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News Release Information

15-842-ATL
Friday, May 29, 2015

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

Occupational Employment and Wages in Knoxville – May 2014

Workers in the Knoxville Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $19.92 in May 2014, about 12 percent below 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 1 of the 22 major occupational groups. Nineteen groups had significantly lower wages than their respective national averages, including management; computer and mathematical; and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 8 of the 22 occupational groups, including office and administrative support; healthcare practitioners and technical; and production. Conversely, 12 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including business and financial operations; education, training, and library; and computer and mathematical. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Knoxville Metropolitan Statistical Area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2014
Major occupational groupPercent of total employmentMean hourly wage
United StatesKnoxvilleUnited StatesKnoxvillePercent difference (1)

Total, all occupations

100.0%100.0%$22.71$19.92*-12

Management

5.05.8*54.0845.15*-17

Business and financial operations

5.13.7*34.8130.31*-13

Computer and mathematical

2.82.0*40.3732.57*-19

Architecture and engineering

1.81.9*39.1939.411

Life, physical, and social science

0.80.7*33.6932.70-3

Community and social services

1.41.1*21.7917.57*-19

Legal

0.80.6*48.6143.32*-11

Education, training, and library

6.24.9*25.1022.28*-11

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.31.0*26.8221.29*-21

Healthcare practitioner and technical

5.86.9*36.5432.39*-11

Healthcare support

2.92.5*13.8613.14*-5

Protective service

2.41.9*21.1417.23*-18

Food preparation and serving related

9.19.7*10.579.40*-11

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

3.23.9*12.6811.50*-9

Personal care and service

3.13.112.0110.94*-9

Sales and related

10.510.0*18.5916.03*-14

Office and administrative support

16.017.8*17.0815.52*-9

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.30.1*12.0915.97*32

Construction and extraction

3.93.4*22.4018.83*-16

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.94.6*21.7419.70*-9

Production

6.67.4*17.0616.13*-5

Transportation and material moving

6.87.116.5715.60*-6

Footnotes:
(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in Knoxville 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—office and administrative support—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Knoxville had 58,800 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 17.8 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 16.0-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $15.52, significantly below the national wage of $17.08.

Some of the largest detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included customer service representatives (7,660), office clerks, general (7,370), and stock clerks and order fillers (6,100). Among the higher paying jobs were production, planning, and expediting clerks and postal service mail carriers, with mean hourly wages of $31.58 and $24.70, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($9.28) and stock clerks and order fillers ($11.06). (Detailed occupational data for office and administrative support are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/2014/may/oes_28940.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 Knoxville Metropolitan Statistical Area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, recordkeeping weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers were employed at 2.9 times the national rate in Knoxville, and order clerks at 2.2 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, shipping, receiving, and traffic clerks had a location quotient of 1.0 in Knoxville, 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 Tennessee Department of Labor & Workforce Development.

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 Knoxville Metropolitan Statistical Area included 2,852 establishments with a response rate of 69 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 Knoxville, Tenn. Metropolitan Statistical Area  includes Anderson, Blount, Knox, Loudon, and Union Counties.

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, Knoxville Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2014
Occupation (1)EmploymentMean wages
Level (2)Location quotient (3)HourlyAnnual (4)

Office and Administrative Support Occupations

58,8001.1$15.52$32,290

First-Line Supervisors of Office and Administrative Support Workers

3,7101.124.0349,980

Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service

4001.511.7124,360

Bill and Account Collectors

2,5203.013.2527,570

Billing and Posting Clerks

1,5201.314.7930,770

Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks

4,5801.216.4934,290

Payroll and Timekeeping Clerks

4101.018.7438,980

Procurement Clerks

1400.816.8034,950

Tellers

9800.812.4625,930

Financial Clerks, All Other

800.817.5036,400

Brokerage Clerks

1401.022.3146,410

Court, Municipal, and License Clerks

5601.817.1035,580

Credit Authorizers, Checkers, and Clerks

900.816.7434,820

Customer Service Representatives

7,6601.313.8128,720

Eligibility Interviewers, Government Programs

2300.815.9833,240

File Clerks

4101.112.1525,260

Hotel, Motel, and Resort Desk Clerks

7501.39.2819,290

Interviewers, Except Eligibility and Loan

7801.712.6226,250

Library Assistants, Clerical

1600.612.8526,730

Loan Interviewers and Clerks

5401.116.4634,240

New Accounts Clerks

700.517.7836,980

Order Clerks

1,0402.212.2525,470

Human Resources Assistants, Except Payroll and Timekeeping

4301.315.7232,690

Receptionists and Information Clerks

2,1400.912.9626,960

Reservation and Transportation Ticket Agents and Travel Clerks

(5)(5)14.5330,210

Information and Record Clerks, All Other

3000.718.5738,630

Cargo and Freight Agents

500.316.9335,220

Couriers and Messengers

1000.611.7524,440

Police, Fire, and Ambulance Dispatchers

1700.714.2429,620

Dispatchers, Except Police, Fire, and Ambulance

6001.320.7243,100

Meter Readers, Utilities

901.0(5)(5)

Postal Service Clerks

1300.723.2948,430

Postal Service Mail Carriers

6400.924.7051,380

Postal Service Mail Sorters, Processors, and Processing Machine Operators

3301.124.2850,500

Production, Planning, and Expediting Clerks

1,2901.831.5865,690

Shipping, Receiving, and Traffic Clerks

1,6801.013.7828,670

Stock Clerks and Order Fillers

6,1001.311.0623,000

Weighers, Measurers, Checkers, and Samplers, Recordkeeping

5002.917.0935,540

Executive Secretaries and Executive Administrative Assistants

1,4700.821.7645,260

Legal Secretaries

4500.919.3540,240

Medical Secretaries

6700.514.0029,110

Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive

5,9801.115.0931,390

Computer Operators

2501.819.4440,430

Data Entry Keyers

3700.712.6926,390

Insurance Claims and Policy Processing Clerks

2000.316.8535,040

Mail Clerks and Mail Machine Operators, Except Postal Service

800.312.9726,980

Office Clerks, General

7,3701.014.1829,500

Office Machine Operators, Except Computer

1500.911.5424,010

Office and Administrative Support Workers, All Other

3200.614.1629,460

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in Knoxville, TN, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_28940.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.
(5) Estimate not released.
 

 

Last Modified Date: Friday, May 29, 2015