Workers in the Bremerton-Silverdale-Port Orchard, WA Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $35.47 in May 2024, compared to the nationwide average of $32.66, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Chris Rosenlund noted that higher paying major occupational groups included management ($70.55), healthcare practitioners and technical ($58.41), and computer and mathematical ($54.91). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($21.27), building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($22.12), and healthcare support ($23.73). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Bremerton area included food preparation and serving related (10.1 percent), office and administrative support (9.9 percent), and sales and related (7.9 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.5 percent); arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (1.0 percent); and life, physical, and social science (1.5 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. Bremerton had 9,220 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 9.9 percent of local area employment, compared to the 11.8-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $27.30, compared to the national wage of $24.12.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included general office clerks (1,280), secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (880), and receptionists and information clerks (820). Among the higher paying jobs in this group were production, planning, and expediting clerks ($39.15) and first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers ($38.63). At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($18.72) and receptionists and information clerks ($21.03). (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/0014740.)

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 Bremerton area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, production, planning, and expediting clerks were employed at 2.05 times the national rate in Bremerton, and tellers, at 1.55 times the U.S. average. Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks had a location quotient of 0.86 in Bremerton, 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 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 65.7 percent based on establishments and 65.9 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Bremerton-Silverdale-Port Orchard, WA Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,237 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 Bremerton-Silverdale-Port Orchard, WA Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Kitsap 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, Bremerton metropolitan area, May 2024

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages ($)
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	9,220	0.83	27.30	56,780
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	770	0.85	38.63	80,350
Bill and account collectors	50	0.50	25.19	52,390
Billing and posting clerks	340	1.36	24.48	50,920
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	760	0.86	27.96	58,150
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	50	0.57	32.48	67,550
Procurement clerks	140	3.72	29.17	60,670
Tellers	320	1.55	23.08	48,010
Court, municipal, and license clerks	140	1.36	30.98	64,440
Customer service representatives	670	0.41	22.78	47,370
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	100	1.09	29.43	61,200
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	120	0.73	18.72	38,940
Library assistants, clerical	100	2.04	22.10	45,970
Loan interviewers and clerks	90	0.84	26.82	55,780
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	120	2.18	26.26	54,610
Receptionists and information clerks	820	1.41	21.03	43,750
Information and record clerks, all other	210	2.35	27.27	56,720
Couriers and messengers	40	0.91	22.27	46,320
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	110	0.84	28.34	58,940
Postal service clerks	60	1.31	29.84	62,070
Postal service mail carriers	240	1.18	29.46	61,280
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	480	2.05	39.15	81,440
Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks	290	0.56	25.28	52,570
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	170	0.60	35.99	74,860
Legal secretaries and administrative assistants	170	1.77	26.50	55,120
Medical secretaries and administrative assistants	210	0.41	26.34	54,790
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	880	0.83	26.93	56,010
Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service	30	0.83	21.05	43,790
Office clerks, general	1,280	0.84	24.15	50,230
Office and administrative support workers, all other	150	1.28	26.58	55,290
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Bremerton-Silverdale-Port Orchard, WA Metropolitan Statistical Area, see https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0014740. (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.