Workers in the Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $25.33 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 ($56.68); arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media ($47.58); legal ($45.80); and computer and mathematical ($45.61). Lower paying occupational groups included food preparation and serving related ($14.44), personal care and service ($16.03), and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($16.33). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Hickory area included production (17.9 percent), transportation and material moving (11.5 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 (0.8 percent).

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Hickory had 27,830 jobs in production, accounting for 17.9 percent of local area employment, compared to the 5.7-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $22.15, compared to the national wage of $24.08.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators (3,520), upholsterers (2,140), and sewing machine operators (1,980). Among the higher paying jobs in this group were power plant operators ($46.73), first-line supervisors of production and operating workers ($32.34), and tool and die makers ($30.75). At the lower end of the wage scale were laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($14.22) and textile, garment, and related materials pressers ($14.80). (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/0025860.)

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 Hickory area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, upholsterers were employed at 101.55 times the national rate in Hickory, and cutters and trimmers by hand, at 81.43 times the U.S. average. Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers had a location quotient of 1.01 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 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 Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,662 establishments with a response rate of 71 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 2024

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages ($)
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Production occupations	27,830	3.17	22.15	46,080
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers	1,790	2.60	32.34	67,260
Electrical, electronic, and electromechanical assemblers, except coil winders, tapers, and finishers	1,070	4.06	23.26	48,370
Structural metal fabricators and fitters	60	1.06	23.95	49,820
Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators	3,520	2.40	20.06	41,720
Bakers	200	0.87	15.89	33,060
Butchers and meat cutters	70	0.50	18.21	37,870
Food batchmakers	160	0.95	21.08	43,850
Food processing workers, all other	70	1.21	18.08	37,610
Extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	1,400	21.21	25.25	52,510
Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	230	1.33	20.02	41,640
Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	130	1.86	21.59	44,900
Lathe and turning machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	30	1.58	20.89	43,460
Machinists	340	1.15	24.79	51,560
Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	630	4.02	20.20	42,010
Multiple machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	160	1.26	23.21	48,280
Tool and die makers	110	2.04	30.75	63,960
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers	430	1.01	23.70	49,300
Welding, soldering, and brazing machine setters, operators, and tenders	30	0.83	22.24	46,250
Printing press operators	200	1.39	22.74	47,290
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers	240	1.24	14.22	29,580
Pressers, textile, garment, and related materials	40	1.59	14.80	30,780
Sewing machine operators	1,980	17.96	21.51	44,740
Textile bleaching and dyeing machine operators and tenders	130	21.40	18.03	37,500
Textile cutting machine setters, operators, and tenders	360	40.49	22.98	47,800
Textile knitting and weaving machine setters, operators, and tenders	410	27.85	17.43	36,250
Textile winding, twisting, and drawing out machine setters, operators, and tenders	300	14.48	16.32	33,950
Extruding and forming machine setters, operators, and tenders, synthetic and glass fibers	230	15.24	18.50	38,480
Fabric and apparel patternmakers	120	41.47	25.67	53,400
Upholsterers	2,140	101.55	27.63	57,460
Textile, apparel, and furnishings workers, all other	320	22.34	18.19	37,840
Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters	170	2.12	22.20	46,170
Furniture finishers	330	23.05	20.43	42,490
Sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood	190	4.42	17.48	36,350
Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing	830	13.04	19.15	39,830
Power plant operators	40	1.20	46.73	97,200
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators	130	1.03	21.95	45,660
Grinding and polishing workers, hand	80	6.56	17.39	36,160
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders	230	2.23	21.65	45,030
Cutters and trimmers, hand	580	81.43	23.73	49,350
Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders	610	12.73	20.75	43,150
Extruding, forming, pressing, and compacting machine setters, operators, and tenders	190	3.31	21.90	45,560
Furnace, kiln, oven, drier, and kettle operators and tenders	100	6.15	22.71	47,240
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	1,690	2.85	20.77	43,210
Dental laboratory technicians	30	1.00	25.93	53,940
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders	850	2.21	20.93	43,530
Painting, coating, and decorating workers	30	3.56	18.70	38,890
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders	550	3.41	22.28	46,330
Computer numerically controlled tool operators	150	0.82	22.69	47,190
Computer numerically controlled tool programmers	60	2.04	27.07	56,310
Adhesive bonding machine operators and tenders	350	28.96	16.25	33,790
Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders	620	6.35	22.07	45,910
Helpers--production workers	610	3.62	18.73	38,960
Production workers, all other	1,400	5.02	18.91	39,330
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area, see https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0025860. (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.