North Carolina·Production Occupations·SOC 51-1011

Best First-Line Supervisors of Production programs in North Carolina, ranked by enrollment

Directly supervise and coordinate the activities of production and operating workers, such as inspectors, precision workers, machine setters and operators, assemblers, fabricators, and plant and system operators.

2 schools in North Carolina run programs that feed this job, graduating 85 people a year. The job pays a median of $69,640 in North Carolina across about 22,240 jobs (BLS OEWS May 2025).

Also calledProduction ManagerAssembly SupervisorProduction SupervisorManufacturing SupervisorWoods BossBeater BossTipple BossBreaker Boss
Graduates / yr
85
in North Carolina
Median pay · North Carolina
$69,640
BLS OEWS May 2025
Jobs in state
22,240
people employed
Schools
2
with a feeder program
Avg graduation rate
52%
across those schools
Median net price
per year, IPEDS

Fields of study in North Carolina that lead to this job

Grouped at the 4-digit CIP level. Numbers are graduates per year in this state.

1 programs in North Carolina that lead to this job

Ranked by graduates per year in North Carolina (IPEDS completions). Graduate earnings and debt are national College Scorecard figures reported at the 4-digit CIP level, so specializations within one field share a figure. Each program also links to its own North Carolina page.

Degree programs that lead to this occupation, ranked by graduates per year
#ProgramGraduates / yrShare of pipelineSchoolsGrad earnings (1 yr)Median debt
185
100.0%
2$43,506$25,000

Top 2 schools in North Carolina

Ranked by graduates per year into this job. Graduate earnings are reported for 2 of the 2 schools in this state.

Schools ranked by graduates per year into this occupation
#SchoolGraduates / yrTop feeder programGrad earnings (1 yr)Grad rateNet priceAcceptance
1University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Charlotte, NC Public · 1 feeder programs
56Operations Management and Supervision$46,27269%80%
2Pitt Community College
Winterville, NC Public · 1 feeder programs
29Operations Management and Supervision$35,48535%

All 2 schools in North Carolina

Every school in North Carolina with a program that feeds this job, ordered by graduates per year. Earnings are shown for the ranked schools above; open a school profile for the rest.

All schools in North Carolina that feed this occupation
SchoolCityControlGraduates / yrFeeder programs
University of North Carolina at CharlotteCharlottePublic561
Pitt Community CollegeWintervillePublic291

What first-line supervisors of production and operating workers earn in North Carolina

What people already working in this job earn (BLS OEWS May 2025). Not graduate earnings.

Median annual in North Carolina
$69,640
Mean annual
$72,480
Jobs in state
22,240
What the range looks like
10th pct$45,960Median$69,64090th pct$101,030
Versus the national median
-6.5%

U.S. median $74,450. North Carolina pays below the national figure.

Job concentration
1.04×

1.00× means the state has its expected share of these jobs.

Metro areas in North Carolina

Greenville, NC
$84,260median
300 jobs
Durham-Chapel Hill, NC
$77,930median
980 jobs
Wilmington, NC
$72,310median
590 jobs
Raleigh-Cary, NC
$75,230median
1,680 jobs
Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC
$74,080median
5,910 jobs
Rocky Mount, NC
$76,430median
450 jobs
Asheville, NC
$70,470median
840 jobs
Winston-Salem, NC
$68,670median
1,710 jobs

Job outlook

Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.

Projected growth 2024–34
+1.2%
Little or no change
Openings per year
67,700
new jobs plus replacements
Employment change
8,300
698,600 → 706,900
Typical entry education
High school diploma or equivalent

Growth and openings are national. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish employment projections at state level, so these figures describe the occupation across the whole U.S., not this state alone.

How to get in

The full skills, tools, and day-to-day breakdown lives on the national First-Line Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers page.

How to become a First-Line Supervisors of Production

Job zone 3 of 5 · SVP 6.0 to < 7.0
Typical entry education
High school diploma or equivalent
Work experience needed
Less than 5 years

Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.

Previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is required for these occupations. For example, an electrician must have completed three or four years of apprenticeship or several years of vocational training, and often must have passed a licensing exam, in order to perform the job.

Employees in these occupations usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.

Top skills

Active ListeningSpeakingMonitoringCritical ThinkingReading ComprehensionWriting

The same job in other states

Where else this occupation employs the most people, and what it pays there.

Related careers in North Carolina

Every major mapped to this job

The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.

All 1 majors mapped to First-Line Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers1 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
  • 52.0205Operations Management and Supervision

Common questions

Answers for people weighing first-line supervisors of production and operating workers programs in North Carolina.

What degree do you need to become a First-Line Supervisors of Production?+

High school diploma or equivalent is the typical entry-level education BLS reports for this occupation. The most common program people actually graduate from is Operations Management and Supervision, which awarded 85 degrees in North Carolina in 2024-25, 100.0% of everyone graduating from a program that feeds this career.

Which college majors lead to becoming a First-Line Supervisors of Production?+

The NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 1 programs to this occupation. The largest are Business Administration. Together they graduate about 85 people a year in North Carolina.

How much do first-line supervisors of production and operating workers earn in North Carolina?+

The median is $69,640 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). That is 6.5% below the U.S. median of $74,450. This is pay for people already working in the occupation, not the same thing as graduate earnings one year after finishing a degree.

Is demand for first-line supervisors of production and operating workers growing?+

BLS projects a +1.2% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, little or no change, with roughly 67,700 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.

How many schools offer programs for this career in North Carolina?+

2 institutions in North Carolina reported graduates from at least one of the 1 programs that feed this occupation in IPEDS 2024-25. Rankings on this page use graduates per year, because the federal data publishes no enrollment count by program.

What other job titles do first-line supervisors of production and operating workers work under?+

Employers advertise this work under many names. O*NET records Production Manager, Assembly Supervisor, Production Supervisor, Manufacturing Supervisor among the most commonly reported, all mapping to SOC 51-1011.

First-Line Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers in other statesFloridaIndianaNew HampshireOhioArizonaWisconsinTexasWashington
Programs in North CarolinaOperations Management and Supervision

About the data on this page

Rankings use IPEDS completions 2024–25, degrees awarded per year. That is the closest federal measure of how many people a program puts into a career, because no federal dataset publishes enrollment by program. Wages and employment come from BLS OEWS May 2025, growth and openings from BLS Employment Projections 2024-34, and which majors lead to which jobs from the NCES CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk. Occupation descriptions, tasks, skills and tools are O*NET 30.3 (CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor/ETA).

  • BLS Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics

    May 2025

    Wages, employment counts, location quotients and metro breakdowns.

  • BLS Employment Projections

    2024–34

    Projected growth, annual openings and typical entry-level education.

  • IPEDS Completions

    2024-25 (provisional)

    Graduates per year by program and institution — the ranking metric.

  • College Scorecard, Field of Study

    2020-21 cohorts

    Median graduate earnings one year after completion, and median debt.

  • Census Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes

    latest available

    Graduate earnings 1/5/10 years out, where the state participates.

  • NCES CIP 2020 and the CIP-to-SOC 2018 crosswalk

    CIP 2020 / SOC 2018

    Which college programs officially lead to this occupation.

  • O*NET Database 30.3

    30.3

    Tasks, skills, knowledge, tools, job zone and alternate job titles.

    Official source →CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor / ETA

All Clema data sources and release dates →

Explore every U.S. college in one conversation

Clema turns plain-language questions into sourced answers across every U.S. institution — earnings, aid, acceptance, graduation, safety, and athletics from IPEDS, College Scorecard, and 10+ federal datasets, built in.

Free for teams up to 3 · No credit card