Workers in the Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $31.20 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 ($61.88), legal ($52.93), and computer and mathematical ($51.08). Lower paying occupations included building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($18.26), food preparation and serving related ($19.04), and healthcare support ($19.06). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Phoenix area included office and administrative support (13.7 percent), food preparation and serving related (9.0 percent), and sales and related (8.9 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 (1.2 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. Phoenix had 314,170 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 13.7 percent of local area employment, compared to the 12.2-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $23.25, compared to the national wage of $23.05.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included customer service representatives (77,280), general office clerks (33,460), and first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers (23,330). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants and first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers, with mean hourly wages of $33.57 and $32.15, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($16.60) and mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service ($17.13). (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_38060.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 Phoenix area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, loan interviewers and clerks were employed at 2.2 times the national rate in Phoenix, and bill and account collectors, at 2.1 times the U.S. average. First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers had a location quotient of 1.0 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 Department of Administration.

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. Full OEWS data tables are available online.

Additional information about the OEWS estimates and methodology are 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 65.8 percent based on establishments and 64.3 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ Metropolitan Statistical Area included 7,954 establishments with a response rate of 63 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 Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, 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.

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, Phoenix metropolitan area, May 2023

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages ($)
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	314,170	1.1	23.25	48,350
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	23,330	1.0	32.15	66,880
Switchboard operators, including answering service	240	0.4	19.72	41,020
Bill and account collectors	6,160	2.1	21.93	45,610
Billing and posting clerks	7,350	1.1	22.51	46,820
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	18,980	0.8	24.47	50,900
Gambling cage workers	400	2.1	21.30	44,310
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	2,840	1.2	24.48	50,920
Procurement clerks	720	0.8	24.55	51,060
Tellers	3,040	0.6	20.54	42,730
Financial clerks, all other	670	1.0	28.53	59,350
Brokerage clerks	1,060	1.5	29.00	60,310
Correspondence clerks	170	2.4	22.21	46,190
Court, municipal, and license clerks	1,770	0.7	23.25	48,360
Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks	430	2.0	30.38	63,180
Customer service representatives	77,280	1.8	21.34	44,400
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	2,770	1.2	21.25	44,190
File clerks	1,850	1.5	20.76	43,190
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	2,840	0.7	16.60	34,530
Interviewers, except eligibility and loan	2,110	0.9	19.47	40,500
Library assistants, clerical	790	0.6	18.86	39,240
Loan interviewers and clerks	6,660	2.2	23.45	48,770
New accounts clerks	50	0.1	27.50	57,200
Order clerks	1,110	0.8	23.05	47,950
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	1,320	0.9	23.33	48,530
Receptionists and information clerks	18,550	1.2	18.19	37,830
Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks	2,400	1.3	22.12	46,020
Information and record clerks, all other	3,120	1.4	24.33	50,610
Cargo and freight agents	2,900	1.8	20.97	43,610
Couriers and messengers	440	0.4	18.69	38,880
Public safety telecommunicators	1,040	0.7	27.52	57,230
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	3,980	1.3	22.68	47,180
Meter readers, utilities	320	1.1	31.23	64,950
Postal service clerks	590	0.5	29.93	62,250
Postal service mail carriers	3,670	0.7	29.24	60,810
Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators	1,670	1.0	26.64	55,420
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	8,240	1.4	27.53	57,250
Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks	14,450	1.1	20.61	42,870
Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping	330	0.4	21.09	43,860
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	5,190	0.7	33.57	69,820
Legal secretaries and administrative assistants	3,650	1.6	25.63	53,320
Medical secretaries and administrative assistants	12,980	1.2	21.29	44,280
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	22,750	0.9	22.97	47,770
Data entry keyers	2,460	1.1	19.15	39,830
Word processors and typists	60	0.1	(5)	(5)
Desktop publishers	50	0.6	26.26	54,620
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks	4,520	1.2	22.47	46,740
Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service	1,110	1.1	17.13	35,620
Office clerks, general	33,460	0.9	23.72	49,330
Office machine operators, except computer	270	0.6	18.35	38,160
Office and administrative support workers, all other	1,810	0.7	25.73	53,510
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_38060.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. (5) Estimate not released.