Workers in the Greenville-Anderson-Mauldin, SC Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $23.25 in May 2021, about 17 percent below the nationwide average of $28.01, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. 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 21 of the 22 major occupational groups.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Greenville area employment was more highly concentrated in 7 of the 22 occupational groups, including production, food preparation and serving related, and architecture and engineering. 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. Greenville had 42,150 jobs in production, accounting for 10.7 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 6.0-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $19.24, significantly below the national wage of $20.71.

Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators (10,050) was among the larger detailed occupations within the production group. Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers and also gas plant operators, with mean hourly wages of $31.99 and $29.27, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were textile, garment, and related materials pressers ($11.96) and laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($12.17). (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_24860.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 Greenville area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, textile knitting and weaving machine setters, operators, and tenders were employed at 17.4 times the national rate in Greenville, and textile cutting machine setters, operators, and tenders, at 11.9 times the U.S. average. Butchers and meat cutters had a location quotient of 1.0 in Greenville, 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 South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce.

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 2021 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2021, November 2020, May 2020, November 2019, May 2019, and November 2018. The unweighted sampled employment of 82 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 62 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 67.2 percent based on establishments and 64.5 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Greenville-Anderson-Mauldin, SC Metropolitan Statistical Area included 2,936 establishments with a response rate of 66 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 Greenville-Anderson-Mauldin, SC Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Anderson County, Greenville County, Laurens County, and Pickens 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, Greenville metropolitan area, May 2021

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Production occupations	42,150	1.8	$19.24	$40,010
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers	2,950	1.7	31.99	66,540
Electrical, electronic, and electromechanical assemblers, except coil winders, tapers, and finishers	960	1.3	16.74	34,820
Structural metal fabricators and fitters	170	1.0	19.20	39,940
Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators	10,050	2.7	17.06	35,490
Bakers	600	1.2	14.07	29,260
Butchers and meat cutters	390	1.0	16.31	33,920
Meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers	190	0.5	14.38	29,900
Food batchmakers	190	0.4	13.73	28,560
Food processing workers, all other	70	0.5	17.75	36,920
Extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	670	4.1	22.13	46,030
Rolling machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	280	3.2	27.45	57,100
Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	640	1.3	18.74	38,980
Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	110	0.6	20.43	42,490
Machinists	4,340	4.7	18.16	37,770
Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	960	2.1	17.17	35,700
Multiple machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	1,100	2.9	25.23	52,470
Tool and die makers	350	2.0	27.66	57,540
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers	1,480	1.3	20.74	43,140
Heat treating equipment setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	140	3.5	18.71	38,910
Plating machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	120	1.3	18.06	37,570
Prepress technicians and workers	80	1.1	19.87	41,330
Printing press operators	430	1.1	18.34	38,140
Print binding and finishing workers	120	1.1	18.50	38,480
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers	340	0.8	12.17	25,320
Pressers, textile, garment, and related materials	30	0.4	11.96	24,880
Sewing machine operators	660	2.0	15.54	32,320
Textile bleaching and dyeing machine operators and tenders	190	11.2	14.94	31,070
Textile cutting machine setters, operators, and tenders	400	11.9	16.64	34,600
Textile knitting and weaving machine setters, operators, and tenders	790	17.4	16.74	34,830
Textile winding, twisting, and drawing out machine setters, operators, and tenders	340	5.5	15.86	32,990
Extruding and forming machine setters, operators, and tenders, synthetic and glass fibers	200	5.0	18.86	39,220
Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters	240	0.9	17.72	36,860
Sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood	80	0.7	14.48	30,120
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators	260	0.8	21.03	43,750
Gas plant operators	90	2.0	29.27	60,890
Chemical equipment operators and tenders	590	2.0	21.25	44,190
Separating, filtering, clarifying, precipitating, and still machine setters, operators, and tenders	80	0.6	17.89	37,220
Crushing, grinding, and polishing machine setters, operators, and tenders	140	1.6	15.17	31,550
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders	1,120	3.7	22.98	47,790
Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders	130	0.8	16.55	34,420
Extruding, forming, pressing, and compacting machine setters, operators, and tenders	250	1.6	17.63	36,660
Furnace, kiln, oven, drier, and kettle operators and tenders	60	1.6	20.89	43,460
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	3,190	2.1	18.48	38,430
Dental laboratory technicians	50	0.5	20.37	42,380
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders	1,110	1.1	16.47	34,260
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders	890	2.2	16.50	34,330
Computer numerically controlled tool operators	290	0.7	21.91	45,580
Adhesive bonding machine operators and tenders	50	1.6	17.97	37,380
Molders, shapers, and casters, except metal and plastic	160	1.5	17.70	36,810
Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders	290	1.2	19.74	41,060
Helpers--production workers	1,640	2.9	14.13	29,380
Production workers, all other	320	0.6	18.02	37,490
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Greenville-Anderson-Mauldin, SC Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_24860.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.