
Cleaners of vehicles and equipment	3,560	1.1	11.63	24,190
Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand	32,970	1.3	14.14	29,410
Machine feeders and offbearers	320	0.6	12.23	25,430
Packers and packagers, hand	8,150	1.5	12.22	25,410
Stockers and order fillers	21,170	1.2	13.70	28,500
Refuse and recyclable material collectors	2,220	2.2	15.75	32,750
Material moving workers, all other	30	0.1	15.07	31,360
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_16740.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. (6) Wages for some occupations that do not generally work year-round, full time, are reported either as hourly wages or annual salaries depending on how they are typically paid.