Workers in the Charleston-North Charleston, SC Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $24.93 in May 2021, about 11 percent below the nationwide average of $28.01, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. 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 19 of the 22 major occupational groups, including legal, construction and extraction, and sales and related. Two groups had significantly higher wages than their respective national averages: production and healthcare support.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Charleston area employment was more highly concentrated in 10 of the 22 occupational groups, including food preparation and serving related, healthcare practitioners and technical, and architecture and engineering. Eleven groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including business and financial operations, healthcare support, and educational instruction and library. (See table A.)

One occupational group—food preparation and serving related—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Charleston had 35,360 jobs in food preparation and serving related, accounting for 10.4 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 8.0-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $13.03, significantly below the national wage of $14.16.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the food preparation and serving related group included fast food and counter workers (7,750), waiters and waitresses (5,870), and restaurant cooks (4,400). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were chefs and head cooks and first-line supervisors of food preparation and serving workers, with mean hourly wages of $23.61 and $19.47, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were restaurant, lounge, and coffee shop hosts and hostesses ($10.89), fast food and counter workers ($10.90), and fast food cooks ($11.01). (Detailed data for the food preparation and serving related occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available, go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_16700.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 Charleston area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the food preparation and serving related group. For instance, chefs and head cooks were employed at 3.2 times the national rate in Charleston, and restaurant, lounge, and coffee shop hosts and hostesses, at 2.2 times the U.S. average. Fast food and counter workers had a location quotient of 1.0 in Charleston, indicating that this particular occupation’s local and national employment shares were similar.

These statistics are from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, a federal-state cooperative program between BLS and State Workforce Agencies, in this case, the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce.

Technical Note

The Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey is a semiannual survey measuring occupational employment and wage rates for wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments in the United States. The OEWS 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. OEWS data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm.

The OEWS 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. OEWS estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.1 million establishments. Each year, two semiannual panels of approximately 179,000 to 187,000 sampled establishments are contacted, one panel in May and the other in November. Responses are obtained by Internet or other electronic means, mail, email, telephone, or personal visit. The May 2021 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2021, November 2020, May 2020, November 2019, May 2019, and November 2018. The unweighted sampled employment of 82 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 62 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 67.2 percent based on establishments and 64.5 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Charleston-North Charleston, SC Metropolitan Statistical Area included 2,726 establishments with a response rate of 65 percent. For more information about OEWS 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.

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 Charleston-North Charleston, SC Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Berkeley County, Charleston County, and Dorchester County.

For more information

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

Information in this release will be made available to individuals with sensory impairments upon request. Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; Telecommunications Relay Service: 7-1-1.

Table 1. Employment and wage data for food preparation and serving related occupations, Charleston metropolitan area, May 2021

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Food preparation and serving related occupations	35,360	1.3	$13.03	$27,100
Chefs and head cooks	990	3.2	23.61	49,100
First-line supervisors of food preparation and serving workers	3,470	1.4	19.47	40,490
Cooks, fast food	3,550	1.9	11.01	22,900
Cooks, institution and cafeteria	1,350	1.4	13.06	27,170
Cooks, restaurant	4,400	1.5	14.67	30,520
Cooks, short order	90	0.3	13.63	28,340
Food preparation workers	2,110	1.1	13.03	27,110
Bartenders	1,580	1.4	12.45	25,890
Fast food and counter workers	7,750	1.0	10.90	22,670
Waiters and waitresses	5,870	1.4	11.48	23,870
Food servers, nonrestaurant	330	0.6	13.73	28,550
Dining room and cafeteria attendants and bartender helpers	690	0.9	11.58	24,090
Dishwashers	1,400	1.5	11.62	24,160
Hosts and hostesses, restaurant, lounge, and coffee shop	1,740	2.2	10.89	22,650
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Charleston-North Charleston, SC Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_16700.htm. (2) Estimates for detailed occupations may not sum to the totals due to rounding, and because the totals may include occupations that are 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.