Workers in the Greenville-Anderson-Greer, SC Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $27.49 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 ($60.99), healthcare practitioners and technical ($46.58), and architecture and engineering ($45.18). Lower paying occupational groups included food preparation and serving related ($14.15), personal care and service ($15.62), building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($16.13), and healthcare support ($17.58). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Greenville area included office and administrative support (12.2 percent), sales and related (10.0 percent), and production (10.0 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included life, physical, and social science (0.6 percent); legal (0.7 percent); and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (0.9 percent).

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Greenville had 42,810 jobs in production, accounting for 10.0 percent of local area employment, compared to the 5.7-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $22.80, compared to the national wage of $24.08.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators (11,940); inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers (4,040); and first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (2,780). Among the higher paying jobs in this group were power plant operators ($39.55), first-line supervisors of production and operating workers ($36.32), and computer numerically controlled tool programmers ($35.37). At the lower end of the wage scale were textile, garment, and related materials pressers ($14.00) and laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($14.75). (Detailed data for the production occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0024860.)

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 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 16.25 times the national rate in Greenville, and textile bleaching and dyeing machine operators and tenders, at 11.83 times the U.S. average. Welding, soldering, and brazing machine setters, operators, and tenders had a location quotient of 1.00 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 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 Greenville-Anderson-Greer, SC Metropolitan Statistical Area included 3,211 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 Greenville-Anderson-Greer, 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 2024

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages ($)
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Production occupations	42,810	1.76	22.80	47,420
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers	2,780	1.46	36.32	75,550
Electrical, electronic, and electromechanical assemblers, except coil winders, tapers, and finishers	1,090	1.50	20.19	41,990
Engine and other machine assemblers	410	3.81	27.48	57,160
Structural metal fabricators and fitters	220	1.50	24.30	50,540
Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators	11,940	2.95	19.76	41,110
Bakers	790	1.23	15.82	32,910
Butchers and meat cutters	340	0.89	19.21	39,950
Meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers	250	0.63	17.70	36,820
Food and tobacco roasting, baking, and drying machine operators and tenders	(5)	(5)	19.97	41,530
Food batchmakers	180	0.37	19.82	41,220
Food processing workers, all other	70	0.41	18.29	38,050
Extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	470	2.55	22.33	46,450
Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	1,250	2.58	22.74	47,310
Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	260	1.32	23.73	49,350
Machinists	1,340	1.61	26.54	55,210
Metal-refining furnace operators and tenders	60	1.08	18.66	38,820
Foundry mold and coremakers	30	0.87	17.07	35,500
Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	600	1.40	22.35	46,490
Multiple machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	1,430	3.97	25.69	53,440
Tool and die makers	160	1.07	31.68	65,890
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers	1,530	1.30	23.92	49,750
Welding, soldering, and brazing machine setters, operators, and tenders	100	1.00	21.95	45,660
Heat treating equipment setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	60	1.50	23.49	48,850
Plating machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	130	1.47	19.68	40,930
Metal workers and plastic workers, all other	(5)	(5)	18.87	39,240
Prepress technicians and workers	70	1.15	21.87	45,490
Printing press operators	520	1.30	20.92	43,510
Print binding and finishing workers	110	1.12	21.16	44,010
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers	380	0.71	14.75	30,670
Pressers, textile, garment, and related materials	60	0.82	14.00	29,120
Sewing machine operators	360	1.17	17.14	35,640
Tailors, dressmakers, and custom sewers	100	2.20	14.92	31,040
Textile bleaching and dyeing machine operators and tenders	190	11.83	20.29	42,200
Textile cutting machine setters, operators, and tenders	200	8.13	22.50	46,790
Textile knitting and weaving machine setters, operators, and tenders	650	16.25	21.28	44,260
Textile winding, twisting, and drawing out machine setters, operators, and tenders	500	8.83	19.13	39,790
Extruding and forming machine setters, operators, and tenders, synthetic and glass fibers	210	5.17	21.01	43,700
Upholsterers	40	0.69	23.74	49,380
Textile, apparel, and furnishings workers, all other	90	2.35	18.86	39,240
Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters	210	0.95	21.86	45,460
Sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood	100	0.86	20.19	41,990
Power plant operators	60	0.75	39.55	82,270
Stationary engineers and boiler operators	50	0.53	29.66	61,700
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators	380	1.09	26.75	55,630
Gas plant operators	40	0.92	31.45	65,410
Plant and system operators, all other	30	0.76	(5)	(5)
Chemical equipment operators and tenders	840	2.37	28.21	58,670
Separating, filtering, clarifying, precipitating, and still machine setters, operators, and tenders	70	0.48	21.92	45,580
Crushing, grinding, and polishing machine setters, operators, and tenders	80	1.07	20.43	42,490
Grinding and polishing workers, hand	50	1.55	17.70	36,810
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders	940	3.35	25.46	52,950
Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders	210	1.57	23.25	48,350
Extruding, forming, pressing, and compacting machine setters, operators, and tenders	490	3.11	24.85	51,680
Furnace, kiln, oven, drier, and kettle operators and tenders	50	1.18	21.14	43,970
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	4,040	2.47	23.05	47,940
Medical appliance technicians	30	1.01	25.19	52,390
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders	1,250	1.18	18.88	39,280
Painting, coating, and decorating workers	30	1.40	19.96	41,510
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders	540	1.22	23.48	48,840
Computer numerically controlled tool operators	800	1.63	24.31	50,570
Computer numerically controlled tool programmers	70	0.93	35.37	73,570
Cleaning, washing, and metal pickling equipment operators and tenders	100	2.61	20.83	43,330
Molders, shapers, and casters, except metal and plastic	140	1.46	23.50	48,870
Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders	430	1.61	25.06	52,110
Helpers--production workers	350	0.75	19.05	39,620
Production workers, all other	870	1.13	20.54	42,730
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Greenville-Anderson-Greer, SC Metropolitan Statistical Area, see https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0024860. (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.