Workers in the Oklahoma City, OK Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $27.25 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 ($53.80), legal ($50.31), and healthcare practitioners and technical ($49.37). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($13.33), personal care and service ($15.26), and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($15.44). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Oklahoma City area included office and administrative support (14.0 percent), food preparation and serving related (10.4 percent), and transportation and material moving (9.3 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included life, physical, and social science (0.8 percent); legal (0.9 percent); and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (1.1 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. Oklahoma City had 91,690 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 14.0 percent of local area employment, compared to the 12.2-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $21.07, 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 (15,680), general office clerks (11,230), and first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers (8,840). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers and cargo and freight agents, with mean hourly wages of $31.43 and $31.30, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($12.94) and gambling cage workers ($14.61). (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_36420.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 Oklahoma City area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, order clerks were employed at 4.3 times the national rate in Oklahoma City, and reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks, at 1.6 times the U.S. average. Billing and posting clerks had a location quotient of 1.0 in Oklahoma 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 Oklahoma Employment Security Commission.

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 Oklahoma City, OK Metropolitan Statistical Area included 3,803 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 Oklahoma City, OK Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Canadian County, Cleveland County, Grady County, Lincoln County, Logan County, McClain County, and Oklahoma 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, Oklahoma City metropolitan area, May 2023

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages ($)
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	91,690	1.1	21.07	43,830
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	8,840	1.4	31.43	65,370
Switchboard operators, including answering service	120	0.6	16.34	33,990
Bill and account collectors	810	1.0	20.06	41,730
Billing and posting clerks	1,800	1.0	20.71	43,070
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	7,260	1.1	21.65	45,030
Gambling cage workers	190	3.5	14.61	30,380
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	770	1.1	23.18	48,220
Procurement clerks	320	1.2	24.26	50,450
Tellers	2,150	1.5	16.99	35,350
Court, municipal, and license clerks	1,010	1.5	20.16	41,940
Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks	80	1.4	19.01	39,540
Customer service representatives	15,680	1.3	19.33	40,200
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	290	0.5	25.34	52,700
File clerks	760	2.1	19.28	40,100
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	1,370	1.2	12.94	26,920
Interviewers, except eligibility and loan	730	1.1	17.91	37,260
Library assistants, clerical	290	0.8	14.71	30,590
Loan interviewers and clerks	1,420	1.6	20.93	43,530
New accounts clerks	490	2.8	19.61	40,790
Order clerks	1,690	4.3	19.84	41,260
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	270	0.6	23.34	48,550
Receptionists and information clerks	3,790	0.9	15.92	33,120
Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks	840	1.6	21.15	44,000
Information and record clerks, all other	630	1.0	23.73	49,360
Cargo and freight agents	130	0.3	31.30	65,110
Couriers and messengers	490	1.6	17.85	37,120
Public safety telecommunicators	390	0.9	21.43	44,580
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	890	1.0	22.90	47,640
Meter readers, utilities	120	1.4	19.58	40,720
Postal service clerks	250	0.7	27.91	58,040
Postal service mail carriers	1,370	1.0	28.55	59,380
Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators	500	1.0	26.84	55,820
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	2,750	1.6	26.81	55,770
Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks	3,140	0.9	19.23	40,000
Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping	140	0.6	20.99	43,650
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	1,420	0.7	28.87	60,040
Legal secretaries and administrative assistants	(5)	(5)	23.08	48,010
Medical secretaries and administrative assistants	4,440	1.4	18.67	38,820
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	8,250	1.1	19.20	39,940
Data entry keyers	900	1.4	18.09	37,630
Word processors and typists	80	0.5	19.53	40,630
Desktop publishers	60	2.6	25.61	53,260
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks	1,100	1.1	23.21	48,270
Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service	270	1.0	16.26	33,820
Office clerks, general	11,230	1.0	17.92	37,270
Office machine operators, except computer	120	1.0	16.76	34,850
Proofreaders and copy markers	30	1.5	19.14	39,820
Office and administrative support workers, all other	170	0.2	22.54	46,890
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Oklahoma City, OK Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_36420.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.