Workers in the Rocky Mount, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $22.84 in May 2022, 23 percent below the nationwide average of $29.76, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Victoria G. Lee noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were lower than their respective national averages in 21 of the 22 major occupational groups.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Rocky Mount area employment was more highly concentrated in 6 of the 22 occupational groups, including production, transportation and material moving, and sales and related. Thirteen groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including business and financial operations, computer and mathematical, and management. (See table A.)

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Rocky Mount had 5,690 jobs in production, accounting for 10.5 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 5.9-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $20.01, significantly below the national wage of $21.81.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators (930) and first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (480). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group was first-line supervisors of production and operating workers, with a mean hourly wage of $33.74. At the lower end of the wage scale were sewing machine operators ($13.08) and meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers ($14.01). (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_40580.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 Rocky Mount area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, bakers were employed at 4.4 times the national rate in Rocky Mount, and inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers, at 1.9 times the U.S. average. Metal and plastic cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders had a location quotient of 1.0, indicating that this particular occupation’s local and national employment shares were similar.

These statistics are from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, a federal-state cooperative program between BLS and State Workforce Agencies, 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. OEWS data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm.

The OEWS survey is a cooperative effort between BLS and the State Workforce Agencies (SWAs). BLS funds the survey and provides the procedures and technical support, while the State Workforce Agencies collect most of the data. OEWS estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.1 million establishments. Each year, two semiannual panels of approximately 179,000 to 187,000 sampled establishments are contacted, one panel in May and the other in November. Responses are obtained by Internet or other electronic means, mail, email, telephone, or personal visit. The May 2022 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2022, November 2021, May 2021, November 2020, May 2020, and November 2019. The unweighted sampled employment of 80 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 57 percent of total national employment. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 65.4 percent based on establishments and 62.5 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Rocky Mount, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area included 796 establishments with a response rate of 77 percent. For more information about OEWS concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_tec.htm.

A value that is statistically different from another does not necessarily mean that the difference has economic or practical significance. Statistical significance is concerned with the ability to make confident statements about a universe based on a sample. It is entirely possible that a large difference between two values is not significantly different statistically, while a small difference is, since both the size and heterogeneity of the sample affect the relative error of the data being tested.

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 Rocky Mount, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Edgecombe County and Nash County.

For more information

Answers to frequently asked questions about the OEWS data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_ques.htm. Detailed information about the OEWS program is available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_doc.htm.

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, Rocky Mount metropolitan area, May 2022

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages ($)
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Production occupations	5,690	1.8	20.01	41,620
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers	480	2.0	33.74	70,180
Electrical, electronic, and electromechanical assemblers, except coil winders, tapers, and finishers	260	2.6	20.14	41,890
Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators	930	1.8	16.34	33,980
Bakers	330	4.4	14.70	30,570
Butchers and meat cutters	70	1.5	16.50	34,310
Meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers	50	1.1	14.01	29,140
Food batchmakers	140	2.3	18.72	38,930
Food processing workers, all other	220	12.8	14.42	30,000
Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	70	1.0	16.95	35,260
Milling and planing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	50	8.3	(5)	(5)
Machinists	190	1.6	22.71	47,230
Tool and die makers	40	1.8	24.86	51,710
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers	290	2.0	23.00	47,840
Sewing machine operators	90	2.2	13.08	27,200
Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing	60	2.4	15.28	31,790
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators	60	1.4	20.81	43,270
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders	90	2.2	24.94	51,860
Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders	50	2.3	15.51	32,250
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	390	1.9	20.50	42,640
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders	310	2.3	21.81	45,360
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders	70	1.2	20.29	42,190
Molders, shapers, and casters, except metal and plastic	30	2.3	17.42	36,230
Helpers--production workers	110	1.6	14.91	31,020
Production workers, all other	220	2.3	18.79	39,080
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Rocky Mount, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_40580.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. (5) Estimate not released.