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News Release Information

25-819-ATL
Friday, May 16, 2025

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

Occupational Employment and Wages in Jackson, MS — May 2024

Workers in the Jackson, MS Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $25.86 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 ($53.69), legal ($45.28), and architecture and engineering ($44.29). Lower paying occupational groups included food preparation and serving related ($12.97), building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($14.76), personal care and service ($15.41), and healthcare support ($15.49). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Jackson area included office and administrative support (12.2 percent), transportation and material moving (9.8 percent), and sales and related (9.0 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included life, physical, and social science (0.7 percent); arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (0.9 percent); and legal (0.9 percent).

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Jackson metropolitan area, May 2024
Major occupational group Percent of total employment Mean hourly wage ($)
United States Jackson United States Jackson

Total, all occupations

100.0 100.0 32.66 25.86

Management

7.1 5.3 68.15 53.69

Business and financial operations

6.7 5.1 45.04 35.99

Computer and mathematical

3.4 1.7 56.16 37.92

Architecture and engineering

1.7 1.1 49.99 44.29

Life, physical, and social science

0.9 0.7 43.12 31.78

Community and social service

1.7 1.7 30.31 24.58

Legal

0.8 0.9 66.19 45.28

Educational instruction and library

5.8 5.9 31.69 28.90

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.4 0.9 37.04 25.77

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.2 8.7 50.59 41.48

Healthcare support

4.8 4.7 19.06 15.49

Protective service

2.4 3.1 29.33 20.39

Food preparation and serving related

8.8 8.7 17.32 12.97

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.9 2.9 19.01 14.76

Personal care and service

2.0 1.6 18.95 15.41

Sales and related

8.7 9.0 26.00 20.41

Office and administrative support

11.8 12.2 24.12 20.76

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.3 0.4 20.06 16.21

Construction and extraction

4.1 3.5 30.73 24.53

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.9 4.7 29.63 26.27

Production

5.7 7.2 24.08 22.04

Transportation and material moving

8.9 9.8 23.44 21.76

One occupational group—healthcare practitioners and technical—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Jackson had 23,480 jobs in healthcare practitioners and technical, accounting for 8.7 percent of local area employment, compared to the 6.2-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $41.48, compared to the national wage of $50.59.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the healthcare practitioners and technical group included registered nurses (9,540), licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses (2,130), and nurse practitioners (940). Among the higher paying jobs in this group were general internal medicine physicians ($152.26) and family medicine physicians ($111.11). At the lower end of the wage scale were emergency medical technicians ($15.49) and psychiatric technicians ($16.71). (Detailed data for the healthcare practitioners and technical occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0027140.)

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 Jackson area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the healthcare practitioners and technical group. For instance, respiratory therapists were employed at 2.29 times the national rate in Jackson, and surgical technologists, at 1.99 times the U.S. average. Pharmacy technicians had a location quotient of 1.02 in Jackson, 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 Mississippi Department of Employment Security.

Changes to the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) Data

Effective with the May 2024 OEWS news release, the OEWS program has implemented new metropolitan area definitions based on the 2020 decennial census and delineated by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Bulletin 23-01. This news release does not include data for Colorado and its areas because of quality concerns with Colorado’s Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) data. See the national OEWS news release for more information.


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 Jackson, MS Metropolitan Statistical Area included 2,312 establishments with a response rate of 81 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 Jackson, MS Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Copiah County, Hinds County, Holmes County, Madison County, Rankin County, Scott County, Simpson County, and Yazoo 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 healthcare practitioners and technical occupations, Jackson metropolitan area, May 2024
Occupation (1) Employment Mean wages ($)
Level (2) Location quotient (3) Hourly Annual (4)

Healthcare practitioners and technical occupations

23,480 1.4 41.48 86,280

Chiropractors

30 0.53 59.47 123,690

Dentists, general

230 1.16 58.79 122,280

Dietitians and nutritionists

160 1.18 31.47 65,460

Optometrists

70 0.98 59.85 124,480

Pharmacists

840 1.47 59.46 123,680

Physician assistants

130 0.49 42.65 88,720

Occupational therapists

380 1.42 44.79 93,150

Physical therapists

580 1.33 47.45 98,700

Recreational therapists

70 2.65 21.83 45,400

Respiratory therapists

540 2.29 42.56 88,520

Speech-language pathologists

350 1.12 39.57 82,310

Veterinarians

110 0.81 52.02 108,210

Registered nurses

9,540 1.67 41.26 85,820

Nurse anesthetists

(5) (5) 94.05 195,620

Nurse practitioners

940 1.75 61.39 127,680

Emergency medicine physicians

110 1.92 (6) (6)

Family medicine physicians

150 0.80 111.11 231,100

General internal medicine physicians

60 0.48 152.26 316,700

Psychiatrists

40 0.90 83.44 173,560

Physicians, all other

400 0.73 154.99 322,390

Dental hygienists

300 0.80 35.70 74,260

Clinical laboratory technologists and technicians

870 1.46 28.85 60,000

Cardiovascular technologists and technicians

160 1.52 26.21 54,530

Diagnostic medical sonographers

190 1.23 37.66 78,330

Nuclear medicine technologists

50 1.68 39.46 82,070

Radiologic technologists and technicians

610 1.57 28.37 59,020

Magnetic resonance imaging technologists

90 1.19 34.77 72,330

Emergency medical technicians

350 1.12 15.49 32,210

Paramedics

230 1.31 24.05 50,030

Pharmacy technicians

870 1.02 19.34 40,230

Psychiatric technicians

230 0.96 16.71 34,750

Surgical technologists

400 1.99 26.01 54,090

Veterinary technologists and technicians

180 0.80 17.92 37,270

Ophthalmic medical technicians

220 1.66 20.41 42,440

Licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses

2,130 1.93 25.14 52,280

Medical records specialists

640 1.95 20.34 42,300

Opticians, dispensing

140 1.02 17.65 36,710

Health technologists and technicians, all other

460 1.51 20.97 43,620

Health information technologists and medical registrars

40 0.63 20.69 43,030

Athletic trainers

(5) (5) (7) 56,370

Healthcare practitioners and technical workers, all other

50 0.81 27.52 57,240

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Jackson, MS Metropolitan Statistical Area, see https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0027140.
(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.
(6) This wage is equal to or greater than $115.00 per hour or $239,200 per year.
(7) Wages for some occupations that do not generally work year-round, full time, are reported either as hourly wages or annual salaries depending on how they are typically paid.

 

Last Modified Date: Friday, May 16, 2025