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News Release Information

15-974-ATL
Thursday, June 11, 2015

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

Occupational Employment and Wages in Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill – May 2014

Workers in the Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $23.22 in May 2014, about 2 percent above the nationwide average of $22.71, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Regional Commissioner Janet S. Rankin noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were higher than their respective national averages in 4 of the 22 major occupational groups, including sales and related; and business and financial operations. Nine groups had significantly lower wages than their respective national averages, including construction and extraction; education, training, and library; and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 6 of the 22 occupational groups, including sales and related; business and financial operations; and transportation and material moving. Conversely, 13 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including education, training, and library; personal care and service; and healthcare practitioners and technical. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill Metropolitan Statistical Area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2014
Major occupational groupPercent of total employmentMean hourly wage
United StatesCharlotteUnited StatesCharlottePercent difference (1)

Total, all occupations

100.0%100.0%$22.71$23.22*2

Management

5.05.6*54.0860.21*11

Business and financial operations

5.16.5*34.8136.59*5

Computer and mathematical

2.83.8*40.3740.601

Architecture and engineering

1.81.5*39.1936.09*-8

Life, physical, and social science

0.80.4*33.6930.98*-8

Community and social services

1.41.1*21.7921.20-3

Legal

0.80.848.6144.57-8

Education, training, and library

6.25.0*25.1020.64*-18

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.31.2*26.8223.87*-11

Healthcare practitioner and technical

5.85.2*36.5436.891

Healthcare support

2.92.5*13.8612.40*-11

Protective service

2.42.8*21.1417.07*-19

Food preparation and serving related

9.18.8*10.5710.24*-3

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

3.22.6*12.6811.12*-12

Personal care and service

3.12.4*12.0111.68-3

Sales and related

10.512.2*18.5921.17*14

Office and administrative support

16.016.117.0817.120

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.30.1*12.0913.82*14

Construction and extraction

3.93.3*22.4018.11*-19

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.93.921.7421.650

Production

6.66.3*17.0616.88-1

Transportation and material moving

6.87.8*16.5716.922

Footnotes:
(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in Charlotte is above the national mean wage, while a negative difference reflects a lower wage.
* The percent share of employment or mean hourly wage for this area is significantly different from the national average of all areas at the 90-percent confidence level.

One occupational group—business and financial operations—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill had 58,980 jobs in business and financial operations, accounting for 6.5 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 5.1-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $36.59, significantly above the national wage of $34.81.

Some of the largest detailed occupations within the business and financial operations group included accountants and auditors (10,310), management analysts (4,740), and loan officers (4,580). Among the higher paying jobs were personal financial advisors and financial analysts, with mean hourly wages of $54.25 and $45.71, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were meeting, convention, and event planners ($24.19) and credit counselors ($25.04). (Detailed occupational data for business and financial operations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/2014/may/oes_16740.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 Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill Metropolitan Statistical Area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the business and financial operations group. For instance, credit analysts were employed at 3.2 times the national rate in Charlotte, and financial analysts, at 2.3 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, claims adjusters, examiners, and investigators had a location quotient of 1.0 in Charlotte, indicating that this particular occupation’s local and national employment shares were similar.

These statistics are from the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey, a federal-state cooperative program between BLS and State Workforce Agencies, in this case, the North Carolina Department of Commerce.

Note

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.


Technical Note

The Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey is a semiannual mail survey measuring occupational employment and wage rates for wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments in the United States. Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands are also surveyed, but their data are not included in the national estimates. OES estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.2 million establishments. Forms are mailed to approximately 200,000 sampled establishments in May and November each year. May 2014 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2014, November 2013, May 2013, November 2012, May 2012, and November 2011. The overall national response rate for the six panels is 74.3 percent based on establishments and 70.5 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The unweighted employment of sampled establishments across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 57.1 percent of total national employment. (Response rates are slightly lower for these estimates due to the federal shutdown in October 2013.) The sample in the Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill Metropolitan Statistical Area included 6,009 establishments with a response rate of 82 percent. For more information about OES concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.tn.htm.

The OES survey provides estimates of employment and hourly and annual wages for wage and salary workers in 22 major occupational groups and 821 detailed occupations for the nation, states, metropolitan statistical areas, metropolitan divisions, and nonmetropolitan areas. In addition, employment and wage estimates for 94 minor groups and 458 broad occupations are available in the national data. OES data by state and metropolitan/nonmetropolitan area are available from www.bls.gov/oes/current/oessrcst.htm and www.bls.gov/oes/current/oessrcma.htm, respectively.

The May 2014 OES estimates are based on the 2010 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system and the 2012 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). Information about the 2010 SOC is available on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/soc and information about the 2012 NAICS is available at www.bls.gov/bls/naics.htm.

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 Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill, N.C. Metropolitan Statistical Area  includes Anson, Cabarrus, Gaston, Mecklenburg, and Union Counties of North Carolina, and York County of South Carolina.

Additional information

OES data are available on our regional web page at www.bls.gov/regions/southeast. Answers to frequently asked questions about the OES data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_ques.htm. Detailed technical information about the OES survey is available in our Survey Methods and Reliability Statement on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/oes/2014/may/methods_statement.pdf.

Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: 202-691-5200; Federal Relay Service: 800-877-8339.

Table 1. Employment and wage data from the Occupational Employment Statistics survey, by occupation, Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2014
Occupation (1)EmploymentMean wages
Level (2)Location quotient (3)HourlyAnnual (4)

Business and Financial Operations Occupations

58,9801.3$36.59$76,100

Agents and Business Managers of Artists, Performers, and Athletes

1501.931.0264,510

Buyers and Purchasing Agents, Farm Products

1001.426.7255,570

Wholesale and Retail Buyers, Except Farm Products

7901.128.1058,440

Purchasing Agents, Except Wholesale, Retail, and Farm Products

1,7000.929.5461,440

Claims Adjusters, Examiners, and Investigators

1,8301.032.2167,000

Insurance Appraisers, Auto Damage

800.826.3954,880

Compliance Officers

1,4400.931.8566,250

Cost Estimators

1,4501.029.9262,240

Human Resources Specialists

3,9401.330.0062,410

Labor Relations Specialists

2400.526.3554,810

Logisticians

6700.832.5467,690

Management Analysts

4,7401.243.2790,010

Meeting, Convention, and Event Planners

4400.824.1950,320

Fundraisers

2600.725.5753,180

Compensation, Benefits, and Job Analysis Specialists

5601.032.4367,460

Training and Development Specialists

1,9201.231.1464,780

Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists

4,0101.333.7070,100

Business Operations Specialists, All Other

6,6701.134.8472,460

Accountants and Auditors

10,3101.336.7276,390

Appraisers and Assessors of Real Estate

5301.229.0660,440

Budget Analysts

1300.333.7370,150

Credit Analysts

1,4803.245.1793,950

Financial Analysts

4,0002.345.7195,080

Personal Financial Advisors

2,5401.954.25112,840

Insurance Underwriters

1,3502.242.6988,790

Financial Examiners

8903.642.8089,030

Credit Counselors

1700.825.0452,090

Loan Officers

4,5802.334.5471,850

Tax Examiners and Collectors, and Revenue Agents

2700.627.5557,300

Tax Preparers

5201.126.1854,460

Financial Specialists, All Other

1,2501.339.4482,040

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill, NC-SC, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_16740.htm.
(2) Estimates for detailed occupations do not sum to the totals because the totals include occupations 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.
 

 

Last Modified Date: Thursday, June 11, 2015