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News Release Information

24-925-SAN
Thursday, June 27, 2024

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

Occupational Employment and Wages in Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale — May 2023

Workers in the Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $31.20 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 ($61.88), legal ($52.93), and computer and mathematical ($51.08). Lower paying occupations included building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($18.26), food preparation and serving related ($19.04), and healthcare support ($19.06). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Phoenix area included office and administrative support (13.7 percent), food preparation and serving related (9.0 percent), and sales and related (8.9 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included life, physical, and social science (0.6 percent); legal (0.7 percent); and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (1.2 percent). (See table A.)

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

Total, all occupations

100.0100.031.4831.20

Management

6.97.566.2361.88

Business and financial operations

6.67.443.5540.41

Computer and mathematical

3.43.854.3951.08

Architecture and engineering

1.71.747.6447.47

Life, physical, and social science

0.90.642.2438.72

Community and social service

1.61.328.3627.20

Legal

0.80.764.3452.93

Educational instruction and library

5.84.631.9229.73

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.41.236.3128.82

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.16.249.0750.32

Healthcare support

4.74.318.3719.06

Protective service

2.32.427.7426.59

Food preparation and serving related

8.79.016.5819.04

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.92.818.4318.26

Personal care and service

2.01.918.4820.09

Sales and related

8.88.925.6225.97

Office and administrative support

12.213.723.0523.25

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.30.119.2220.05

Construction and extraction

4.15.129.5727.79

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.94.028.1327.56

Production

5.84.022.9023.40

Transportation and material moving

9.18.722.4522.75

One occupational group—office and administrative support—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Phoenix had 314,170 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 13.7 percent of local area employment, compared to the 12.2-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $23.25, 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 (77,280), general office clerks (33,460), and first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers (23,330). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants and first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers, with mean hourly wages of $33.57 and $32.15, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($16.60) and mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service ($17.13). (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_38060.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 Phoenix area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, loan interviewers and clerks were employed at 2.2 times the national rate in Phoenix, and bill and account collectors, at 2.1 times the U.S. average. First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers had a location quotient of 1.0 in Phoenix, 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 Arizona Department of Administration.


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 Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ Metropolitan Statistical Area included 7,954 establishments with a response rate of 63 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 Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Maricopa County and Pinal 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, Phoenix metropolitan area, May 2023
Occupation (1)EmploymentMean wages ($)
Level (2)Location quotient (3)HourlyAnnual (4)

Office and administrative support occupations

314,1701.123.2548,350

First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers

23,3301.032.1566,880

Switchboard operators, including answering service

2400.419.7241,020

Bill and account collectors

6,1602.121.9345,610

Billing and posting clerks

7,3501.122.5146,820

Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks

18,9800.824.4750,900

Gambling cage workers

4002.121.3044,310

Payroll and timekeeping clerks

2,8401.224.4850,920

Procurement clerks

7200.824.5551,060

Tellers

3,0400.620.5442,730

Financial clerks, all other

6701.028.5359,350

Brokerage clerks

1,0601.529.0060,310

Correspondence clerks

1702.422.2146,190

Court, municipal, and license clerks

1,7700.723.2548,360

Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks

4302.030.3863,180

Customer service representatives

77,2801.821.3444,400

Eligibility interviewers, government programs

2,7701.221.2544,190

File clerks

1,8501.520.7643,190

Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks

2,8400.716.6034,530

Interviewers, except eligibility and loan

2,1100.919.4740,500

Library assistants, clerical

7900.618.8639,240

Loan interviewers and clerks

6,6602.223.4548,770

New accounts clerks

500.127.5057,200

Order clerks

1,1100.823.0547,950

Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping

1,3200.923.3348,530

Receptionists and information clerks

18,5501.218.1937,830

Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks

2,4001.322.1246,020

Information and record clerks, all other

3,1201.424.3350,610

Cargo and freight agents

2,9001.820.9743,610

Couriers and messengers

4400.418.6938,880

Public safety telecommunicators

1,0400.727.5257,230

Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance

3,9801.322.6847,180

Meter readers, utilities

3201.131.2364,950

Postal service clerks

5900.529.9362,250

Postal service mail carriers

3,6700.729.2460,810

Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators

1,6701.026.6455,420

Production, planning, and expediting clerks

8,2401.427.5357,250

Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks

14,4501.120.6142,870

Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping

3300.421.0943,860

Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants

5,1900.733.5769,820

Legal secretaries and administrative assistants

3,6501.625.6353,320

Medical secretaries and administrative assistants

12,9801.221.2944,280

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

22,7500.922.9747,770

Data entry keyers

2,4601.119.1539,830

Word processors and typists

600.1(5)(5)

Desktop publishers

500.626.2654,620

Insurance claims and policy processing clerks

4,5201.222.4746,740

Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service

1,1101.117.1335,620

Office clerks, general

33,4600.923.7249,330

Office machine operators, except computer

2700.618.3538,160

Office and administrative support workers, all other

1,8100.725.7353,510

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_38060.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.

 

Last Modified Date: Thursday, June 27, 2024