Workers in the Tucson, AZ Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $23.61 in May 2019, about 8 percent below the nationwide average of $25.72, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Assistant Commissioner for Regional Operations Richard Holden noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were higher than their respective national averages in 2 of the 22 major occupational groups: food preparation and serving related, and personal care and service. Fourteen groups had significantly lower wages than their respective national averages, including management; legal; and life, physical, and social science.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Tucson area employment was more highly concentrated in 9 of the 22 occupational groups, including office and administrative support, food preparation and serving related, and architecture and engineering. Conversely, five groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including production, transportation and material moving, and business and financial operations. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

One occupational group—office and administrative support—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Tucson had 56,640 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 15.0 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 13.3-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $17.87, significantly below the national wage of $19.73.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included customer service representatives (13,470), general office clerks (7,730), and secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (5,380). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were production, planning, and expediting clerks and postal service mail carriers, with mean hourly wages of $26.33 and $25.46, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($12.20) and clerical library assistants ($13.77). (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_46060.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 Tucson area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, eligibility interviewers for government programs were employed at 2.1 times the national rate in Tucson, and customer service representatives, at 1.8 times the U.S. average. Insurance claims and policy processing clerks had a location quotient of 1.0 in Tucson, 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 Arizona Department of Administration.

Technical Note

The Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey is a semiannual 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 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. OES data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm.

The OES 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. OES estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.1 million establishments. Each year, two semiannual panels of approximately 180,000 to 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 2019 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2019, November 2018, May 2018, November 2017, May 2017, and November 2016. The unweighted sample employment of 83 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 71 percent based on establishments and 68 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Tucson, AZ Metropolitan Statistical Area included 2,536 establishments with a response rate of 77 percent. For more information about OES 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.

The May 2019 OES estimates are the first set of OES estimates to be based in part on survey data collected using the 2018 SOC. These estimates use a hybrid of the 2010 and 2018 SOC systems. More information on the hybrid classification system is available at www.bls.gov/oes/soc_2018.htm.

The May 2019 OES estimates are based on the 2017 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). More information about the 2017 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 Tucson, AZ Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Pima County.

For more information

Answers to frequently asked questions about the OES data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_ques.htm. Detailed information about the OES program is available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_doc.htm.

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 for office and administrative support occupations, Tucson, AZ Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2019

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	56,640	1.1	$17.87	$37,160
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	4,630	1.2	24.74	51,470
Switchboard operators, including answering service	90	0.5	14.62	30,420
Bill and account collectors	520	0.9	17.97	37,370
Billing and posting clerks	1,290	1.1	17.41	36,210
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	3,190	0.8	19.07	39,670
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	350	1.0	18.11	37,660
Procurement clerks	270	1.6	19.83	41,240
Tellers	840	0.7	15.39	32,010
Financial clerks, all other	50	0.7	20.08	41,770
Brokerage clerks	130	1.0	23.85	49,610
Court, municipal, and license clerks	360	0.9	17.85	37,130
Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks	(5)	(5)	20.43	42,480
Customer service representatives	13,470	1.8	15.05	31,290
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	740	2.1	18.07	37,590
File clerks	200	0.8	17.34	36,060
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	720	1.1	12.20	25,370
Interviewers, except eligibility and loan	240	0.5	16.69	34,710
Library assistants, clerical	360	1.6	13.77	28,640
Loan interviewers and clerks	330	0.6	19.02	39,560
Order clerks	190	0.6	17.33	36,040
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	380	1.3	18.04	37,530
Receptionists and information clerks	3,830	1.4	14.33	29,800
Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks	50	0.2	16.63	34,580
Information and record clerks, all other	1,100	2.8	17.94	37,310
Cargo and freight agents	170	0.7	17.24	35,870
Couriers and messengers	140	0.7	14.17	29,480
Public safety telecommunicators	290	1.2	20.60	42,840
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	530	1.0	16.92	35,200
Postal service clerks	150	0.7	25.39	52,810
Postal service mail carriers	920	1.1	25.46	52,950
Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators	220	0.8	22.80	47,420
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	800	0.8	26.33	54,760
Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks	1,260	0.7	16.01	33,310
Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping	50	0.3	19.26	40,060
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	1,150	0.8	23.57	49,020
Legal secretaries and administrative assistants	480	1.1	20.57	42,790
Medical secretaries and administrative assistants	2,080	1.3	16.16	33,620
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	5,380	1.0	17.28	35,930
Data entry keyers	340	0.8	14.78	30,740
Word processors and typists	30	0.3	19.08	39,680
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks	650	1.0	17.75	36,910
Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service	120	0.6	13.92	28,950
Office clerks, general	7,730	1.0	19.00	39,510
Office machine operators, except computer	(5)	(5)	14.93	31,040
Office and administrative support workers, all other	490	1.0	20.06	41,730
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Tucson, AZ Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_46060.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. (5) Estimate not released.