Workers in the Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $22.90 in May 2022, 23 percent below the nationwide average of $29.76, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Victoria G. Lee noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were lower than their respective national averages in all of the 22 major occupational groups.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Hickory area employment was more highly concentrated in 3 of the 22 occupational groups: production; transportation and material moving; and installation, maintenance, and repair. Fifteen groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including business and financial operations, management, and computer and mathematical. (See table A.)

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Hickory had 29,730 jobs in production, accounting for 19.4 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 5.9-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $19.42, significantly below the national wage of $21.81.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators (4,180), upholsterers (2,690), and sewing machine operators (2,470). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were power plant operators and first-line supervisors of production and operating workers, with mean hourly wages of $31.01 and $28.92, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($12.52) and textile, garment, and related materials pressers ($12.70). (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_25860.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 Hickory area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, upholsterers were employed at 96.1 times the national rate in Hickory, and cutters and trimmers by hand, at 82.9 times the U.S. average. Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers had a location quotient of 1.0 in Hickory, indicating that this particular occupation’s local and national employment shares were similar.

These statistics are from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, a federal-state cooperative program between BLS and State Workforce Agencies, in this case, the North Carolina Department of Commerce.

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. OEWS data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm.

The OEWS survey is a cooperative effort between BLS and the State Workforce Agencies (SWAs). BLS funds the survey and provides the procedures and technical support, while the State Workforce Agencies collect most of the data. OEWS estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.1 million establishments. Each year, two semiannual panels of approximately 179,000 to 187,000 sampled establishments are contacted, one panel in May and the other in November. Responses are obtained by Internet or other electronic means, mail, email, telephone, or personal visit. The May 2022 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2022, November 2021, May 2021, November 2020, May 2020, and November 2019. The unweighted sampled employment of 80 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 57 percent of total national employment. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 65.4 percent based on establishments and 62.5 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,637 establishments with a response rate of 76 percent. For more information about OEWS concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_tec.htm.

A value that is statistically different from another does not necessarily mean that the difference has economic or practical significance. Statistical significance is concerned with the ability to make confident statements about a universe based on a sample. It is entirely possible that a large difference between two values is not significantly different statistically, while a small difference is, since both the size and heterogeneity of the sample affect the relative error of the data being tested.

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 Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Alexander County, Burke County, Caldwell County, and Catawba County.

For more information

Answers to frequently asked questions about the OEWS data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_ques.htm. Detailed information about the OEWS program is available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_doc.htm.

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, Hickory metropolitan area, May 2022

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages ($)
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Production occupations	29,730	3.3	19.42	40,390
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers	1,740	2.5	28.92	60,160
Electrical, electronic, and electromechanical assemblers, except coil winders, tapers, and finishers	1,660	5.8	21.14	43,960
Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators	4,180	2.8	18.37	38,210
Bakers	110	0.5	15.77	32,810
Butchers and meat cutters	80	0.6	17.93	37,290
Meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers	380	2.8	17.17	35,720
Food batchmakers	150	0.8	19.87	41,330
Extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	460	7.0	20.14	41,890
Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	180	1.0	17.62	36,650
Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	150	2.0	18.59	38,660
Lathe and turning machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	40	2.2	18.97	39,460
Machinists	440	1.4	21.51	44,730
Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	920	5.4	17.22	35,820
Multiple machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	140	1.0	19.09	39,710
Tool and die makers	110	1.8	27.44	57,070
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers	430	1.0	21.19	44,080
Printing press operators	210	1.3	20.11	41,840
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers	210	1.1	12.52	26,050
Pressers, textile, garment, and related materials	60	1.9	12.70	26,420
Sewing machine operators	2,470	20.4	18.96	39,430
Textile bleaching and dyeing machine operators and tenders	290	42.5	14.31	29,750
Textile cutting machine setters, operators, and tenders	280	25.4	19.88	41,360
Textile knitting and weaving machine setters, operators, and tenders	440	25.4	15.71	32,680
Textile winding, twisting, and drawing out machine setters, operators, and tenders	370	15.1	14.88	30,950
Extruding and forming machine setters, operators, and tenders, synthetic and glass fibers	130	8.5	19.11	39,760
Fabric and apparel patternmakers	90	29.8	24.89	51,770
Upholsterers	2,690	96.1	24.00	49,920
Textile, apparel, and furnishings workers, all other	240	17.8	14.91	31,010
Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters	170	1.7	18.36	38,180
Furniture finishers	380	24.5	17.14	35,650
Sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood	200	4.3	15.71	32,670
Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing	950	14.5	17.36	36,100
Power plant operators	60	2.0	31.01	64,490
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators	120	1.0	19.19	39,900
Chemical equipment operators and tenders	160	1.3	21.77	45,280
Separating, filtering, clarifying, precipitating, and still machine setters, operators, and tenders	40	0.8	19.45	40,450
Grinding and polishing workers, hand	80	5.3	15.34	31,900
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders	400	3.5	18.80	39,110
Cutters and trimmers, hand	710	82.9	21.51	44,740
Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders	620	11.1	18.60	38,690
Extruding, forming, pressing, and compacting machine setters, operators, and tenders	130	2.1	19.20	39,930
Furnace, kiln, oven, drier, and kettle operators and tenders	30	2.1	19.77	41,120
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	1,770	3.0	18.13	37,710
Dental laboratory technicians	40	1.0	22.77	47,370
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders	700	1.8	15.30	31,820
Painting, coating, and decorating workers	30	2.8	17.86	37,150
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders	330	2.1	19.58	40,730
Computer numerically controlled tool operators	210	1.1	18.78	39,070
Computer numerically controlled tool programmers	50	1.7	23.82	49,540
Adhesive bonding machine operators and tenders	260	22.3	14.99	31,180
Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders	560	5.9	20.33	42,290
Helpers--production workers	740	3.8	14.07	29,260
Production workers, all other	900	3.4	17.64	36,690
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_25860.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.