Workers in the Salt Lake City, UT Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $31.67 in May 2023, compared to the nationwide average of $31.48, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Assistant Commissioner for Regional Operations Michael Hirniak noted that higher paying major occupational groups included management ($61.06), computer and mathematical ($51.10), and legal ($50.14). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($16.04), building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($18.02), and personal care and service ($18.60). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Salt Lake City area included office and administrative support (15.7 percent), management (8.7 percent), and transportation and material moving (8.3 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.9 percent); life, physical, and social science (1.2 percent); and community and social service (1.4 percent).

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 126,170 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 15.7 percent of local area employment, compared to the 12.2-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $22.79, 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 (34,170); general office clerks (15,730); and shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks (10,950). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers and postal service mail carriers, with mean hourly wages of $32.98 and $29.67, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($15.87) and office machine operators, except computer ($17.33). (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 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 3.7 times the national rate in Salt Lake City, and shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks, at 2.5 times the U.S. average. Insurance claims and policy processing 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.

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 Utah Department of Workforce Services.

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 Salt Lake City, UT Metropolitan Statistical Area included 4,615 establishments with a response rate of 75 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 Salt Lake City, UT Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Salt Lake County and Tooele County.

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, Salt Lake City metropolitan area, May 2023

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages ($)
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	126,170	1.3	22.79	47,400
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	10,550	1.3	32.98	68,600
Switchboard operators, including answering service	80	0.3	17.81	37,050
Bill and account collectors	2,440	2.4	22.33	46,450
Billing and posting clerks	2,110	0.9	22.52	46,840
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	6,800	0.9	24.44	50,830
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	910	1.1	25.51	53,060
Procurement clerks	360	1.1	22.28	46,350
Tellers	2,140	1.2	19.25	40,050
Financial clerks, all other	150	0.6	26.13	54,360
Brokerage clerks	320	1.3	27.07	56,300
Correspondence clerks	40	1.7	19.73	41,050
Court, municipal, and license clerks	400	0.5	23.10	48,040
Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks	180	2.4	23.27	48,410
Customer service representatives	34,170	2.3	21.05	43,780
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	610	0.8	25.79	53,640
File clerks	420	1.0	21.43	44,570
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	970	0.7	15.87	33,010
Interviewers, except eligibility and loan	660	0.8	19.26	40,060
Library assistants, clerical	180	0.4	17.43	36,260
Loan interviewers and clerks	2,310	2.1	21.77	45,280
New accounts clerks	(5)	(5)	19.03	39,580
Order clerks	650	1.3	20.46	42,550
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	300	0.6	22.49	46,790
Receptionists and information clerks	4,680	0.9	17.35	36,080
Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks	2,310	3.7	21.97	45,690
Information and record clerks, all other	280	0.4	23.64	49,170
Cargo and freight agents	520	0.9	24.43	50,810
Couriers and messengers	520	1.4	19.64	40,840
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	1,150	1.1	24.14	50,210
Meter readers, utilities	(5)	(5)	26.24	54,590
Postal service clerks	200	0.5	28.88	60,060
Postal service mail carriers	950	0.5	29.67	61,710
Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators	720	1.2	26.96	56,070
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	2,200	1.1	28.88	60,070
Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks	10,950	2.5	18.82	39,150
Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping	150	0.6	21.61	44,940
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	3,820	1.5	29.54	61,430
Legal secretaries and administrative assistants	520	0.7	24.73	51,440
Medical secretaries and administrative assistants	2,380	0.6	20.82	43,310
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	6,700	0.7	21.11	43,900
Data entry keyers	1,530	1.9	23.40	48,670
Word processors and typists	100	0.5	16.23	33,760
Desktop publishers	60	2.0	(5)	(5)
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks	1,310	1.0	23.21	48,270
Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service	620	1.8	18.88	39,270
Office clerks, general	15,730	1.2	22.78	47,380
Office machine operators, except computer	190	1.3	17.33	36,050
Office and administrative support workers, all other	1,300	1.4	20.32	42,260
(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 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.