Workers in the Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $31.92 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 ($68.28), legal ($58.73), and healthcare practitioners and technical ($51.66). Lower paying occupational groups included food preparation and serving related ($16.55), personal care and service ($18.48), and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($18.55). (See table A.)

Office and administrative support occupations accounted for 13.0 percent of Nashville area employment, followed by transportation and material moving occupations (10.8 percent) and food preparation and serving related occupations (9.4 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included life, physical, and social science as well as legal (0.7 percent each).

One occupational group—transportation and material moving—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Nashville had 118,420 jobs in transportation and material moving, accounting for 10.8 percent of local area employment, compared to the 8.8-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $22.99, compared to the national wage of $23.96.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the transportation and material moving group included laborers and hand freight, stock, and material movers (33,120); stockers and order fillers (20,090); and heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers (18,860). Among the higher paying jobs in this group were air traffic controllers ($69.98) and transportation inspectors ($45.58). At the lower end of the wage scale were passenger attendants ($14.19) and parking attendants ($14.59). (Detailed data for the transportation and material moving occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0034980/2025.)

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 Nashville area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the transportation and material moving group. For instance, light truck drivers were employed at 1.72 times the national rate in Nashville, and laborers and hand freight, stock, and material movers, at 1.59 times the U.S. average. Stockers and order fillers had a location quotient of 1.00 in Nashville, 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 Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Cannon County, Cheatham County, Davidson County, Dickson County, Hickman County, Macon County, Maury County, Robertson County, Rutherford County, Smith County, Sumner County, Trousdale County, Williamson County, and Wilson 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 transportation and material moving occupations, Nashville metropolitan area, May 2025

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages ($)
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Transportation and material moving occupations	118,420	1.22	22.99	47,820
Aircraft cargo handling supervisors	80	1.18	32.52	67,640
First-line supervisors of transportation and material moving workers, except aircraft cargo handling supervisors	5,600	1.27	32.77	68,160
Airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers	60	0.08	(5)	146,760
Commercial pilots	370	1.10	(5)	137,480
Air traffic controllers	60	0.37	69.98	145,560
Ambulance drivers and attendants, except emergency medical technicians	50	0.55	19.28	40,110
Driver/sales workers	3,450	1.19	20.16	41,920
Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers	18,860	1.29	30.00	62,410
Light truck drivers	11,940	1.72	23.75	49,390
Bus drivers, school	1,880	0.66	23.51	48,890
Bus drivers, transit and intercity	1,160	1.03	26.52	55,170
Shuttle drivers and chauffeurs	890	0.51	18.19	37,840
Motor vehicle operators, all other	970	2.91	17.76	36,940
Rail transportation workers, all other	60	7.69	24.90	51,780
Sailors and marine oilers	620	2.77	29.39	61,120
Motorboat operators	40	2.47	21.88	45,510
Parking attendants	1,930	1.98	14.59	30,340
Automotive and watercraft service attendants	920	1.28	16.91	35,180
Aircraft service attendants	110	0.51	20.90	43,460
Traffic technicians	(6)	(6)	25.11	52,230
Transportation inspectors	130	0.76	45.58	94,810
Passenger attendants	(6)	(6)	14.19	29,510
Transportation workers, all other	430	4.46	21.22	44,140
Conveyor operators and tenders	120	0.75	20.78	43,230
Crane and tower operators	210	0.71	32.91	68,450
Industrial truck and tractor operators	6,000	1.10	21.99	45,740
Cleaners of vehicles and equipment	2,790	1.04	18.13	37,710
Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand	33,120	1.59	19.92	41,440
Machine feeders and offbearers	80	0.27	20.07	41,740
Packers and packagers, hand	4,350	1.10	17.36	36,120
Stockers and order fillers	20,090	1.00	18.92	39,350
Pump operators, except wellhead pumpers	30	0.46	24.52	51,010
Refuse and recyclable material collectors	520	0.50	24.57	51,110
Material moving workers, all other	220	1.32	19.79	41,170
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area, see data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0034980/2025. (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) 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. (6) Estimate not released.