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News Release Information

24-1525-SAN
Thursday, July 25, 2024

Contacts Technical information: Media contact:
  • (415) 625-2270

Occupational Employment and Wages in Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro — May 2023

Workers in the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $34.79 in May 2023, compared to the nationwide average of $31.48, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Chris Rosenlund noted that higher paying major occupational groups included management ($66.19), healthcare practitioners and technical ($61.77), and legal ($59.17). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($18.35), building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($20.55), and personal care and service ($20.80). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Portland area included office and administrative support (11.8 percent), transportation and material moving (8.7 percent), and food preparation and serving related (8.3 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.8 percent); life, physical, and social science (1 percent); and protective service (1.5 percent). (See table A.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Portland metropolitan area, May 2023
Major occupational group Percent of total employment Mean hourly wage ($)
United States Portland United States Portland

Total, all occupations

100.0 100.0 31.48 34.79

Management

6.9 7.4 66.23 66.19

Business and financial operations

6.6 7.7 43.55 42.39

Computer and mathematical

3.4 3.9 54.39 55.07

Architecture and engineering

1.7 3.2 47.64 52.17

Life, physical, and social science

0.9 1.0 42.24 40.88

Community and social service

1.6 2.3 28.36 30.54

Legal

0.8 0.8 64.34 59.17

Educational instruction and library

5.8 5.2 31.92 37.60

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.4 1.8 36.31 37.75

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.1 5.3 49.07 61.77

Healthcare support

4.7 3.7 18.37 22.81

Protective service

2.3 1.5 27.74 30.39

Food preparation and serving related

8.7 8.3 16.58 18.35

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.9 2.4 18.43 20.55

Personal care and service

2.0 2.5 18.48 20.80

Sales and related

8.8 8.0 25.62 26.96

Office and administrative support

12.2 11.8 23.05 24.67

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.3 0.3 19.22 21.15

Construction and extraction

4.1 4.7 29.57 35.95

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.9 3.5 28.13 31.23

Production

5.8 6.0 22.90 24.88

Transportation and material moving

9.1 8.7 22.45 23.61

One occupational group—office and administrative support—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Portland had 141,870 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 11.8 percent of local area employment, compared to the 12.2-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $24.67, compared to the national wage of $23.05.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included customer service representatives (18,010), general office clerks (15,430), and bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks (14,840). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were public safety telecommunicators and first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers, with mean hourly wages of $36.10 and $34.41, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($17.62) and receptionists and information clerks ($19.39). (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_38900.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 Portland area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, cargo and freight agents were employed at 1.5 times the national rate in Portland. Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants had a location quotient of 1.0 in Portland, indicating that this particular occupation’s local and national employment shares were similar.

The statistics in this release are from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, a cooperative effort between BLS and the State Workforce Agencies (SWAs). BLS funds the survey and provides the procedures and technical support. State Workforce Agencies collect most of the data: in this case, the Oregon Employment Department, and the Washington Employment Security Department.


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. Full OEWS data tables are available online.

Additional information about the OEWS estimates and methodology are available in the national Technical Notes. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 65.8 percent based on establishments and 64.3 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA Metropolitan Statistical Area included 7,335 establishments with a response rate of 70 percent.

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 Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Clackamas County, OR; Columbia County, OR; Multnomah County, OR; Washington County, OR; Yamhill County, OR; Clark County, WA; and Skamania County, WA.

For more information

Answers to frequently asked questions about the OEWS data, as well as general program documentation, are available on the OEWS website.

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, Portland metropolitan area, May 2023
Occupation (1) Employment Mean wages ($)
Level (2) Location quotient (3) Hourly Annual (4)

Office and administrative support occupations

141,870 1.0 24.67 51,300

First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers

9,420 0.8 34.41 71,570

Switchboard operators, including answering service

170 0.5 22.76 47,340

Bill and account collectors

590 0.4 26.24 54,590

Billing and posting clerks

4,750 1.4 25.40 52,820

Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks

14,840 1.2 25.31 52,650

Payroll and timekeeping clerks

1,280 1.0 28.27 58,810

Procurement clerks

540 1.1 22.57 46,950

Tellers

2,150 0.8 21.40 44,520

Financial clerks, all other

190 0.5 24.68 51,330

Brokerage clerks

110 0.3 29.22 60,770

Correspondence clerks

50 1.3 21.83 45,410

Court, municipal, and license clerks

680 0.5 26.47 55,060

Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks

160 1.4 25.57 53,180

Customer service representatives

18,010 0.8 22.54 46,890

Eligibility interviewers, government programs

1,150 1.0 25.88 53,820

File clerks

490 0.8 24.85 51,690

Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks

1,530 0.7 17.62 36,640

Interviewers, except eligibility and loan

1,580 1.2 24.28 50,500

Library assistants, clerical

720 1.1 22.07 45,900

Loan interviewers and clerks

1,140 0.7 26.06 54,210

New accounts clerks

350 1.1 23.04 47,920

Order clerks

920 1.3 23.11 48,070

Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping

770 1.0 25.19 52,390

Receptionists and information clerks

9,550 1.2 19.39 40,320

Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks

1,090 1.2 21.73 45,190

Information and record clerks, all other

4,100 3.4 21.76 45,250

Cargo and freight agents

1,220 1.5 25.45 52,930

Couriers and messengers

660 1.2 20.85 43,360

Public safety telecommunicators

370 0.5 36.10 75,080

Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance

2,240 1.4 25.68 53,420

Meter readers, utilities

40 0.3 29.92 62,220

Postal service clerks

420 0.7 28.81 59,920

Postal service mail carriers

2,260 0.9 28.36 58,990

Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators

980 1.1 26.90 55,950

Production, planning, and expediting clerks

2,230 0.7 28.56 59,400

Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks

7,820 1.2 22.58 46,970

Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping

210 0.5 22.40 46,590

Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants

3,920 1.0 33.99 70,700

Legal secretaries and administrative assistants

940 0.8 28.93 60,170

Medical secretaries and administrative assistants

7,650 1.3 24.52 50,990

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

13,290 0.9 24.66 51,290

Data entry keyers

920 0.8 21.80 45,350

Desktop publishers

40 1.0 30.30 63,010

Insurance claims and policy processing clerks

1,180 0.6 25.64 53,330

Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service

580 1.1 20.06 41,720

Office clerks, general

15,430 0.8 22.75 47,320

Office machine operators, except computer

160 0.7 20.48 42,600

Proofreaders and copy markers

30 0.8 20.75 43,170

Office and administrative support workers, all other

2,840 2.1 23.87 49,650

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_38900.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: Thursday, July 25, 2024