Workers in the Knoxville, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $28.80 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 management ($62.95) and legal ($51.33). Lower paying occupational groups included food preparation and serving related ($15.31), personal care and service ($17.29), building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($17.31), and healthcare support ($18.51). (See table A.)

Office and administrative support occupations accounted for 12.8 percent of Knoxville area employment, followed by food preparation and serving related occupations and transportation and material moving occupations (9.7 percent each). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.6 percent); life, physical, and social science (1.0 percent); arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (1.2 percent); and community and social service (1.3 percent).

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Knoxville had 31,480 jobs in production, accounting for 7.4 percent of local area employment, compared to the 5.5-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $22.96, compared to the national wage of $24.81.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators (5,940); first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (2,550); and inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers (2,160). Among the higher paying jobs in this group were power plant operators ($53.78) and power distributors and dispatchers ($40.69). At the lower end of the wage scale were laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($15.35); meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers ($15.57); bakers ($15.72); and sewing machine operators ($15.97). (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/0028940/2025.)

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 Knoxville area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, metal and plastic drilling and boring machine tool setters, operators, and tenders were employed at 5.24 times the national rate in Knoxville, and metal and plastic rolling machine setters, operators, and tenders, at 4.66 times the U.S. average. Helpers of production workers had a location quotient of 1.05 in Knoxville, 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 Knoxville, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Anderson County, Blount County, Campbell County, Grainger County, Knox County, Loudon County, Morgan County, Roane County, and Union 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, Knoxville metropolitan area, May 2025

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages ($)
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Production occupations	31,480	1.35	22.96	47,750
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers	2,550	1.39	35.18	73,170
Electrical, electronic, and electromechanical assemblers, except coil winders, tapers, and finishers	200	0.30	19.34	40,220
Structural metal fabricators and fitters	400	2.78	24.42	50,800
Fiberglass laminators and fabricators	80	1.83	23.15	48,140
Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators	5,940	1.55	20.19	42,000
Bakers	610	0.95	15.72	32,700
Butchers and meat cutters	290	0.79	18.66	38,800
Meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers	330	0.82	15.57	32,380
Slaughterers and meat packers	90	0.48	16.40	34,100
Food and tobacco roasting, baking, and drying machine operators and tenders	200	3.60	19.35	40,240
Food batchmakers	250	0.53	20.88	43,420
Food cooking machine operators and tenders	210	2.44	22.13	46,030
Food processing workers, all other	70	0.42	19.31	40,170
Extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	740	4.45	24.33	50,610
Rolling machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	320	4.66	27.89	58,010
Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	720	1.55	21.17	44,030
Drilling and boring machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	70	5.24	21.04	43,760
Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	130	0.73	20.87	43,400
Milling and planing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	(5)	(5)	23.66	49,200
Machinists	1,470	1.87	25.45	52,940
Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	590	1.43	20.71	43,080
Tool and die makers	500	3.24	29.41	61,160
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers	1,780	1.56	23.81	49,530
Welding, soldering, and brazing machine setters, operators, and tenders	350	4.04	22.39	46,570
Heat treating equipment setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	70	1.91	23.23	48,320
Plating machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	280	3.14	19.46	40,470
Metal workers and plastic workers, all other	220	4.97	18.58	38,650
Prepress technicians and workers	60	0.91	20.16	41,930
Printing press operators	360	0.92	21.05	43,790
Print binding and finishing workers	50	0.51	18.08	37,610
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers	460	0.85	15.35	31,930
Sewing machine operators	520	1.83	15.97	33,220
Textile cutting machine setters, operators, and tenders	50	2.23	18.25	37,960
Upholsterers	80	1.37	21.43	44,580
Textile, apparel, and furnishings workers, all other	40	1.02	18.92	39,360
Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters	220	1.06	23.07	47,990
Sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood	130	1.13	19.22	39,990
Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing	220	1.30	17.44	36,280
Power distributors and dispatchers	50	2.13	40.69	84,640
Power plant operators	90	1.17	53.78	111,850
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators	460	1.32	27.98	58,200
Plant and system operators, all other	30	0.79	27.87	57,970
Chemical equipment operators and tenders	190	0.49	22.82	47,470
Separating, filtering, clarifying, precipitating, and still machine setters, operators, and tenders	170	1.06	20.17	41,940
Crushing, grinding, and polishing machine setters, operators, and tenders	250	3.53	22.60	47,010
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders	90	0.34	24.42	50,800
Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders	150	1.21	20.80	43,260
Extruding, forming, pressing, and compacting machine setters, operators, and tenders	220	1.39	22.93	47,700
Furnace, kiln, oven, drier, and kettle operators and tenders	80	2.06	23.42	48,710
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	2,160	1.33	23.12	48,090
Jewelers and precious stone and metal workers	80	1.30	23.74	49,380
Dental laboratory technicians	50	0.52	27.62	57,440
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders	520	0.50	19.98	41,550
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders	490	1.13	23.50	48,880
Computer numerically controlled tool operators	260	0.57	25.06	52,130
Computer numerically controlled tool programmers	40	0.56	36.47	75,850
Adhesive bonding machine operators and tenders	40	1.23	19.74	41,050
Etchers and engravers	40	1.79	19.55	40,660
Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders	480	1.84	22.12	46,000
Helpers--production workers	470	1.05	20.09	41,780
Production workers, all other	2,640	3.84	20.66	42,980
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Knoxville, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area, see data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0028940/2025. (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. (5) Estimate not released.