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News Release Information

25-1099-DAL
Thursday, July 03, 2025

Contacts Technical information: Media contact:
  • (972) 850-4800

Occupational Employment and Wages in Oklahoma City — May 2024

Workers in the Oklahoma City, OK Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $27.95 in May 2024, compared to the nationwide average of $32.66, 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 ($55.75), legal ($51.80), and architecture and engineering ($47.00). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($14.24), personal care and service ($15.13), and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($16.08). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Oklahoma City area included office and administrative support (13.2 percent), food preparation and serving related (10.2 percent), and transportation and material moving (9.4 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included life, physical, and social science (0.8 percent); legal (1.0 percent); and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (1.1 percent).

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Oklahoma City metropolitan area, May 2024
Major occupational group Percent of total employment Mean hourly wage ($)
United States Oklahoma City United States Oklahoma City

Total, all occupations

100.0 100.0 32.66 27.95

Management

7.1 6.3 68.15 55.75

Business and financial operations

6.7 6.7 45.04 38.62

Computer and mathematical

3.4 3.0 56.16 42.40

Architecture and engineering

1.7 2.0 49.99 47.00

Life, physical, and social science

0.9 0.8 43.12 39.38

Community and social service

1.7 1.5 30.31 26.39

Legal

0.8 1.0 66.19 51.80

Educational instruction and library

5.8 5.3 31.69 26.23

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.4 1.1 37.04 27.99

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.2 6.6 50.59 45.09

Healthcare support

4.8 3.5 19.06 17.73

Protective service

2.4 2.2 29.33 28.90

Food preparation and serving related

8.8 10.2 17.32 14.24

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.9 2.8 19.01 16.08

Personal care and service

2.0 1.9 18.95 15.13

Sales and related

8.7 8.8 26.00 22.22

Office and administrative support

11.8 13.2 24.12 21.95

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.3 0.1 20.06 21.11

Construction and extraction

4.1 4.7 30.73 27.17

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.9 4.8 29.63 26.64

Production

5.7 4.1 24.08 22.25

Transportation and material moving

8.9 9.4 23.44 20.82

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 88,670 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 13.2 percent of local area employment, compared to the 11.8-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $21.95, compared to the national wage of $24.12.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included customer service representatives (15,480), general office clerks (12,330), and first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers (8,550). Among the higher paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers ($32.48) and executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants ($29.73). At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($13.39) and gambling cage workers ($15.47). (Detailed data for the office and administrative support occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0036420.)

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 2.00 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 4.36 times the national rate in Oklahoma City, and production, planning, and expediting clerks, at 1.61 times the U.S. average. Billing and posting clerks had a location quotient of 0.97 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.

Changes to the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) Data

Effective with the May 2024 OEWS news release, the OEWS program has implemented new metropolitan area definitions based on the 2020 decennial census and delineated by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Bulletin 23-01. This news release does not include data for Colorado and its areas because of quality concerns with Colorado’s Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) data. See the national OEWS news release for more information.


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 530 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 65.7 percent based on establishments and 65.9 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Oklahoma City, OK Metropolitan Statistical Area included 3,853 establishments with a response rate of 74 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 2024
Occupation (1) Employment Mean wages ($)
Level (2) Location quotient (3) Hourly Annual (4)

Office and administrative support occupations

88,670 1.12 21.95 45,650

First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers

8,550 1.32 32.48 67,560

Switchboard operators, including answering service

70 0.42 17.79 37,010

Bill and account collectors

1,060 1.48 22.63 47,070

Billing and posting clerks

1,760 0.97 21.71 45,160

Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks

7,340 1.16 22.88 47,580

Gambling cage workers

250 4.32 15.47 32,180

Payroll and timekeeping clerks

1,030 1.51 24.73 51,440

Procurement clerks

330 1.27 25.52 53,080

Tellers

2,300 1.56 18.15 37,760

Financial clerks, all other

50 0.28 (5) (5)

Court, municipal, and license clerks

860 1.17 20.39 42,410

Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks

110 2.03 19.19 39,910

Customer service representatives

15,480 1.31 20.02 41,630

Eligibility interviewers, government programs

300 0.44 26.78 55,700

File clerks

640 1.86 19.33 40,210

Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks

1,190 1.05 13.39 27,840

Interviewers, except eligibility and loan

580 0.85 19.82 41,230

Library assistants, clerical

330 0.95 16.06 33,410

Loan interviewers and clerks

1,230 1.64 22.53 46,860

New accounts clerks

760 4.59 21.95 45,660

Order clerks

1,580 4.36 21.23 44,160

Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping

310 0.78 22.44 46,670

Receptionists and information clerks

3,590 0.86 16.55 34,420

Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks

910 1.64 21.98 45,710

Information and record clerks, all other

480 0.77 23.91 49,740

Cargo and freight agents

40 0.10 29.56 61,470

Couriers and messengers

320 1.03 17.74 36,900

Public safety telecommunicators

410 0.93 23.54 48,950

Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance

960 1.04 23.31 48,490

Meter readers, utilities

90 1.08 22.64 47,100

Postal service clerks

270 0.78 28.27 58,810

Postal service mail carriers

1,420 0.97 28.83 59,970

Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators

470 0.96 28.19 58,640

Production, planning, and expediting clerks

2,700 1.61 27.77 57,760

Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks

2,480 0.67 19.94 41,470

Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping

110 0.50 19.73 41,030

Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants

1,520 0.74 29.73 61,840

Legal secretaries and administrative assistants

770 1.15 23.45 48,770

Medical secretaries and administrative assistants

3,390 0.94 19.19 39,920

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

7,850 1.04 19.75 41,080

Data entry keyers

(5) (5) 17.47 36,330

Word processors and typists

50 0.32 20.54 42,710

Insurance claims and policy processing clerks

1,070 1.07 23.41 48,700

Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service

210 0.78 17.09 35,560

Office clerks, general

12,330 1.13 19.03 39,580

Office machine operators, except computer

60 0.60 17.83 37,080

Office and administrative support workers, all other

130 0.16 23.29 48,430

(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Oklahoma City, OK Metropolitan Statistical Area, see https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0036420.
(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.

 

Last Modified Date: Thursday, July 03, 2025