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News Release Information

24-1510-SAN
Thursday, July 25, 2024

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

Occupational Employment and Wages in Kennewick-Richland — May 2023

Workers in the Kennewick-Richland, WA Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $33.19 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 ($71.03), architecture and engineering ($56.35), and healthcare practitioners and technical ($55.16). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($20.37), building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($21.32), and healthcare support ($21.37). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Kennewick area included office and administrative support (10.5 percent), transportation and material moving (9.4 percent), and food preparation and serving related (8.9 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.5 percent); arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (0.9 percent); and community and social service (1.4 percent). (See table A.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Kennewick metropolitan area, May 2023
Major occupational group Percent of total employment Mean hourly wage ($)
United States Kennewick United States Kennewick

Total, all occupations

100.0 100.0 31.48 33.19

Management

6.9 4.3 66.23 71.03

Business and financial operations

6.6 5.5 43.55 45.11

Computer and mathematical

3.4 2.1 54.39 55.01

Architecture and engineering

1.7 3.1 47.64 56.35

Life, physical, and social science

0.9 2.7 42.24 51.06

Community and social service

1.6 1.4 28.36 31.01

Legal

0.8 0.5 64.34 50.62

Educational instruction and library

5.8 6.5 31.92 33.20

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.4 0.9 36.31 33.82

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.1 5.5 49.07 55.16

Healthcare support

4.7 5.4 18.37 21.37

Protective service

2.3 2.1 27.74 36.18

Food preparation and serving related

8.7 8.9 16.58 20.37

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.9 3.1 18.43 21.32

Personal care and service

2.0 1.5 18.48 23.29

Sales and related

8.8 8.5 25.62 24.15

Office and administrative support

12.2 10.5 23.05 25.12

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.3 1.8 19.22 18.70

Construction and extraction

4.1 7.0 29.57 37.17

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.9 4.6 28.13 31.69

Production

5.8 5.0 22.90 26.56

Transportation and material moving

9.1 9.4 22.45 22.69

One occupational group—office and administrative support—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Kennewick had 13,070 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 10.5 percent of local area employment, compared to the 12.2-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $25.12, compared to the national wage of $23.05.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included general office clerks (1,870), customer service representatives (1,460), and secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (1,430). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers and procurement clerks, with mean hourly wages of $36.66 and $35.40, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($17.38) and couriers and messengers ($18.18). (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_28420.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 Kennewick area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, tellers were employed at 1.7 times the national rate in Kennewick. Loan interviewers and clerks had a location quotient of 1.0 in Kennewick, 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. OEWS data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm.

The OEWS survey is a cooperative effort between BLS and the State Workforce Agencies (SWAs). BLS funds the survey and provides the procedures and technical support, while the State Workforce Agencies collect most of the data. OEWS estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.1 million establishments. Each year, two semiannual panels of approximately 179,000 to 187,000 sampled establishments are contacted, one panel in May and the other in November. Responses are obtained by Internet or other electronic means, mail, email, telephone, or personal visit. The May 2022 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2022, November 2021, May 2021, November 2020, May 2020, and November 2019. The unweighted sampled employment of 80 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 57 percent of total national employment. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 65.4 percent based on establishments and 62.5 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Kennewick-Richland, WA Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,303 establishments with a response rate of 73 percent. For more information about OEWS concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_tec.htm.

A value that is statistically different from another does not necessarily mean that the difference has economic or practical significance. Statistical significance is concerned with the ability to make confident statements about a universe based on a sample. It is entirely possible that a large difference between two values is not significantly different statistically, while a small difference is, since both the size and heterogeneity of the sample affect the relative error of the data being tested.

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 Kennewick-Richland, WA Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Benton County and Franklin County.

For more information

Answers to frequently asked questions about the OEWS data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_ques.htm. Detailed information about the OEWS program is available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_doc.htm.

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, Kennewick metropolitan area, May 2023
Occupation (1) Employment Mean wages ($)
Level (2) Location quotient (3) Hourly Annual (4)

Office and administrative support occupations

13,070 0.9 25.12 52,260

First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers

1,050 0.9 36.66 76,260

Bill and account collectors

120 0.8 22.10 45,960

Billing and posting clerks

380 1.1 23.93 49,780

Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks

1,120 0.9 25.51 53,060

Payroll and timekeeping clerks

100 0.8 27.94 58,120

Procurement clerks

90 1.7 35.40 73,640

Tellers

480 1.7 21.72 45,170

Court, municipal, and license clerks

110 0.9 28.00 58,240

Customer service representatives

1,460 0.6 22.07 45,910

Eligibility interviewers, government programs

120 1.0 27.19 56,540

Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks

230 1.1 17.38 36,160

Library assistants, clerical

160 2.3 21.13 43,940

Loan interviewers and clerks

170 1.0 25.48 53,000

New accounts clerks

50 1.5 22.60 47,010

Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping

120 1.4 25.24 52,490

Receptionists and information clerks

1,040 1.3 19.43 40,420

Information and record clerks, all other

110 0.9 21.40 44,510

Couriers and messengers

50 0.8 18.18 37,810

Public safety telecommunicators

100 1.3 35.19 73,200

Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance

180 1.1 27.25 56,680

Postal service clerks

40 0.6 27.36 56,910

Postal service mail carriers

270 1.0 26.90 55,950

Production, planning, and expediting clerks

380 1.2 32.47 67,530

Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks

550 0.8 21.46 44,640

Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants

370 0.9 33.56 69,810

Legal secretaries and administrative assistants

130 1.0 26.17 54,440

Medical secretaries and administrative assistants

300 0.5 24.55 51,070

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

1,430 1.0 24.44 50,840

Data entry keyers

60 0.4 22.13 46,030

Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service

30 0.6 19.10 39,730

Office clerks, general

1,870 0.9 23.85 49,620

Office and administrative support workers, all other

110 0.8 22.79 47,400

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Kennewick-Richland, WA Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_28420.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.

 

Last Modified Date: Thursday, July 25, 2024