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News Release Information

24-1477-ATL
Friday, July 26, 2024

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

Occupational Employment and Wages in Greenville-Anderson-Mauldin — May 2023

Workers in the Greenville-Anderson-Mauldin, SC Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $26.46 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 ($57.75), healthcare practitioners and technical ($44.98), and architecture and engineering ($43.15). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($13.57), personal care and service ($15.79), and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($15.97). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Greenville area included office and administrative support (12.6 percent) and production (10.2 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included life, physical, and social science (0.5 percent); legal (0.8 percent); and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (0.9 percent). (See table A.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Greenville metropolitan area, May 2023
Major occupational group Percent of total employment Mean hourly wage ($)
United States Greenville United States Greenville

Total, all occupations

100.0 100.0 31.48 26.46

Management

6.9 6.2 66.23 57.75

Business and financial operations

6.6 5.0 43.55 37.32

Computer and mathematical

3.4 2.4 54.39 41.86

Architecture and engineering

1.7 2.4 47.64 43.15

Life, physical, and social science

0.9 0.5 42.24 33.11

Community and social service

1.6 1.0 28.36 24.18

Legal

0.8 0.8 64.34 42.46

Educational instruction and library

5.8 4.9 31.92 27.09

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.4 0.9 36.31 26.90

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.1 6.6 49.07 44.98

Healthcare support

4.7 3.7 18.37 17.13

Protective service

2.3 2.0 27.74 21.40

Food preparation and serving related

8.7 9.6 16.58 13.57

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.9 2.8 18.43 15.97

Personal care and service

2.0 2.0 18.48 15.79

Sales and related

8.8 9.7 25.62 21.99

Office and administrative support

12.2 12.6 23.05 20.52

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.3 0.1 19.22 17.73

Construction and extraction

4.1 3.2 29.57 24.29

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.9 4.1 28.13 25.58

Production

5.8 10.2 22.90 21.67

Transportation and material moving

9.1 9.3 22.45 19.12

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Greenville had 42,850 jobs in production, accounting for 10.2 percent of local area employment, compared to the 5.8-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $21.67, compared to the national wage of $22.90.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators (11,030); inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers (4,160); and first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (2,680). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers ($34.58), power plant operators ($33.74), and computer numerically controlled tool programmers ($33.73). At the lower end of the wage scale were pressers of textile, garment, and related materials ($13.03) and laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($13.55). (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 18.5 times the national rate in Greenville, and textile cutting machine setters, operators, and tenders, at 13.5 times the U.S. average. Printing press operators had a location quotient of 1.1 in Greenville, 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 South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce.


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 Greenville-Anderson-Mauldin, SC Metropolitan Statistical Area included 3,134 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 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, 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, Greenville metropolitan area, May 2023
Occupation (1) Employment Mean wages ($)
Level (2) Location quotient (3) Hourly Annual (4)

Production occupations

42,850 1.8 21.67 45,070

First-line supervisors of production and operating workers

2,680 1.4 34.58 71,930

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

1,560 2.1 18.99 39,500

Engine and other machine assemblers

400 3.0 27.33 56,840

Structural metal fabricators and fitters

240 1.5 22.34 46,470

Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators

11,030 2.7 18.98 39,490

Bakers

710 1.2 15.81 32,880

Butchers and meat cutters

330 0.9 18.51 38,500

Meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers

220 0.6 16.17 33,640

Food batchmakers

220 0.5 18.66 38,810

Food processing workers, all other

40 0.2 17.32 36,030

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

720 4.1 24.22 50,370

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

590 1.2 19.05 39,610

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

280 1.4 21.93 45,620

Machinists

1,440 1.8 24.01 49,940

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

810 1.8 19.34 40,220

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

1,600 4.5 25.03 52,070

Tool and die makers

210 1.3 30.95 64,370

Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers

1,640 1.4 22.86 47,560

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

150 1.6 20.77 43,190

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

100 2.4 18.72 38,940

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

130 1.4 19.03 39,580

Prepress technicians and workers

50 0.7 22.76 47,340

Printing press operators

460 1.1 19.56 40,690

Print binding and finishing workers

150 1.4 21.11 43,910

Laundry and dry-cleaning workers

400 0.8 13.55 28,180

Pressers, textile, garment, and related materials

50 0.6 13.03 27,110

Sewing machine operators

400 1.2 15.21 31,640

Textile bleaching and dyeing machine operators and tenders

170 9.4 16.97 35,300

Textile cutting machine setters, operators, and tenders

370 13.5 19.31 40,160

Textile knitting and weaving machine setters, operators, and tenders

820 18.5 20.12 41,850

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

480 7.4 18.61 38,720

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

200 5.0 21.11 43,910

Textile, apparel, and furnishings workers, all other

140 3.4 17.95 37,330

Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters

210 0.9 20.34 42,320

Sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood

60 0.5 16.85 35,050

Power plant operators

30 0.3 33.74 70,180

Stationary engineers and boiler operators

50 0.6 24.81 51,610

Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators

330 1.0 25.87 53,810

Gas plant operators

(5) (5) 31.09 64,660

Plant and system operators, all other

30 0.7 (5) (5)

Chemical equipment operators and tenders

830 2.5 25.19 52,400

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

80 0.6 23.11 48,060

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

120 1.7 18.93 39,380

Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders

1,060 3.6 24.87 51,730

Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders

130 0.9 20.59 42,820

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

370 2.3 21.83 45,400

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

60 1.5 21.68 45,100

Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers

4,160 2.6 21.96 45,670

Dental laboratory technicians

70 0.7 22.55 46,900

Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders

1,440 1.4 18.01 37,460

Painting, coating, and decorating workers

40 1.4 20.11 41,820

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

690 1.6 19.82 41,230

Computer numerically controlled tool operators

660 1.3 23.90 49,710

Computer numerically controlled tool programmers

50 0.6 33.73 70,160

Cleaning, washing, and metal pickling equipment operators and tenders

90 2.1 20.14 41,890

Molders, shapers, and casters, except metal and plastic

150 1.4 18.07 37,580

Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders

450 1.7 23.64 49,160

Tire builders

720 12.5 26.83 55,800

Helpers--production workers

470 0.9 17.07 35,510

Production workers, all other

780 1.2 20.75 43,160

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, July 26, 2024