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.)

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.