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News Release Information

23-1452-ATL
Friday, June 30, 2023

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

Occupational Employment and Wages in Greenville-Anderson-Mauldin — May 2022

Workers in the Greenville-Anderson-Mauldin, SC Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $25.01 in May 2022, 16 percent below the nationwide average of $29.76, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Victoria G. Lee noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were lower than their respective national averages in 20 of the 22 major occupational groups.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Greenville area employment was more highly concentrated in 7 of the 22 occupational groups, including production, sales and related, and food preparation and serving related. Thirteen groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including business and financial operations, computer and mathematical, and healthcare support. (See table A.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Greenville metropolitan area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2022
Major occupational groupPercent of total employmentMean hourly wage ($)
United StatesGreenvilleUnited StatesGreenvillePercent difference (1)

Total, all occupations

100.0100.029.7625.01*-16

Management

6.76.0*63.0855.18*-13

Business and financial operations

6.54.7*41.3936.08*-13

Computer and mathematical

3.42.1*51.9940.45*-22

Architecture and engineering

1.72.3*45.5240.00*-12

Life, physical, and social science

0.90.6*40.2131.42*-22

Community and social service

1.61.2*26.8122.32*-17

Legal

0.80.7*59.8742.37*-29

Educational instruction and library

5.75.0*30.4124.51*-19

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.41.0*36.7826.74*-27

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.16.4*46.5245.78-2

Healthcare support

4.63.7*17.1015.97*-7

Protective service

2.31.8*25.9719.54*-25

Food preparation and serving related

8.59.2*15.4512.81*-17

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.92.7*17.2614.69*-15

Personal care and service

1.91.917.4114.81*-15

Sales and related

8.99.7*24.2220.70*-15

Office and administrative support

12.613.1*21.9019.51*-11

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.30.1*18.2118.290

Construction and extraction

4.13.3*28.0822.55*-20

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.94.126.7724.13*-10

Production

5.911.0*21.8120.20*-7

Transportation and material moving

9.29.5*21.1218.22*-14

Footnotes:
(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in the Greenville-Anderson-Mauldin, SC Metropolitan Statistical Area is above the national mean wage, while a negative difference reflects a lower wage.
* 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. Greenville had 45,010 jobs in production, accounting for 11.0 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 5.9-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $20.20, significantly below the national wage of $21.81.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators (11,800) as well as inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers (4,060). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were power plant operators, first-line supervisors of production and operating workers, and computer numerically controlled tool programmers, with mean hourly wages of $33.06, $32.34, and $31.13 respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($12.92), food batchmakers ($14.56), and sewing machine operators ($14.94). (Detailed data for the production occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_24860.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 Greenville 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 18.7 times the national rate in Greenville, and tire builders, at 13.3 times the U.S. average. Butchers and meat cutters had a location quotient of 1.0 in Greenville, 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.

Changes to the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) Data

The May 2022 OEWS estimates use the model-based (MB3) estimation method implemented with the May 2021 estimates release. Additional updates were made to the MB3 wage processing methodology for May 2022. For more information, see the May 2022 Survey Methods and Reliability Statement.

The May 2022 estimates are the first OEWS estimates to be produced using the 2022 NAICS, which replaces the 2017 NAICS used for the May 2017-May 2021 estimates. See North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) at BLS for details.


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 2022 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2022, November 2021, May 2021, November 2020, May 2020, and November 2019. The unweighted sampled employment of 80 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 65.4 percent based on establishments and 62.5 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Greenville-Anderson-Mauldin, SC Metropolitan Statistical Area included 3,028 establishments with a response rate of 67 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 Greenville-Anderson-Mauldin, SC Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Anderson County, Greenville County, Laurens County, and Pickens 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 production occupations, Greenville metropolitan area, May 2022
Occupation (1)EmploymentMean wages ($)
Level (2)Location quotient (3)HourlyAnnual (4)

Production occupations

45,0101.920.2042,010

First-line supervisors of production and operating workers

2,8401.632.3467,260

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

1,2501.617.8637,150

Engine and other machine assemblers

4403.225.4352,900

Structural metal fabricators and fitters

1200.721.9245,600

Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators

11,8002.917.4436,280

Bakers

5401.015.3231,860

Butchers and meat cutters

3601.017.8737,160

Meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers

1500.415.5132,250

Food batchmakers

1200.314.5630,290

Food processing workers, all other

400.317.8637,140

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

6003.423.9349,780

Rolling machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

2102.7(5)(5)

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

6801.318.1637,760

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

1901.022.9447,710

Machinists

2,7203.119.1339,800

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

1,0702.318.1837,810

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

1,5704.124.1250,180

Tool and die makers

2001.229.0460,390

Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers

1,6101.421.8945,530

Welding, soldering, and brazing machine setters, operators, and tenders

400.520.7943,250

Heat treating equipment setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

1202.818.2938,050

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

1501.718.2738,000

Prepress technicians and workers

600.921.1543,990

Printing press operators

5101.219.2640,060

Print binding and finishing workers

1601.519.2139,960

Laundry and dry-cleaning workers

3900.812.9226,870

Sewing machine operators

3701.114.9431,060

Textile bleaching and dyeing machine operators and tenders

19010.216.1333,550

Textile cutting machine setters, operators, and tenders

36012.117.3636,110

Textile knitting and weaving machine setters, operators, and tenders

88018.719.5340,610

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

6109.217.6936,800

Extruding and forming machine setters, operators, and tenders, synthetic and glass fibers

1303.320.8243,300

Textile, apparel, and furnishings workers, all other

1103.217.1235,610

Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters

2200.818.9939,490

Sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood

800.615.5232,290

Power plant operators

300.333.0668,760

Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators

4601.424.2450,420

Gas plant operators

501.228.1858,620

Chemical equipment operators and tenders

7202.222.7747,360

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

1401.021.3244,350

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

1101.417.3336,040

Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders

1,1403.823.8449,580

Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders

1501.018.8439,180

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

3001.820.6542,960

Furnace, kiln, oven, drier, and kettle operators and tenders

300.819.8041,180

Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers

4,0602.520.5442,730

Dental laboratory technicians

700.819.6840,940

Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders

1,7301.717.4336,260

Painting, coating, and decorating workers

301.018.6138,720

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

8602.018.1037,650

Computer numerically controlled tool operators

6801.423.5048,880

Computer numerically controlled tool programmers

400.531.1364,750

Molders, shapers, and casters, except metal and plastic

1401.318.4438,360

Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders

4601.822.9647,760

Tire builders

68013.325.5053,030

Helpers--production workers

7301.416.4334,180

Production workers, all other

5800.818.2738,000

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Greenville-Anderson-Mauldin, SC Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_24860.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.

 

Last Modified Date: Friday, June 30, 2023