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News Release Information

23-1458-ATL
Friday, June 30, 2023

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

Occupational Employment and Wages in Johnson City — May 2022

Workers in the Johnson City, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $23.33 in May 2022, 22 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, Johnson City area employment was more highly concentrated in 7 of the 22 occupational groups, including office and administrative support, healthcare practitioners and technical, and food preparation and serving related. Fifteen groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including business and financial operations, transportation and material moving, and computer and mathematical. (See table A.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Johnson City metropolitan area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2022
Major occupational group Percent of total employment Mean hourly wage ($)
United States Johnson City United States Johnson City Percent difference (1)

Total, all occupations

100.0 100.0 29.76 23.33* -22

Management

6.7 5.2* 63.08 51.65* -18

Business and financial operations

6.5 4.1* 41.39 30.67* -26

Computer and mathematical

3.4 1.7* 51.99 36.57* -30

Architecture and engineering

1.7 1.2* 45.52 37.75* -17

Life, physical, and social science

0.9 0.7* 40.21 36.54* -9

Community and social service

1.6 1.7* 26.81 22.58* -16

Legal

0.8 0.2* 59.87 47.60* -20

Educational instruction and library

5.7 6.1* 30.41 26.79* -12

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.4 0.8* 36.78 25.06* -32

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.1 9.6* 46.52 39.12* -16

Healthcare support

4.6 4.4* 17.10 15.55* -9

Protective service

2.3 1.9* 25.97 21.27* -18

Food preparation and serving related

8.5 10.7* 15.45 12.21* -21

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.9 2.4* 17.26 14.83* -14

Personal care and service

1.9 1.5* 17.41 14.07* -19

Sales and related

8.9 9.1* 24.22 17.89* -26

Office and administrative support

12.6 17.8* 21.90 18.62* -15

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.3 0.1* 18.21 17.68 -3

Construction and extraction

4.1 2.7* 28.08 20.65* -26

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.9 3.5* 26.77 22.62* -16

Production

5.9 7.0* 21.81 19.79* -9

Transportation and material moving

9.2 7.5* 21.12 17.06* -19

Footnotes:
(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in the Johnson City, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area is above the national mean wage, while a negative difference reflects a lower wage.
* The mean hourly wage or percent share of employment 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. Johnson City had 14,360 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 17.8 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 12.6-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $18.62, significantly below the national wage of $21.90.

Among the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group was customer service representatives (3,850). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group was first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers, with a mean hourly wage of $28.42. At the lower end of the wage scale was hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($12.08). (Detailed data for the office and administrative support occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_27740.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 Johnson City area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, bill and account collectors were employed at 3.9 times the national rate in Johnson City, and customer service representatives, at 2.5 times the U.S. average. Receptionists and information clerks had a location quotient of 0.9 in Johnson City, 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 Tennessee Department of Labor & Workforce Development.

Changes to the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) Data

The May 2022 OEWS estimates use the model-based (MB3) estimation method implemented with the May 2021 estimates release. Additional updates were made to the MB3 wage processing methodology for May 2022. For more information, see the May 2022 Survey Methods and Reliability Statement.

The May 2022 estimates are the first OEWS estimates to be produced using the 2022 NAICS, which replaces the 2017 NAICS used for the May 2017-May 2021 estimates. See North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) at BLS for details.


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 Johnson City, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,068 establishments with a response rate of 54 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 Johnson City, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Carter County, Unicoi County, and Washington 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 office and administrative support occupations, Johnson City metropolitan area, May 2022
Occupation (1) Employment Mean wages ($)
Level (2) Location quotient (3) Hourly Annual (4)

Office and administrative support occupations

14,360 1.4 18.62 38,720

First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers

1,620 2.0 28.42 59,110

Switchboard operators, including answering service

50 1.8 14.96 31,110

Bill and account collectors

430 3.9 15.07 31,340

Billing and posting clerks

210 0.9 16.69 34,720

Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks

1,060 1.3 18.86 39,220

Payroll and timekeeping clerks

60 0.7 20.35 42,340

Procurement clerks

50 1.4 18.61 38,720

Tellers

260 1.4 15.26 31,750

Court, municipal, and license clerks

50 0.6 19.99 41,570

Customer service representatives

3,850 2.5 17.12 35,600

Eligibility interviewers, government programs

60 0.7 19.55 40,660

File clerks

60 1.2 16.73 34,800

Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks

90 0.6 12.08 25,130

Interviewers, except eligibility and loan

30 0.4 15.97 33,220

Loan interviewers and clerks

150 1.1 17.24 35,850

Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping

70 1.2 18.85 39,210

Receptionists and information clerks

490 0.9 14.28 29,700

Information and record clerks, all other

110 1.3 20.43 42,490

Couriers and messengers

50 1.2 14.74 30,660

Public safety telecommunicators

80 1.6 16.17 33,640

Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance

70 0.6 16.17 33,640

Postal service clerks

40 1.0 29.09 60,520

Postal service mail carriers

240 1.4 26.22 54,530

Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators

50 0.8 26.73 55,600

Production, planning, and expediting clerks

290 1.4 21.75 45,240

Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks

310 0.7 17.67 36,760

Legal secretaries and administrative assistants

100 1.2 18.26 37,980

Medical secretaries and administrative assistants

450 1.2 16.12 33,540

Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive

1,050 1.1 18.20 37,860

Data entry keyers

100 1.2 15.11 31,430

Insurance claims and policy processing clerks

200 1.6 17.09 35,540

Office clerks, general

1,620 1.2 16.27 33,830

Office and administrative support workers, all other

550 5.8 15.23 31,680

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Johnson City, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_27740.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.

 

Last Modified Date: Friday, June 30, 2023