Workers in the Jackson, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $25.62 in May 2025, compared to the nationwide average of $33.54, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Victoria G. Lee noted that higher paying major occupational groups included legal ($59.04) and management ($57.15). Lower paying occupational groups included food preparation and serving related ($14.32) and personal care and service ($15.49). (See table A.)

Production occupations accounted for 13.1 percent of Jackson area employment, followed by office and administrative support occupations (11.7 percent) and transportation and material moving occupations (10.9 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included life, physical, and social science (0.4 percent); legal (0.4 percent); and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (0.7 percent).

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Jackson had 11,040 jobs in production, accounting for 13.1 percent of local area employment, compared to the 5.5-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $22.64, compared to the national wage of $24.81.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators (1,890) and first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (850). Among the higher paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers ($34.27), tool and die makers ($27.34), and structural metal fabricators and fitters ($27.15). At the lower end of the wage scale were laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($15.32) and bakers ($16.73). (Detailed data for the production occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0027180/2025.)

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 production group. For instance, crushing, grinding, and polishing machine setters, operators, and tenders were employed at 10.23 times the national rate in Jackson, and paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders, at 8.11 times the U.S. average. Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders had a location quotient of 1.08 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 Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

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 66.2 percent based on establishments and 67.2 percent based on weighted sampled employment. Sample sizes and response rates by metropolitan and nonmetropolitan area are available on the Additional OEWS data sets page.

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, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Chester County, Crockett County, Gibson County, and Madison 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.

If you are deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability, please dial 7-1-1 to access telecommunications relay services.

Table 1. Employment and wage data for production occupations, Jackson metropolitan area, May 2025

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages ($)
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Production occupations	11,040	2.37	22.64	47,090
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers	850	2.31	34.27	71,280
Structural metal fabricators and fitters	80	2.88	27.15	56,470
Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators	1,890	2.48	19.63	40,830
Bakers	130	0.97	16.73	34,790
Butchers and meat cutters	90	1.19	17.04	35,450
Meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers	190	2.36	17.96	37,360
Food batchmakers	640	6.75	20.03	41,660
Food processing workers, all other	120	3.27	21.09	43,860
Extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	150	4.66	23.48	48,830
Rolling machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	40	3.24	26.51	55,140
Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	210	2.23	20.45	42,530
Machinists	240	1.52	24.12	50,180
Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	100	1.23	20.02	41,640
Multiple machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	60	0.82	22.14	46,050
Tool and die makers	110	3.61	27.34	56,860
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers	600	2.66	22.02	45,790
Welding, soldering, and brazing machine setters, operators, and tenders	100	5.92	18.98	39,470
Plating machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	90	5.39	19.25	40,030
Metal workers and plastic workers, all other	50	6.28	18.33	38,130
Printing press operators	120	1.53	20.09	41,780
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers	140	1.30	15.32	31,860
Sewing machine operators	50	0.96	17.43	36,250
Sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood	80	3.53	21.85	45,450
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators	90	1.36	26.91	55,970
Crushing, grinding, and polishing machine setters, operators, and tenders	140	10.23	23.81	49,520
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders	100	1.97	23.39	48,660
Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders	50	2.04	23.03	47,890
Extruding, forming, pressing, and compacting machine setters, operators, and tenders	100	3.24	21.21	44,130
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	600	1.84	22.58	46,960
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders	220	1.08	20.25	42,120
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders	110	1.29	24.16	50,260
Computer numerically controlled tool operators	60	0.61	24.76	51,490
Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders	420	8.11	23.86	49,620
Helpers--production workers	270	3.05	19.70	40,970
Production workers, all other	870	6.33	21.51	44,740
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Jackson, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area, see data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0027180/2025. (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.