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News Release Information

24-928-SAN
Thursday, June 27, 2024

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

Occupational Employment and Wages in Tucson — May 2023

Workers in the Tucson, AZ Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $28.60 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 ($55.37), architecture and engineering ($49.26), and computer and mathematical ($48.20). Lower paying occupations included building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($17.36), healthcare support ($17.90), and food preparation and serving related ($17.92). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Tucson area included office and administrative support (13.2 percent), food preparation and serving related (9.8 percent), and sales and related (8.4 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.7 percent); arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (1.1 percent); and life, physical, and social science (1.4 percent). (See table A.)

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

Total, all occupations

100.0100.031.4828.60

Management

6.97.366.2355.37

Business and financial operations

6.65.643.5537.05

Computer and mathematical

3.43.254.3948.20

Architecture and engineering

1.72.447.6449.26

Life, physical, and social science

0.91.442.2435.00

Community and social service

1.62.128.3623.78

Legal

0.80.764.3447.77

Educational instruction and library

5.85.831.9229.31

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.41.136.3129.54

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.16.449.0746.55

Healthcare support

4.75.118.3717.90

Protective service

2.32.927.7428.04

Food preparation and serving related

8.79.816.5817.92

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.93.018.4317.36

Personal care and service

2.02.318.4818.54

Sales and related

8.88.425.6221.17

Office and administrative support

12.213.223.0521.42

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.30.119.2218.89

Construction and extraction

4.13.929.5725.33

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.94.628.1325.52

Production

5.82.922.9022.84

Transportation and material moving

9.17.822.4519.99

One occupational group—office and administrative support—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Tucson had 50,550 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 13.2 percent of local area employment, compared to the 12.2-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $21.42, 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 (8,820), general office clerks (7,510), and secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (4,260). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants and postal service clerks, with mean hourly wages of $29.76 and $28.92, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($15.39) and clerical library assistant ($16.21). (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_46060.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 Tucson area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, eligibility interviewers, government programs were employed at 2.1 times the national rate in Tucson. Medical secretaries and administrative assistants had a location quotient of 1.0 in Tucson, 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 Tucson, AZ Metropolitan Statistical Area included 2,702 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 Tucson, AZ Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Pima 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, Tucson metropolitan area, May 2023
Occupation (1)EmploymentMean wages ($)
Level (2)Location quotient (3)HourlyAnnual (4)

Office and administrative support occupations

50,5501.121.4244,560

First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers

3,6901.027.9358,090

Switchboard operators, including answering service

700.618.1537,740

Bill and account collectors

5801.220.5442,730

Billing and posting clerks

8700.821.1443,980

Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks

3,1900.823.4148,680

Gambling cage workers

1705.520.7143,080

Payroll and timekeeping clerks

3901.022.4246,640

Procurement clerks

1400.923.6249,130

Tellers

7200.819.0639,630

Court, municipal, and license clerks

4901.222.6047,020

Customer service representatives

8,8201.218.6938,860

Eligibility interviewers, government programs

8102.121.0243,720

File clerks

2101.018.6938,880

Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks

8601.315.3932,000

Interviewers, except eligibility and loan

3300.820.0441,680

Library assistants, clerical

3301.616.2133,710

Loan interviewers and clerks

3000.623.6649,210

Order clerks

800.421.8045,340

Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping

2300.921.3844,460

Receptionists and information clerks

3,5301.416.8835,100

Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks

1400.516.8635,080

Information and record clerks, all other

8202.121.3544,410

Cargo and freight agents

1700.619.0539,630

Couriers and messengers

700.416.4134,140

Public safety telecommunicators

2501.024.3650,670

Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance

5501.120.6242,890

Postal service clerks

1700.928.9260,160

Postal service mail carriers

9101.128.8059,900

Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators

2500.825.8053,650

Production, planning, and expediting clerks

1,3601.426.9356,020

Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks

2,0201.019.1039,730

Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants

7600.629.7661,900

Legal secretaries and administrative assistants

4901.321.0543,790

Medical secretaries and administrative assistants

1,8701.019.9141,420

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

4,2600.920.6042,840

Data entry keyers

3400.918.4838,440

Desktop publishers

(5)(5)24.8251,620

Insurance claims and policy processing clerks

(5)(5)23.0147,850

Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service

900.617.8937,220

Office clerks, general

7,5101.221.9045,540

Office machine operators, except computer

400.516.7134,760

Office and administrative support workers, all other

8802.024.9851,960

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Tucson, AZ Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_46060.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