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.)

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.