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News Release Information

25-856-ATL
Tuesday, May 20, 2025

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

Occupational Employment and Wages in Burlington, NC — May 2024

Workers in the Burlington, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $24.75 in May 2024, compared to the nationwide average of $32.66, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Victoria G. Lee noted that higher paying major occupational groups included management ($55.96), computer and mathematical ($47.72), legal ($42.98), and architecture and engineering ($40.87). Lower paying occupational groups included food preparation and serving related ($14.47), personal care and service ($16.27), and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($16.70). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Burlington area included transportation and material moving (11.6 percent) and office and administrative support (11.5 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.2 percent); life, physical, and social science (0.6 percent); arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (0.9 percent); and architecture and engineering (0.9 percent).

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Burlington metropolitan area, May 2024
Major occupational group Percent of total employment Mean hourly wage ($)
United States Burlington United States Burlington

Total, all occupations

100.0 100.0 32.66 24.75

Management

7.1 4.9 68.15 55.96

Business and financial operations

6.7 3.7 45.04 35.70

Computer and mathematical

3.4 1.9 56.16 47.72

Architecture and engineering

1.7 0.9 49.99 40.87

Life, physical, and social science

0.9 0.6 43.12 38.25

Community and social service

1.7 1.1 30.31 26.31

Legal

0.8 0.2 66.19 42.98

Educational instruction and library

5.8 5.5 31.69 24.86

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.4 0.9 37.04 29.34

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.2 7.8 50.59 37.15

Healthcare support

4.8 4.4 19.06 18.68

Protective service

2.4 1.6 29.33 27.09

Food preparation and serving related

8.8 10.9 17.32 14.47

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.9 2.6 19.01 16.70

Personal care and service

2.0 1.6 18.95 16.27

Sales and related

8.7 10.4 26.00 20.27

Office and administrative support

11.8 11.5 24.12 21.12

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.3 0.1 20.06 21.36

Construction and extraction

4.1 3.4 30.73 23.89

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.9 4.3 29.63 25.47

Production

5.7 10.1 24.08 20.69

Transportation and material moving

8.9 11.6 23.44 18.88

One occupational group—transportation and material moving—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Burlington had 7,900 jobs in transportation and material moving, accounting for 11.6 percent of local area employment, compared to the 8.9-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $18.88, compared to the national wage of $23.44.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the transportation and material moving group included laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand (2,150), and stockers and order fillers (1,710). Among the higher paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of transportation and material moving workers, except aircraft cargo handling supervisors ($27.62), and heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers ($25.37). At the lower end of the wage scale were cleaners of vehicles and equipment ($13.70) and shuttle drivers and chauffeurs ($14.27). (Detailed data for the transportation and material moving occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0015500.)

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 2.00 indicates that an occupation accounts for twice the share of employment in the area than it does nationally. In the Burlington area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the transportation and material moving group. For instance, hand packers and packagers were employed at 2.74 times the national rate in Burlington, and industrial truck and tractor operators, at 1.70 times the U.S. average. Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers had a location quotient of 0.92 in Burlington, indicating that this particular occupation’s local and national employment shares were similar.

The statistics in this release are from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, a cooperative effort between BLS and the State Workforce Agencies (SWAs). BLS funds the survey and provides the procedures and technical support. State Workforce Agencies collect most of the data: in this case, the North Carolina Department of Commerce.

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

Effective with the May 2024 OEWS news release, the OEWS program has implemented new metropolitan area definitions based on the 2020 decennial census and delineated by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Bulletin 23-01. This news release does not include data for Colorado and its areas because of quality concerns with Colorado’s Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) data. See the national OEWS news release for more information.


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 530 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. Full OEWS data tables are available online.

Additional information about the OEWS estimates and methodology is available in the national Technical Notes. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 65.7 percent based on establishments and 65.9 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Burlington, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,036 establishments with a response rate of 69 percent.

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 Burlington, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Alamance County.

For more information

Answers to frequently asked questions about the OEWS data, as well as general program documentation, are available on the OEWS website.

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, Burlington metropolitan area, May 2024
Occupation (1) Employment Mean wages ($)
Level (2) Location quotient (3) Hourly Annual (4)

Transportation and material moving occupations

7,900 1.31 18.88 39,280

First-line supervisors of transportation and material moving workers, except aircraft cargo handling supervisors

310 1.18 27.62 57,450

Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers

840 0.92 25.37 52,760

Light truck drivers

570 1.30 20.11 41,820

Bus drivers, school

90 0.51 17.02 35,400

Bus drivers, transit and intercity

60 0.94 16.96 35,280

Shuttle drivers and chauffeurs

40 0.40 14.27 29,690

Automotive and watercraft service attendants

70 1.54 15.30 31,820

Industrial truck and tractor operators

600 1.70 22.80 47,420

Cleaners of vehicles and equipment

190 1.12 13.70 28,500

Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand

2,150 1.63 15.66 32,580

Packers and packagers, hand

730 2.74 15.91 33,090

Stockers and order fillers

1,710 1.39 18.41 38,290

Refuse and recyclable material collectors

70 1.13 20.21 42,040

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Burlington, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area, see https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0015500.
(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.

 

Last Modified Date: Tuesday, May 20, 2025