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News Release Information

17-668-ATL
Tuesday, May 23, 2017

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

Occupational Employment and Wages in Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin – May 2016

Workers in the Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $22.01 in May 2016, about 8 percent below the nationwide average of $23.86, 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 lower than their respective national averages in 16 of the 22 major occupational groups including, construction and extraction; management; and computer and mathematical. One group—farming, fishing, and forestry—had a significantly higher wage than its respective national average.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 6 of the 22 occupational groups, including transportation and material moving; management; and office and administrative support. Conversely, 12 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including education, training, and library; construction and extraction; and personal care and service. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin Metropolitan Statistical Area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2016
Major occupational groupPercent of total employmentMean hourly wage
United StatesNashvilleUnited StatesNashvillePercent difference (1)

Total, all occupations

100.0100.0$23.86$22.01*-8

Management

5.16.6*56.7448.37*-15

Business and financial operations

5.25.036.0932.25*-11

Computer and mathematical

3.02.6*42.2536.27*-14

Architecture and engineering

1.81.4*40.5335.18*-13

Life, physical, and social science

0.80.5*35.0629.59*-16

Community and social service

1.41.0*22.6920.17*-11

Legal

0.80.6*50.9547.85-6

Education, training, and library

6.24.8*26.2123.44*-11

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.41.5*28.0727.58-2

Healthcare practitioners and technical

5.96.338.0633.80*-11

Healthcare support

2.92.4*14.6513.95*-5

Protective service

2.42.1*22.0317.91*-19

Food preparation and serving related

9.29.411.4710.40*-9

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

3.22.6*13.4712.19*-10

Personal care and service

3.22.4*12.7411.95*-6

Sales and related

10.410.119.5018.67*-4

Office and administrative support

15.717.1*17.9117.70-1

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.3(2)*13.3714.85*11

Construction and extraction

4.03.1*23.5120.04*-15

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.94.3*22.4522.11-2

Production

6.57.7*17.8817.12-4

Transportation and material moving

6.98.5*17.3416.30*-6

Footnotes:
(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in the Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin Metropolitan Statistical Area is above the national mean wage, while a negative difference reflects a lower wage.
(2) Indicates a value of less than 0.05 percent
* 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—transportation and material moving—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin had 77,710 jobs in transportation and material moving, accounting for 8.5 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 6.9-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $16.30, significantly below the national wage of $17.34.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the transportation and material moving group included hand laborers and freight, stock, and material movers (25,310), heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers (16,160), and hand packers and packagers (6,790). Among the higher paying jobs were air traffic controllers and first-line supervisors of transportation and material-moving machine and vehicle operators, with mean hourly wages of $58.92 and $26.03, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were parking lot attendants ($9.91) and cleaners of vehicles and equipment ($11.80). (Detailed occupational data for transportation and material moving are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_34980.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 Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin Metropolitan Statistical Area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the transportation and material moving group. For instance, first-line supervisors of hand helpers, laborers, and material movers were employed at 1.8 times the national rate in Nashville, and conveyor operators and tenders, at 1.7 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, transit and intercity bus drivers had a location quotient of 1.0 in Nashville, 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 on Occupational Employment Statistics Data

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. The OES data available from BLS include cross-industry occupational employment and wage estimates for the nation; over 650 areas, including states and the District of Columbia, metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), metropolitan divisions, nonmetropolitan areas, and territories; national industry-specific estimates at the NAICS sector, 3-, 4-, and selected 5- and 6-digit industry levels, and national estimates by ownership across all industries and for schools and hospitals. OES data are available at https://www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm.

OES estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.2 million establishments. Each year, two semiannual panels of approximately 200,000 sampled establishments are contacted, one panel in May and the other in November. Responses are obtained by mail, Internet or other electronic means, email, telephone, or personal visit. The May 2016 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2016, November 2015, May 2015, November 2014, May 2014, and November 2013. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 73 percent based on establishments and 69 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The unweighted employment of sampled establishments across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 58 percent of total national employment. The sample in the Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin Metropolitan Statistical Area included 5,011 establishments with a response rate of 63 percent. For more information about OES concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.tn.htm.

The May 2016 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.

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, Tenn. Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Cannon, Cheatham, Davidson, Dickson, Hickman, Macon, Maury, Robertson, Rutherford, Smith, Sumner, Trousdale, Williamson, and Wilson 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/current/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, Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2016
Occupation (1)EmploymentMean wages
Level (2)Location quotient (3)HourlyAnnual (4)

Transportation and material moving occupations

77,7101.2$16.30$33,910

Aircraft cargo handling supervisors

601.322.5246,850

First-line supervisors of helpers, laborers, and material movers, hand

2,1501.822.8547,520

First-line supervisors of transportation and material-moving machine and vehicle operators

1,7001.326.0354,150

Airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers

700.1(5)95,870

Commercial pilots

1500.6(5)55,840

Air traffic controllers

700.558.92122,550

Bus drivers, transit and intercity

1,1301.016.5534,430

Bus drivers, school or special client

2,6200.814.7130,610

Driver/sales workers

1,5500.617.1835,740

Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers

16,1601.521.4044,510

Light truck or delivery services drivers

5,8801.116.4934,290

Taxi drivers and chauffeurs

8100.716.3634,020

Motor vehicle operators, all other

2100.617.4536,300

Captains, mates, and pilots of water vessels

(5)(5)27.4457,070

Ship engineers

(5)(5)34.0070,720

Parking lot attendants

1,4501.59.9120,620

Automotive and watercraft service attendants

9101.312.0425,040

Traffic technicians

1503.522.5146,820

Transportation workers, all other

1400.612.8326,690

Conveyor operators and tenders

3101.716.1133,500

Crane and tower operators

1500.521.2744,240

Excavating and loading machine and dragline operators

3401.118.2738,000

Industrial truck and tractor operators

4,6601.315.4332,100

Cleaners of vehicles and equipment

1,6200.711.8024,550

Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand

25,3101.513.5028,070

Machine feeders and offbearers

5601.012.3725,730

Packers and packagers, hand

6,7901.511.7424,420

Refuse and recyclable material collectors

6900.912.9426,900

Material moving workers, all other

(5)(5)15.7932,830

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_34980.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: Tuesday, May 23, 2017