Workers in the Salt Lake City Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $24.48 in May 2018, about 2 percent below the nationwide average of $24.98, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Assistant Commissioner for Regional Operations Stanley W. Suchman noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were lower than their respective national averages in 14 of the 22 major occupational groups, including legal; management; and life, physical, and social science. One group had significantly higher wages than its respective national average.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 9 of the 22 occupational groups, including office and administrative support; management; and computer and mathematical. Conversely, 11 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including food preparation and serving related; healthcare support; and healthcare practitioners and technical. (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 127,730 jobs in office and administrative support occupations, accounting for 17.9 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 15.1-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $17.87, significantly below the national wage of $18.75.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included customer service representatives (30,290), office clerks, general (15,350), and secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (9,290). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers and statistical assistants, with mean hourly wages of $26.75 and $26.14, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($11.64) and switchboard operators, including answering service ($12.72). (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_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, reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks were employed at 7.1 times the national rate in Salt Lake City, and bill and account collectors, at 3.1 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance 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 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 1.2 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 2018 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2018, November 2017, May 2017, November 2016, May 2016, and November 2015. The unweighted sample employment of 83 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 58 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 Salt Lake City Metropolitan Statistical Area included 4,526 establishments with a response rate of 73 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 2018 OES estimates are based on the 2010 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system and the 2017 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 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 Salt Lake City, UT 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/current/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 2018

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	127,730	1.2	$17.87	$37,180
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	8,210	1.1	26.75	55,650
Switchboard operators, including answering service	200	0.6	12.72	26,470
Telephone operators	50	2.0	18.12	37,690
Bill and account collectors	3,860	3.1	15.90	33,080
Billing and posting clerks	2,980	1.3	18.81	39,120
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	6,990	0.9	19.77	41,110
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	690	1.0	23.17	48,200
Procurement clerks	350	1.1	18.95	39,420
Tellers	2,180	0.9	13.14	27,330
Brokerage clerks	360	1.3	25.12	52,240
Court, municipal, and license clerks	390	0.6	20.24	42,090
Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks	150	1.1	18.60	38,680
Customer service representatives	30,290	2.1	17.39	36,180
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	550	0.8	23.65	49,200
File clerks	1,120	2.1	15.32	31,870
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	1,750	1.4	11.64	24,210
Interviewers, except eligibility and loan	680	0.7	16.02	33,320
Library assistants, clerical	320	0.7	12.81	26,630
Loan interviewers and clerks	1,610	1.5	20.00	41,590
New accounts clerks	(5)	(5)	18.71	38,910
Order clerks	440	0.6	16.34	33,980
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	330	0.5	19.02	39,550
Receptionists and information clerks	4,810	0.9	13.91	28,940
Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks	4,620	7.1	18.91	39,340
Information and record clerks, all other	440	0.6	19.96	41,510
Cargo and freight agents	(5)	(5)	21.79	45,320
Couriers and messengers	340	0.9	14.21	29,560
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	1,000	1.0	20.83	43,330
Meter readers, utilities	150	0.9	23.48	48,840
Postal service clerks	190	0.5	24.80	51,580
Postal service mail carriers	1,060	0.6	24.90	51,790
Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators	580	1.1	23.72	49,340
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	2,010	1.2	22.49	46,780
Shipping, receiving, and traffic clerks	4,200	1.3	15.03	31,250
Stock clerks and order fillers	8,270	0.8	13.76	28,610
Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping	730	2.3	14.83	30,850
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	2,610	0.9	25.51	53,070
Legal secretaries	930	1.1	21.10	43,890
Medical secretaries	1,510	0.5	16.93	35,220
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	9,290	0.9	17.12	35,600
Computer operators	90	0.5	23.06	47,960
Data entry keyers	2,610	3.0	16.81	34,970
Word processors and typists	270	1.0	17.18	35,720
Desktop publishers	40	0.8	20.09	41,790
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks	520	0.4	18.69	38,870
Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service	(5)	(5)	15.06	31,310
Office clerks, general	15,350	1.1	16.01	33,300
Office machine operators, except computer	240	1.0	14.78	30,750
Statistical assistants	80	1.6	26.14	54,370
Office and administrative support workers, all other	630	0.7	17.93	37,300
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Salt Lake City, UT Metropolitan Statistical Area, 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.