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.)

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.