Workers in the Salt Lake City Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $22.47 in May 2014, similar to the nationwide average of $22.71, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Regional Commissioner Stanley W. Suchman noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were higher than their respective national averages in 1 of the 22 major occupational groups: sales and related. Twelve groups had significantly lower wages than their respective national averages, including management; computer and mathematical; and legal.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 9 of the 22 occupational groups, including office and administrative support; construction and extraction; and sales and related. Conversely, 11 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including food preparation and serving related; education, training, and library; and personal care and service. (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. Salt Lake City had 130,480 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 19.7 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 16.0-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $16.35, significantly below the national wage of $17.08.

Some of the largest detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included customer service representatives (25,620), general office clerks (13,790), and secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (11,520). Among the higher paying jobs were postal service mail carriers and postal service clerks, with mean hourly wages of $25.44 and $24.73, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($10.23) and tellers ($11.54). (Detailed occupational data for office and administrative support are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/2014/may/oes_41620.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 Salt Lake City Metropolitan Statistical Area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, customer service representatives and data entry keyers were each employed at 2.1 times the national rate in Salt Lake City. On the other hand, bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks had a location quotient of 1.0 in Salt Lake City, 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 Utah Department of Workforce Services.

Technical Note

The Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey is a semiannual mail survey measuring occupational employment and wage rates for wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments in the United States. Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands are also surveyed, but their data are not included in the national estimates. OES estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.2 million establishments. Forms are mailed to approximately 200,000 sampled establishments in May and November each year. May 2014 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2014, November 2013, May 2013, November 2012, May 2012, and November 2011. The overall national response rate for the six panels is 74.3 percent based on establishments and 70.5 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The unweighted employment of sampled establishments across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 57.1 percent of total national employment. (Response rates are slightly lower for these estimates due to the federal shutdown in October 2013.) The sample in the Salt Lake City Metropolitan Statistical Area included 4,597 establishments with a response rate of 76 percent. For more information about OES concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.tn.htm.

The OES survey provides estimates of employment and hourly and annual wages for wage and salary workers in 22 major occupational groups and 821 detailed occupations for the nation, states, metropolitan statistical areas, metropolitan divisions, and nonmetropolitan areas. In addition, employment and wage estimates for 94 minor groups and 458 broad occupations are available in the national data. OES data by state and metropolitan/nonmetropolitan area are available from www.bls.gov/oes/current/oessrcst.htm and www.bls.gov/oes/current/oessrcma.htm, respectively.

The May 2014 OES estimates are based on the 2010 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system and the 2012 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). Information about the 2010 SOC is available on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/soc and information about the 2012 NAICS is available at www.bls.gov/bls/naics.htm.

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 Salt Lake City, Utah Metropolitan Statistical Area  includes Salt Lake, Summit, and Tooele Counties.

Additional information

OES data are available on our regional web page at www.bls.gov/regions/mountain-plains. Answers to frequently asked questions about the OES data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_ques.htm. Detailed technical information about the OES survey is available in our Survey Methods and Reliability Statement on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/oes/2014/may/methods_statement.pdf.

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 from the Occupational Employment Statistics survey, by occupation, Salt Lake City Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2014

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and Administrative Support Occupations	130,480	1.2	$16.35	$34,010
First-Line Supervisors of Office and Administrative Support Workers	9,430	1.4	24.50	50,950
Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service	360	0.7	12.64	26,290
Telephone Operators	(5)	(5)	17.09	35,550
Bill and Account Collectors	2,600	1.5	17.41	36,220
Billing and Posting Clerks	2,280	1.0	16.07	33,420
Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks	7,770	1.0	17.43	36,250
Payroll and Timekeeping Clerks	790	1.0	19.41	40,380
Procurement Clerks	430	1.3	16.42	34,160
Tellers	2,560	1.0	11.54	23,990
Financial Clerks, All Other	(5)	(5)	18.88	39,280
Brokerage Clerks	510	1.8	21.14	43,960
Correspondence Clerks	30	0.9	18.01	37,460
Court, Municipal, and License Clerks	470	0.7	15.87	33,000
Credit Authorizers, Checkers, and Clerks	240	1.0	16.21	33,710
Customer Service Representatives	25,620	2.1	15.59	32,430
Eligibility Interviewers, Government Programs	630	1.1	18.04	37,520
File Clerks	650	0.9	13.33	27,720
Hotel, Motel, and Resort Desk Clerks	1,130	1.0	10.23	21,280
Interviewers, Except Eligibility and Loan	1,080	1.2	14.80	30,790
Library Assistants, Clerical	610	1.2	12.87	26,770
Loan Interviewers and Clerks	1,580	1.5	17.30	35,980
New Accounts Clerks	280	1.1	16.22	33,730
Order Clerks	970	1.0	15.96	33,190
Human Resources Assistants, Except Payroll and Timekeeping	470	0.7	17.54	36,490
Receptionists and Information Clerks	5,260	1.1	12.73	26,480
Reservation and Transportation Ticket Agents and Travel Clerks	4,840	7.1	(5)	(5)
Information and Record Clerks, All Other	450	0.5	18.55	38,590
Cargo and Freight Agents	340	0.9	18.50	38,470
Couriers and Messengers	290	0.8	12.88	26,800
Police, Fire, and Ambulance Dispatchers	320	0.7	18.03	37,500
Dispatchers, Except Police, Fire, and Ambulance	900	1.0	18.30	38,050
Meter Readers, Utilities	80	0.5	(5)	(5)
Postal Service Clerks	200	0.6	24.73	51,440
Postal Service Mail Carriers	890	0.6	25.44	52,920
Postal Service Mail Sorters, Processors, and Processing Machine Operators	510	0.9	23.95	49,810
Production, Planning, and Expediting Clerks	1,530	1.1	21.60	44,930
Shipping, Receiving, and Traffic Clerks	3,840	1.2	14.54	30,250
Stock Clerks and Order Fillers	7,110	0.8	12.31	25,610
Weighers, Measurers, Checkers, and Samplers, Recordkeeping	340	1.0	15.96	33,190
Executive Secretaries and Executive Administrative Assistants	3,990	1.1	22.32	46,420
Legal Secretaries	1,060	1.0	20.45	42,540
Medical Secretaries	2,960	1.2	15.15	31,520
Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive	11,520	1.1	16.23	33,750
Computer Operators	190	0.7	17.72	36,870
Data Entry Keyers	2,150	2.1	15.21	31,640
Word Processors and Typists	400	1.0	14.43	30,020
Insurance Claims and Policy Processing Clerks	1,640	1.3	17.09	35,540
Mail Clerks and Mail Machine Operators, Except Postal Service	(5)	(5)	12.86	26,750
Office Clerks, General	13,790	1.0	13.78	28,650
Office Machine Operators, Except Computer	250	0.8	12.59	26,190
Proofreaders and Copy Markers	210	4.1	18.80	39,110
Statistical Assistants	90	1.3	20.91	43,480
Office and Administrative Support Workers, All Other	(5)	(5)	19.34	40,230
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in Salt Lake City, UT, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_41620.htm. (2) Estimates for detailed occupations do not sum to the totals because the totals include occupations 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.