Workers in the Knoxville, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $23.70 in May 2021, about 15 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 21 of the 22 major occupational groups.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Knoxville area employment was more highly concentrated in 9 of the 22 occupational groups, including office and administrative support, production, and food preparation and serving related. Eleven groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including business and financial operations, computer and mathematical, and educational instruction and library. (See table A.)

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 56,860 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 14.8 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 13.0-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $18.69, significantly below the national wage of $20.88.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included customer service representatives (9,430), general office clerks (7,530), and first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers (6,510). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants and first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers, with mean hourly wages of $28.43 and $27.74, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($11.46). (Detailed data for the office and administrative support occupations 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 area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, insurance claims and policy processing clerks were employed at 1.7 times the national rate in Knoxville, and file clerks, at 1.6 times the U.S. average. Shipping, receiving, and inventory 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 and Wage Statistics (OEWS) 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 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 Knoxville, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area included 2,877 establishments with a response rate of 63 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 Knoxville, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Anderson County, Blount County, Campbell County, Grainger County, Knox County, Loudon County, Morgan County, Roane County, and Union 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 office and administrative support occupations, Knoxville metropolitan area, May 2021

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	56,860	1.1	$18.69	$38,880
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	6,510	1.7	27.74	57,710
Switchboard operators, including answering service	140	1.1	13.01	27,070
Bill and account collectors	680	1.2	16.89	35,120
Billing and posting clerks	1,330	1.1	17.94	37,310
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	5,660	1.4	19.37	40,290
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	380	0.9	18.92	39,360
Procurement clerks	270	1.6	21.11	43,920
Tellers	1,290	1.3	14.85	30,890
Financial clerks, all other	100	1.3	17.19	35,760
Brokerage clerks	60	0.5	24.47	50,900
Court, municipal, and license clerks	510	1.3	19.89	41,360
Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks	70	1.6	18.20	37,850
Customer service representatives	9,430	1.2	16.06	33,410
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	200	0.5	17.64	36,680
File clerks	370	1.6	16.27	33,850
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	610	1.0	11.46	23,840
Interviewers, except eligibility and loan	530	1.2	15.21	31,630
Library assistants, clerical	230	1.1	14.71	30,610
Loan interviewers and clerks	630	1.0	19.02	39,550
New accounts clerks	100	0.9	17.94	37,320
Order clerks	270	0.7	15.53	32,300
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	280	1.0	19.78	41,140
Receptionists and information clerks	2,260	0.8	14.12	29,370
Information and record clerks, all other	390	0.9	22.72	47,260
Cargo and freight agents	150	0.7	18.50	38,470
Couriers and messengers	180	1.0	13.63	28,360
Public safety telecommunicators	210	0.8	19.67	40,920
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	400	0.8	19.32	40,190
Meter readers, utilities	50	0.8	22.31	46,410
Postal service clerks	160	0.7	26.63	55,380
Postal service mail carriers	900	1.0	26.50	55,120
Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators	490	1.6	23.92	49,740
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	1,350	1.4	23.98	49,880
Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks	2,080	1.0	17.13	35,630
Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping	60	0.4	18.10	37,650
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	520	0.4	28.43	59,130
Legal secretaries and administrative assistants	420	1.0	19.83	41,240
Medical secretaries and administrative assistants	2,380	1.3	15.86	33,000
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	5,310	1.1	18.18	37,820
Data entry keyers	470	1.2	16.90	35,150
Word processors and typists	50	0.4	16.11	33,510
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks	1,030	1.7	17.47	36,340
Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service	60	0.3	14.20	29,540
Office clerks, general	7,530	1.1	15.92	33,110
Office machine operators, except computer	60	0.7	16.66	34,660
Statistical assistants	110	6.4	21.29	44,290
Office and administrative support workers, all other	410	1.0	15.63	32,500
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Knoxville, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_28940.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.