Workers in the Mount Vernon-Anacortes, WA Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $34.52 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 ($73.68), healthcare practitioners and technical ($53.78), and computer and mathematical ($49.91). Lower paying occupations included building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($22.61), food preparation and serving related ($22.62), and healthcare support ($23.33). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment shares in the Mount Vernon area included office and administrative support (10.4 percent), food preparation and serving related (9.4 percent), and sales and related (9.3 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.5 percent); arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (0.8 percent); and life, physical, and social science (1.3 percent).

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Mount Vernon had 4,010 jobs in production, accounting for 7.6 percent of local area employment, compared to the 5.5-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $29.98, compared to the national wage of $24.81.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (550), welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers (430), and miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators (400). Among the higher paying jobs in this group were water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators ($40.03) and first-line supervisors of production and operating workers ($39.81). At the lower end of the wage scale were laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($18.51) and meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers ($20.31). (Detailed data for the production occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0034580/2025.)

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 Mount Vernon area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, wood sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders were employed at 6.50 times the national rate in Mount Vernon, and meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers, at 5.99 times the U.S. average. Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers had a location quotient of 0.87 in Mount Vernon, 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 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 Mount Vernon-Anacortes, WA Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Skagit 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 production occupations, Mount Vernon metropolitan area, May 2025

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages ($)
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Production occupations	4,010	1.38	29.98	62,360
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers	550	2.42	39.81	82,810
Electrical, electronic, and electromechanical assemblers, except coil winders, tapers, and finishers	40	0.53	27.79	57,790
Structural metal fabricators and fitters	50	2.80	31.57	65,660
Fiberglass laminators and fabricators	70	12.63	27.57	57,340
Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators	400	0.85	25.28	52,590
Bakers	110	1.43	21.74	45,210
Butchers and meat cutters	60	1.25	24.39	50,740
Meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers	300	5.99	20.31	42,240
Slaughterers and meat packers	50	2.00	22.06	45,890
Food batchmakers	70	1.14	21.27	44,230
Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	30	0.55	26.40	54,920
Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	40	1.61	25.03	52,060
Machinists	140	1.45	32.14	66,860
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers	430	3.03	30.46	63,350
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers	50	0.80	18.51	38,500
Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters	50	1.85	26.71	55,570
Sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood	90	6.50	25.36	52,750
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators	90	1.97	40.03	83,270
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders	50	1.62	24.83	51,640
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	180	0.87	34.85	72,490
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders	190	1.48	22.81	47,450
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders	100	1.89	28.64	59,580
Helpers--production workers	40	0.77	20.43	42,490
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Mount Vernon-Anacortes, WA Metropolitan Statistical Area, see https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0034580/2025. (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.