Workers in the Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $33.48 in May 2025, compared to the nationwide average of $33.54, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Chris Rosenlund noted that higher paying major occupational groups included management ($65.61), legal ($56.06), and healthcare practitioners and technical ($54.80). Lower paying occupations included building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($19.59), healthcare support ($20.29), and food preparation and serving related ($20.58). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment shares in the Phoenix area included office and administrative support (12.5 percent), sales and related (9.3 percent), and transportation and material moving (8.7 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 (1.0 percent).

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 295,910 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 12.5 percent of local area employment, compared to the 11.4-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $24.97, compared to the national wage of $24.79.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included customer service representatives (68,930), general office clerks (34,540), and first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers (23,940). Among the higher paying jobs in this group were executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants ($37.20) and first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers ($33.89). At the lower end of the wage scale were office machine operators, except computer ($17.62) and hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($17.91). (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/0038060/2025.)

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 Phoenix area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, bill and account collectors were employed at 2.12 times the national rate in Phoenix, and insurance claims and policy processing clerks, at 2.07 times the U.S. average. Billing and posting clerks had a location quotient of 1.01 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 Office of Economic Opportunity.

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 is 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 66.2 percent based on establishments and 67.2 percent based on weighted sampled employment. Sample sizes and response rates by metropolitan and nonmetropolitan area are available on the Additional OEWS data sets page.

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-Chandler, 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.

If you are deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability, please dial 7-1-1 to access telecommunications relay services.

Table 1. Employment and wage data for office and administrative support occupations, Phoenix metropolitan area, May 2025

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages ($)
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	295,910	1.09	24.97	51,940
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	23,940	1.09	33.89	70,500
Switchboard operators, including answering service	230	0.44	20.30	42,220
Bill and account collectors	5,140	2.12	24.03	49,990
Billing and posting clerks	6,250	1.01	24.05	50,030
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	16,280	0.78	26.15	54,380
Gambling cage workers	540	2.46	21.09	43,870
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	2,650	1.13	25.67	53,390
Procurement clerks	910	1.06	24.29	50,530
Tellers	2,500	0.50	22.42	46,640
Financial clerks, all other	330	0.59	30.70	63,860
Brokerage clerks	840	1.54	30.80	64,060
Court, municipal, and license clerks	2,280	0.83	24.77	51,520
Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks	110	0.62	27.90	58,030
Customer service representatives	68,930	1.74	23.34	48,550
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	2,130	0.90	22.08	45,930
File clerks	1,530	1.36	22.09	45,950
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	2,960	0.74	17.91	37,240
Interviewers, except eligibility and loan	1,860	0.82	23.87	49,640
Library assistants, clerical	860	0.66	19.85	41,290
Loan interviewers and clerks	3,930	1.56	26.46	55,040
Order clerks	620	0.54	23.90	49,720
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	1,080	0.78	24.40	50,760
Receptionists and information clerks	16,850	1.21	19.63	40,820
Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks	2,490	1.37	24.76	51,500
Information and record clerks, all other	2,400	1.16	23.91	49,730
Cargo and freight agents	1,470	0.98	24.96	51,920
Couriers and messengers	610	0.58	19.49	40,530
Public safety telecommunicators	1,000	0.64	29.53	61,420
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	4,200	1.36	25.03	52,060
Meter readers, utilities	140	0.47	25.30	52,630
Postal service clerks	630	0.56	29.99	62,370
Postal service mail carriers	3,630	0.72	30.99	64,460
Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators	1,940	1.21	27.12	56,410
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	7,370	1.24	29.30	60,940
Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks	15,790	1.27	22.81	47,440
Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping	450	0.55	23.00	47,830
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	5,000	0.71	37.20	77,380
Legal secretaries and administrative assistants	1,920	0.81	30.14	62,680
Medical secretaries and administrative assistants	13,570	0.92	22.81	47,440
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	22,010	0.84	25.00	52,000
Data entry keyers	2,650	1.37	21.53	44,780
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks	6,770	2.07	24.09	50,100
Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service	600	0.71	19.31	40,170
Office clerks, general	34,540	0.92	24.31	50,560
Office machine operators, except computer	(5)	(5)	17.62	36,650
Statistical assistants	70	1.03	28.04	58,320
Office and administrative support workers, all other	3,090	1.05	23.03	47,900
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ Metropolitan Statistical Area, see https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0038060/2025. (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.