Workers in the Gainesville, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $26.37 in May 2023, compared to the nationwide average of $31.48, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Victoria G. Lee noted that higher paying major occupational groups included management ($58.31), healthcare practitioners and technical ($48.05), and legal ($47.53). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($14.35), personal care and service ($15.18), and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($16.74). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Gainesville area included production (16.8 percent), transportation and material moving (12.0 percent), and office and administrative support (10.9 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.5 percent) and life, physical, and social science (0.6 percent). (See table A.)

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Gainesville had 16,650 jobs in production, accounting for 16.8 percent of local area employment, compared to the 5.8-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $20.30, compared to the national wage of $22.90.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers (3,340) and miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators (2,430). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group was first-line supervisors of production and operating workers, with a mean hourly wage of $33.69. At the lower end of the wage scale were laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($13.48) and bakers ($15.51). (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_23580.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 Gainesville area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers were employed at 37.0 times the national rate in Gainesville, and slaughterers and meat packers, at 15.8 times the U.S. average. Butchers and meat cutters had a location quotient of 1.0 in Gainesville, 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 Georgia Department of Labor.

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. Full OEWS data tables are available online.

Additional information about the OEWS estimates and methodology are 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 65.8 percent based on establishments and 64.3 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Gainesville, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,146 establishments with a response rate of 71 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 Gainesville, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Hall 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 production occupations, Gainesville metropolitan area, May 2023

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages ($)
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Production occupations	16,650	2.9	20.30	42,220
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers	1,150	2.6	33.69	70,080
Electrical, electronic, and electromechanical assemblers, except coil winders, tapers, and finishers	150	0.9	17.66	36,740
Structural metal fabricators and fitters	30	0.8	22.23	46,240
Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators	2,430	2.5	18.91	39,330
Bakers	120	0.8	15.51	32,250
Butchers and meat cutters	90	1.0	16.64	34,600
Meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers	3,340	37.0	17.03	35,420
Slaughterers and meat packers	730	15.8	17.90	37,230
Food batchmakers	730	6.6	(5)	(5)
Food processing workers, all other	110	2.7	17.15	35,680
Extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	160	3.9	18.64	38,760
Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	250	2.2	19.82	41,220
Machinists	240	1.3	23.77	49,440
Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	100	0.9	20.56	42,760
Multiple machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	80	1.0	18.42	38,300
Tool and die makers	60	1.6	24.97	51,930
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers	1,020	3.7	21.69	45,100
Welding, soldering, and brazing machine setters, operators, and tenders	50	2.4	22.26	46,290
Metal workers and plastic workers, all other	120	9.4	19.52	40,600
Printing press operators	110	1.1	20.64	42,920
Print binding and finishing workers	40	1.5	18.96	39,430
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers	60	0.5	13.48	28,040
Sewing machine operators	40	0.6	16.90	35,150
Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters	80	1.3	19.28	40,090
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators	100	1.2	21.85	45,460
Chemical equipment operators and tenders	120	1.6	24.20	50,330
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders	200	3.0	21.45	44,620
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	1,210	3.2	19.13	39,790
Dental laboratory technicians	130	5.9	23.01	47,870
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders	840	3.5	17.49	36,370
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders	300	2.9	19.98	41,550
Computer numerically controlled tool operators	170	1.4	22.23	46,240
Helpers--production workers	300	2.6	16.87	35,080
Production workers, all other	900	5.7	21.37	44,450
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Gainesville, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_23580.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.