Workers in the Burlington, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $22.93 in May 2022, 23 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, Burlington area employment was more highly concentrated in 7 of the 22 occupational groups, including production, transportation and material moving, and sales and related. Thirteen groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including business and financial operations, computer and mathematical, and office and administrative support. (See table A.)

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Burlington had 6,950 jobs in production, accounting for 10.8 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 5.9-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $17.95, significantly below the national wage of $21.81.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators (1,040), inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers (580), and first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (510). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers and tool and die makers, with mean hourly wages of $28.76 and $25.41, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were pressers of textile, garment, and related materials ($12.43) and laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($12.47). (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_15500.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 Burlington area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, textile bleaching and dyeing machine operators and tenders were employed at 61.8 times the national rate in Burlington, and textile knitting and weaving machine setters, operators, and tenders, at 37.5 times the U.S. average. Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers had a location quotient of 0.9 in Burlington, 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 North Carolina Department of Commerce.

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 Burlington, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area included 954 establishments with a response rate of 73 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 Burlington, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Alamance 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, Burlington metropolitan area, May 2022

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages ($)
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Production occupations	6,950	1.8	17.95	37,330
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers	510	1.8	28.76	59,830
Electrical, electronic, and electromechanical assemblers, except coil winders, tapers, and finishers	230	1.9	18.58	38,650
Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators	1,040	1.6	16.44	34,190
Bakers	160	1.8	12.70	26,420
Butchers and meat cutters	80	1.4	16.56	34,440
Food batchmakers	50	0.7	14.74	30,650
Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	70	0.9	18.09	37,620
Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	90	2.8	18.80	39,100
Machinists	200	1.5	22.07	45,910
Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	330	4.6	20.34	42,300
Tool and die makers	30	1.2	25.41	52,850
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers	170	0.9	22.95	47,740
Printing press operators	100	1.6	19.01	39,540
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers	160	2.1	12.47	25,950
Pressers, textile, garment, and related materials	30	2.7	12.43	25,860
Sewing machine operators	240	4.8	13.49	28,060
Textile bleaching and dyeing machine operators and tenders	180	61.8	14.06	29,250
Textile knitting and weaving machine setters, operators, and tenders	280	37.5	15.44	32,120
Textile winding, twisting, and drawing out machine setters, operators, and tenders	210	19.8	14.93	31,060
Textile, apparel, and furnishings workers, all other	170	30.5	13.37	27,810
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators	40	0.8	21.19	44,080
Chemical equipment operators and tenders	50	1.1	17.92	37,280
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders	30	0.7	18.85	39,210
Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders	40	1.5	18.32	38,100
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	580	2.3	17.45	36,300
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders	290	1.8	16.11	33,520
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders	70	1.1	18.55	38,580
Computer numerically controlled tool operators	60	0.8	21.05	43,780
Molders, shapers, and casters, except metal and plastic	90	5.4	15.70	32,660
Helpers--production workers	180	2.1	14.22	29,570
Production workers, all other	140	1.3	16.86	35,060
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Burlington, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_15500.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.