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News Release Information

24-1520-SAN
Thursday, July 25, 2024

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

Occupational Employment and Wages in Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue — May 2023

Workers in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $41.60 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 ($83.87), computer and mathematical ($69.49), and healthcare practitioners and technical ($59.96). Lower paying occupations included building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($22.72), food preparation and serving related ($22.83), and healthcare support ($23.73). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Seattle area included office and administrative support (10.8 percent), business and financial operations (9.5 percent), and sales and related (9.1 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.8 percent); life, physical, and social science (1.2 percent); and community and social service (1.6 percent). (See table A.)

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

Total, all occupations

100.0100.031.4841.60

Management

6.96.166.2383.87

Business and financial operations

6.69.543.5550.96

Computer and mathematical

3.48.354.3969.49

Architecture and engineering

1.72.347.6454.55

Life, physical, and social science

0.91.242.2446.67

Community and social service

1.61.628.3632.04

Legal

0.80.864.34(1)

Educational instruction and library

5.84.731.9237.78

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.41.736.3142.12

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.15.349.0759.96

Healthcare support

4.74.418.3723.73

Protective service

2.31.827.7434.01

Food preparation and serving related

8.78.116.5822.83

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.92.518.4322.72

Personal care and service

2.01.818.4825.82

Sales and related

8.89.125.6232.56

Office and administrative support

12.210.823.0528.32

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.30.119.2224.11

Construction and extraction

4.14.629.5739.75

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.93.428.1334.51

Production

5.84.022.9028.64

Transportation and material moving

9.17.722.4530.46

Footnotes:
(1) Estimate not released.

One occupational group—office and administrative support—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Seattle had 225,240 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 10.8 percent of local area employment, compared to the 12.2-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $28.32, 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 (33,220), general office clerks (26,990), and first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers (18,550). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers and executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants, with mean hourly wages of $40.75 and $39.48, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($19.80) and office machine operators, except computer ($20.38). (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_42660.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 Seattle 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 2.0 times the national rate in Seattle, and production, planning, and expediting clerks, at 1.8 times the U.S. average. Payroll and timekeeping clerks had a location quotient of 1.0 in Seattle, 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 Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA Metropolitan Statistical Area included 7,221 establishments with a response rate of 70 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 Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA Metropolitan Statistical Area includes King County, Pierce County, and Snohomish 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, Seattle metropolitan area, May 2023
Occupation (1)EmploymentMean wages ($)
Level (2)Location quotient (3)HourlyAnnual (4)

Office and administrative support occupations

225,2400.928.3258,910

First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers

18,5500.940.7584,760

Switchboard operators, including answering service

1800.322.0445,840

Bill and account collectors

1,6000.624.1250,180

Billing and posting clerks

7,9901.427.6157,420

Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks

16,8700.828.1158,470

Gambling cage workers

2501.521.3144,330

Payroll and timekeeping clerks

2,1401.032.5667,720

Procurement clerks

8401.023.7849,460

Tellers

4,1200.924.5251,000

Financial clerks, all other

4800.827.0356,220

Brokerage clerks

3200.528.8259,940

Court, municipal, and license clerks

1,1600.531.4965,500

Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks

1200.6(5)(5)

Customer service representatives

33,2200.926.8755,900

Eligibility interviewers, government programs

1,5700.828.7459,780

File clerks

5000.422.9347,690

Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks

2,3800.719.8041,180

Interviewers, except eligibility and loan

1,3400.623.9549,820

Library assistants, clerical

1,2301.122.6447,090

Loan interviewers and clerks

2,2400.831.7666,060

New accounts clerks

2400.423.7749,430

Order clerks

1,1200.924.0650,030

Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping

1,8701.327.0756,310

Receptionists and information clerks

14,1601.021.0643,800

Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks

3,2702.024.9751,940

Information and record clerks, all other

2,9401.425.7953,630

Cargo and freight agents

1,8001.326.9356,020

Couriers and messengers

6700.722.5246,830

Public safety telecommunicators

1,0600.836.8676,660

Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance

2,9101.029.7861,950

Meter readers, utilities

1700.638.1579,350

Postal service clerks

6000.629.2160,750

Postal service mail carriers

3,2900.729.6761,720

Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators

1,6501.027.9758,170

Production, planning, and expediting clerks

9,5401.830.8964,250

Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks

12,3601.126.4455,000

Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping

3500.524.7651,490

Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants

8,5001.339.4882,120

Legal secretaries and administrative assistants

2,5301.230.7163,870

Medical secretaries and administrative assistants

5,7800.627.0156,180

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

18,0100.727.4157,000

Data entry keyers

1,8700.921.8045,340

Word processors and typists

3000.623.3748,610

Desktop publishers

500.737.5478,090

Insurance claims and policy processing clerks

1,6600.529.9362,260

Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service

1,0301.121.8745,490

Office clerks, general

26,9900.826.1254,330

Office machine operators, except computer

2900.820.3842,380

Proofreaders and copy markers

500.628.2658,770

Office and administrative support workers, all other

2,7501.224.0349,970

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_42660.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, July 25, 2024