Workers in the Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $25.83 in May 2021, about 8 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 computer and mathematical, construction and extraction, and business and financial operations.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Nashville area employment was more highly concentrated in 6 of the 22 occupational groups, including transportation and material moving, office and administrative support, and management. Fourteen groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including healthcare support, educational instruction and library, and sales and related. (See table A.)

One occupational group—transportation and material moving—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Nashville had 115,000 jobs in transportation and material moving, accounting for 11.8 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 9.0-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $18.48, significantly below the national wage of $19.88.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the transportation and material moving group included stockers and order fillers (27,660); hand laborers and freight, stock, and material movers (23,790); and heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers (18,020). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were transportation inspectors and aircraft cargo handling supervisors, with mean hourly wages of $36.41 and $33.30, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were taxi drivers ($11.84) and parking attendants ($12.89). (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_34980.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 Nashville area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the transportation and material moving group. For instance, traffic technicians were employed at 3.2 times the national rate in Nashville, and light truck drivers, at 1.7 times the U.S. average. Refuse and recyclable material collectors had a location quotient of 1.0 in Nashville, 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 Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area included 4,775 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 Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Cannon County, Cheatham County, Davidson County, Dickson County, Hickman County, Macon County, Maury County, Robertson County, Rutherford County, Smith County, Sumner County, Trousdale County, Williamson County, and Wilson 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 transportation and material moving occupations, Nashville metropolitan area, May 2021

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Transportation and material moving occupations	115,000	1.3	$18.48	$38,450
Aircraft cargo handling supervisors	(5)	(5)	33.30	69,270
First-line supervisors of transportation and material moving workers, except aircraft cargo handling supervisors	5,560	1.5	26.73	55,600
Airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers	90	0.2	(6)	105,980
Commercial pilots	200	0.7	(6)	102,560
Airfield operations specialists	50	0.6	24.05	50,020
Ambulance drivers and attendants, except emergency medical technicians	130	1.6	(5)	(5)
Driver/sales workers	2,780	0.8	14.46	30,070
Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers	18,020	1.4	25.41	52,860
Light truck drivers	11,520	1.7	19.40	40,350
Bus drivers, school	1,830	0.7	17.48	36,360
Bus drivers, transit and intercity	770	0.8	20.61	42,880
Shuttle drivers and chauffeurs	800	0.7	14.34	29,830
Taxi drivers	30	0.4	11.84	24,630
Motor vehicle operators, all other	640	1.9	15.09	31,390
Parking attendants	980	1.6	12.89	26,820
Automotive and watercraft service attendants	980	1.3	14.34	29,830
Aircraft service attendants	80	1.0	20.60	42,840
Traffic technicians	170	3.2	26.51	55,140
Transportation inspectors	130	0.8	36.41	75,730
Transportation workers, all other	110	1.2	18.65	38,790
Conveyor operators and tenders	280	1.4	16.16	33,620
Crane and tower operators	220	0.7	25.87	53,800
Industrial truck and tractor operators	6,630	1.3	17.80	37,030
Cleaners of vehicles and equipment	2,640	1.1	13.95	29,010
Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand	23,790	1.3	15.97	33,210
Machine feeders and offbearers	270	0.6	18.32	38,100
Packers and packagers, hand	6,250	1.5	14.15	29,430
Stockers and order fillers	27,660	1.6	14.67	30,510
Refuse and recyclable material collectors	830	1.0	14.05	29,210
Material moving workers, all other	230	1.5	19.13	39,780
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_34980.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. (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.