Department of Labor Logo United States Department of Labor
Dot gov

The .gov means it's official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you're on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

News Release Information

25-860-ATL
Tuesday, May 20, 2025

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

Occupational Employment and Wages in Greensboro-High Point, NC — May 2024

Workers in the Greensboro-High Point, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $27.10 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 ($60.81), legal ($47.15), and computer and mathematical ($45.42). Lower paying occupational groups included food preparation and serving related ($14.84), personal care and service ($16.26), building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($16.59), and healthcare support ($17.98). (See table A.)

Transportation and material moving occupations accounted for 12.0 percent of Greensboro area employment, followed by office and administrative support occupations (11.7 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.5 percent) and life, physical, and social science (0.7 percent).

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

Total, all occupations

100.0 100.0 32.66 27.10

Management

7.1 5.6 68.15 60.81

Business and financial operations

6.7 5.5 45.04 39.24

Computer and mathematical

3.4 1.9 56.16 45.42

Architecture and engineering

1.7 1.5 49.99 43.20

Life, physical, and social science

0.9 0.7 43.12 37.18

Community and social service

1.7 1.1 30.31 26.79

Legal

0.8 0.5 66.19 47.15

Educational instruction and library

5.8 5.5 31.69 25.54

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.4 1.1 37.04 35.30

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.2 5.4 50.59 44.79

Healthcare support

4.8 4.1 19.06 17.98

Protective service

2.4 2.4 29.33 25.14

Food preparation and serving related

8.8 9.0 17.32 14.84

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.9 2.8 19.01 16.59

Personal care and service

2.0 1.5 18.95 16.26

Sales and related

8.7 9.5 26.00 24.02

Office and administrative support

11.8 11.7 24.12 22.19

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.3 0.1 20.06 20.40

Construction and extraction

4.1 3.9 30.73 24.96

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.9 4.6 29.63 27.12

Production

5.7 9.6 24.08 21.73

Transportation and material moving

8.9 12.0 23.44 20.39

One occupational group—transportation and material moving—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Greensboro had 42,930 jobs in transportation and material moving, accounting for 12.0 percent of local area employment, compared to the 8.9-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $20.39, 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 (11,970); stockers and order fillers (7,830); and heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers (6,490). Among the higher paying jobs in this group were transportation inspectors ($49.65), first-line supervisors of transportation and material moving workers, except aircraft cargo handling supervisors ($30.33), and crane and tower operators ($29.44). At the lower end of the wage scale were cleaners of vehicles and equipment ($14.62). (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/0024660.)

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 Greensboro area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the transportation and material moving group. For instance, school bus drivers were employed at 1.82 times the national rate in Greensboro, and laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand, at 1.73 times the U.S. average. Stockers and order fillers had a location quotient of 1.21 in Greensboro, 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 Greensboro-High Point, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area included 2,875 establishments with a response rate of 70 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 Greensboro-High Point, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Guilford County, Randolph County, and Rockingham 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, Greensboro metropolitan area, May 2024
Occupation (1) Employment Mean wages ($)
Level (2) Location quotient (3) Hourly Annual (4)

Transportation and material moving occupations

42,930 1.35 20.39 42,410

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

2,010 1.42 30.33 63,080

Commercial pilots

100 0.86 (5) 147,800

Airfield operations specialists

40 0.91 23.00 47,840

Driver/sales workers

840 0.86 17.24 35,860

Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers

6,490 1.35 26.84 55,830

Light truck drivers

3,900 1.69 21.55 44,830

Bus drivers, school

1,640 1.82 18.61 38,710

Bus drivers, transit and intercity

160 0.47 19.69 40,960

Shuttle drivers and chauffeurs

410 0.76 16.49 34,300

Motor vehicle operators, all other

150 1.24 14.17 29,470

Parking attendants

130 0.43 15.47 32,190

Automotive and watercraft service attendants

160 0.70 15.47 32,180

Aircraft service attendants

70 1.17 18.62 38,720

Transportation inspectors

90 1.66 49.65 103,280

Crane and tower operators

90 0.94 29.44 61,230

Industrial truck and tractor operators

2,540 1.35 20.23 42,080

Cleaners of vehicles and equipment

780 0.90 14.62 30,400

Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand

11,970 1.73 17.93 37,300

Machine feeders and offbearers

170 1.61 17.66 36,730

Packers and packagers, hand

2,410 1.72 16.46 34,230

Stockers and order fillers

7,830 1.21 17.50 36,400

Refuse and recyclable material collectors

450 1.38 20.85 43,360

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Greensboro-High Point, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area, see https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0024660.
(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) 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.

 

Last Modified Date: Tuesday, May 20, 2025