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News Release Information

24-1529-SAN
Thursday, July 25, 2024

Contacts Technical information: Media contact:
  • (415) 625-2270

Occupational Employment and Wages in Olympia-Tumwater — May 2023

Workers in the Olympia-Tumwater, WA Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $33.12 in May 2023, compared to the nationwide average of $31.48, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Chris Rosenlund noted that higher paying major occupational groups included management ($61.65), healthcare practitioners and technical ($54.03), and computer and mathematical ($49.60). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($20.44), building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($20.89), and healthcare support ($21.64). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Olympia area included office and administrative support (12.8 percent), business and financial operations (10.5 percent), and sales and related (8.2 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (1.1 percent); arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (1.4 percent); and architecture and engineering (1.6 percent). (See table A.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Olympia metropolitan area, May 2023
Major occupational groupPercent of total employmentMean hourly wage ($)
United StatesOlympiaUnited StatesOlympia

Total, all occupations

100.0100.031.4833.12

Management

6.97.066.2361.65

Business and financial operations

6.610.543.5537.89

Computer and mathematical

3.45.254.3949.60

Architecture and engineering

1.71.647.6444.84

Life, physical, and social science

0.92.242.2439.06

Community and social service

1.62.628.3631.08

Legal

0.81.164.3446.30

Educational instruction and library

5.85.931.9232.23

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.41.436.3129.91

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.14.949.0754.03

Healthcare support

4.74.618.3721.64

Protective service

2.32.127.7433.52

Food preparation and serving related

8.77.916.5820.44

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.92.418.4320.89

Personal care and service

2.01.918.4822.80

Sales and related

8.88.225.6226.16

Office and administrative support

12.212.823.0524.80

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.30.319.2225.86

Construction and extraction

4.13.929.5734.53

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.93.328.1330.25

Production

5.82.622.9023.94

Transportation and material moving

9.17.522.4523.26

One occupational group—office and administrative support—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Olympia had 15,740 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 12.8 percent of local area employment, compared to the 12.2-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $24.80, compared to the national wage of $23.05.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included general office clerks (2,130), secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (1,970), and customer service representatives (1,760). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were public safety telecommunicators and executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants, with mean hourly wages of $36.95 and $35.98, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($17.55) and mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service ($19.10). (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_36500.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 Olympia area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, government programs eligibility interviewers were employed at 6.5 times the national rate in Olympia, and insurance claims and policy processing clerks, at 3.4 times the U.S. average. First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers had a location quotient of 1.0 in Olympia, 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 Washington Employment Security Department.


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 Olympia-Tumwater, WA Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,411 establishments with a response rate of 66 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 Olympia-Tumwater, WA Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Thurston 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, Olympia metropolitan area, May 2023
Occupation (1)EmploymentMean wages ($)
Level (2)Location quotient (3)HourlyAnnual (4)

Office and administrative support occupations

15,7401.124.8051,580

First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers

1,2101.035.3673,560

Bill and account collectors

1501.022.9447,710

Billing and posting clerks

3701.123.7949,480

Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks

1,1200.925.9954,060

Payroll and timekeeping clerks

1200.930.2762,960

Procurement clerks

801.723.0647,970

Tellers

4001.422.6247,040

Court, municipal, and license clerks

1801.427.8457,900

Customer service representatives

1,7600.821.8145,360

Eligibility interviewers, government programs

7906.523.6549,190

Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks

1600.817.5536,500

Interviewers, except eligibility and loan

1100.922.0945,940

Library assistants, clerical

1201.820.6742,990

Loan interviewers and clerks

1601.027.8257,870

Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping

1001.225.1952,390

Receptionists and information clerks

1,0801.319.2940,120

Information and record clerks, all other

2101.721.0943,860

Public safety telecommunicators

901.136.9576,850

Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance

1300.826.1954,470

Postal service clerks

400.729.2660,870

Postal service mail carriers

2400.928.2458,740

Production, planning, and expediting clerks

1700.525.9453,940

Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks

5100.721.3744,440

Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants

5401.435.9874,840

Legal secretaries and administrative assistants

2001.623.6149,100

Medical secretaries and administrative assistants

2700.525.2452,510

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

1,9701.424.4450,840

Data entry keyers

1601.322.6747,150

Insurance claims and policy processing clerks

6703.426.3454,780

Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service

601.119.1039,740

Office clerks, general

2,1301.122.6847,170

Office and administrative support workers, all other

900.721.7445,210

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Olympia-Tumwater, WA Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_36500.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.

 

Last Modified Date: Thursday, July 25, 2024