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News Release Information

24-1478-ATL
Thursday, July 25, 2024

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

Occupational Employment and Wages in Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton — May 2023

Workers in the Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $24.29 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 ($57.43), legal ($46.00), computer and mathematical ($44.70), and healthcare practitioners and technical ($43.49). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($13.57), building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($15.65), and personal care and service ($15.86). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Hickory area included production (19.2 percent), transportation and material moving (12.2 percent), and office and administrative support (10.6 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.3 percent); life, physical, and social science (0.5 percent); and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (0.7 percent). (See table A.)

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

Total, all occupations

100.0 100.0 31.48 24.29

Management

6.9 4.4 66.23 57.43

Business and financial operations

6.6 3.7 43.55 34.51

Computer and mathematical

3.4 1.1 54.39 44.70

Architecture and engineering

1.7 1.2 47.64 39.27

Life, physical, and social science

0.9 0.5 42.24 33.00

Community and social service

1.6 1.3 28.36 24.66

Legal

0.8 0.3 64.34 46.00

Educational instruction and library

5.8 5.2 31.92 22.30

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.4 0.7 36.31 25.20

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.1 5.7 49.07 43.49

Healthcare support

4.7 4.4 18.37 16.86

Protective service

2.3 2.3 27.74 21.17

Food preparation and serving related

8.7 7.8 16.58 13.57

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.9 2.0 18.43 15.65

Personal care and service

2.0 1.3 18.48 15.86

Sales and related

8.8 9.2 25.62 21.41

Office and administrative support

12.2 10.6 23.05 20.08

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.3 0.1 19.22 18.66

Construction and extraction

4.1 2.5 29.57 23.15

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.9 4.4 28.13 25.00

Production

5.8 19.2 22.90 21.04

Transportation and material moving

9.1 12.2 22.45 19.98

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Hickory had 29,690 jobs in production, accounting for 19.2 percent of local area employment, compared to the 5.8-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $21.04, compared to the national wage of $22.90.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators (3,510), upholsterers (2,640), and sewing machine operators (2,330). 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 $35.70 and $30.89, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($13.01) and textile, garment, and related materials pressers ($13.18). (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 100.8 times the national rate in Hickory, and metal and plastic extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, at 27.4 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.

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.


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 Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,664 establishments with a response rate of 74 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 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, 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, Hickory metropolitan area, May 2023
Occupation (1) Employment Mean wages ($)
Level (2) Location quotient (3) Hourly Annual (4)

Production occupations

29,690 3.3 21.04 43,760

First-line supervisors of production and operating workers

1,740 2.6 30.89 64,260

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

1,470 5.4 21.89 45,520

Structural metal fabricators and fitters

70 1.2 21.58 44,880

Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators

3,510 2.3 18.85 39,200

Bakers

180 0.8 14.56 30,270

Butchers and meat cutters

80 0.6 18.16 37,770

Slaughterers and meat packers

120 1.6 17.62 36,650

Food batchmakers

160 0.9 20.89 43,450

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

1,770 27.4 24.19 50,320

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

220 1.2 17.80 37,010

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

150 2.0 19.67 40,920

Lathe and turning machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

50 2.5 19.09 39,710

Machinists

400 1.4 21.85 45,450

Patternmakers, metal and plastic

50 22.5 16.98 35,320

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

790 4.9 19.69 40,960

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

100 0.8 18.69 38,880

Tool and die makers

100 1.7 29.12 60,570

Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers

430 1.0 22.31 46,410

Prepress technicians and workers

30 1.5 21.24 44,170

Printing press operators

230 1.5 21.80 45,340

Laundry and dry-cleaning workers

230 1.2 13.01 27,050

Pressers, textile, garment, and related materials

40 1.4 13.18 27,410

Sewing machine operators

2,330 19.7 20.48 42,600

Textile bleaching and dyeing machine operators and tenders

170 25.2 16.10 33,480

Textile cutting machine setters, operators, and tenders

390 39.3 21.22 44,130

Textile knitting and weaving machine setters, operators, and tenders

410 25.0 16.87 35,090

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

370 15.6 16.29 33,890

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

150 10.0 21.40 44,520

Fabric and apparel patternmakers

100 38.5 25.00 51,990

Upholsterers

2,640 100.8 26.13 54,360

Textile, apparel, and furnishings workers, all other

310 20.2 16.37 34,050

Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters

160 1.8 17.90 37,230

Furniture finishers

360 24.8 18.96 39,430

Sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood

210 4.6 17.24 35,860

Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing

940 15.1 18.14 37,740

Power plant operators

50 1.7 35.70 74,250

Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators

130 1.0 20.17 41,950

Chemical equipment operators and tenders

80 0.7 23.45 48,780

Grinding and polishing workers, hand

90 6.9 16.70 34,740

Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders

340 3.1 20.16 41,930

Cutters and trimmers, hand

550 75.5 22.73 47,270

Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders

680 12.7 19.67 40,910

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

160 2.8 21.33 44,360

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

110 7.2 22.19 46,140

Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers

1,810 3.0 19.91 41,410

Dental laboratory technicians

40 1.1 24.35 50,640

Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders

810 2.1 19.54 40,630

Painting, coating, and decorating workers

40 3.6 17.61 36,630

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

510 3.2 20.49 42,610

Computer numerically controlled tool operators

190 1.0 20.61 42,880

Computer numerically controlled tool programmers

50 1.8 25.24 52,500

Adhesive bonding machine operators and tenders

330 25.6 16.22 33,740

Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders

500 5.1 21.05 43,770

Helpers--production workers

310 1.7 18.04 37,520

Production workers, all other

850 3.4 18.69 38,870

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.

 

Last Modified Date: Thursday, July 25, 2024