Workers in the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $36.77 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 ($71.57), healthcare practitioners and technical ($63.81), and legal ($59.96). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($20.08), personal care and service ($21.13), and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($21.45). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Portland area included office and administrative support (11.1 percent), transportation and material moving (8.6 percent), and food preparation and serving related (8.6 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.8 percent); life, physical, and social science (1.1 percent); and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (1.7 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. Portland had 134,230 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 11.1 percent of local area employment, compared to the 11.8-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $26.33, 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 (15,920), customer service representatives (15,140), and secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (13,660). Among the higher paying jobs in this group were public safety telecommunicators ($37.55) and executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants ($37.41). At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($18.98) and proofreaders and copy markers ($20.60). (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/0038900.)

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 Portland area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, cargo and freight agents were employed at 1.49 times the national rate in Portland. Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive had a location quotient of 1.00 in Portland, 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 Oregon Employment Department, and 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 Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA Metropolitan Statistical Area included 7,449 establishments with a response rate of 69 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 Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Clackamas County, OR; Columbia County, OR; Multnomah County, OR; Washington County, OR; Yamhill County, OR; Clark County, WA; and Skamania County, WA.

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, Portland metropolitan area, May 2024

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages ($)
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	134,230	0.94	26.33	54,770
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	8,210	0.70	36.29	75,470
Switchboard operators, including answering service	240	0.85	24.43	50,810
Bill and account collectors	640	0.49	26.87	55,890
Billing and posting clerks	4,210	1.28	25.82	53,700
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	13,020	1.14	26.60	55,320
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	1,690	1.37	29.81	62,000
Procurement clerks	350	0.74	25.06	52,120
Tellers	2,040	0.76	22.01	45,790
Financial clerks, all other	260	0.90	25.56	53,170
Brokerage clerks	230	0.74	34.36	71,460
Correspondence clerks	50	1.00	25.39	52,810
Court, municipal, and license clerks	970	0.72	29.42	61,200
Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks	190	2.06	25.29	52,600
Customer service representatives	15,140	0.71	23.78	49,460
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	1,130	0.92	27.48	57,160
File clerks	430	0.68	25.12	52,250
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	1,630	0.79	18.98	39,470
Interviewers, except eligibility and loan	1,410	1.14	26.03	54,150
Library assistants, clerical	610	0.98	22.31	46,410
Loan interviewers and clerks	1,100	0.81	27.23	56,630
New accounts clerks	340	1.14	26.12	54,320
Order clerks	660	1.00	25.03	52,060
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	740	1.01	26.11	54,310
Receptionists and information clerks	8,470	1.11	20.70	43,050
Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks	1,010	1.01	21.69	45,120
Information and record clerks, all other	3,460	3.06	24.35	50,640
Cargo and freight agents	1,150	1.49	25.48	52,990
Couriers and messengers	520	0.92	21.01	43,700
Public safety telecommunicators	460	0.58	37.55	78,090
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	2,180	1.31	27.66	57,530
Meter readers, utilities	80	0.50	31.27	65,050
Postal service clerks	420	0.68	29.91	62,210
Postal service mail carriers	2,360	0.89	28.58	59,450
Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators	960	1.09	27.61	57,420
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	2,280	0.75	29.40	61,150
Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks	7,590	1.12	23.88	49,670
Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping	220	0.55	24.15	50,240
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	4,180	1.12	37.41	77,820
Legal secretaries and administrative assistants	560	0.46	29.21	60,760
Medical secretaries and administrative assistants	8,470	1.29	26.13	54,350
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	13,660	1.00	26.92	55,990
Data entry keyers	790	0.75	22.98	47,790
Desktop publishers	30	1.10	30.76	63,970
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks	1,220	0.68	27.47	57,130
Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service	320	0.66	20.69	43,030
Office clerks, general	15,920	0.81	24.99	51,990
Office machine operators, except computer	180	0.92	20.67	42,990
Proofreaders and copy markers	30	0.74	20.60	42,840
Office and administrative support workers, all other	2,350	1.52	25.97	54,010
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA Metropolitan Statistical Area, see https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0038900. (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.