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News Release Information

25-761-SAN
Thursday, May 15, 2025

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

Occupational Employment and Wages in Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro — May 2024

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).

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Portland metropolitan area, May 2024
Major occupational group Percent of total employment Mean hourly wage ($)
United States Portland United States Portland

Total, all occupations

100.0 100.0 32.66 36.77

Management

7.1 7.0 68.15 71.57

Business and financial operations

6.7 7.7 45.04 46.14

Computer and mathematical

3.4 3.8 56.16 59.65

Architecture and engineering

1.7 3.1 49.99 58.62

Life, physical, and social science

0.9 1.1 43.12 42.66

Community and social service

1.7 2.2 30.31 33.03

Legal

0.8 0.8 66.19 59.96

Educational instruction and library

5.8 5.3 31.69 35.26

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.4 1.7 37.04 37.91

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.2 5.6 50.59 63.81

Healthcare support

4.8 4.0 19.06 23.85

Protective service

2.4 1.8 29.33 31.71

Food preparation and serving related

8.8 8.6 17.32 20.08

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.9 2.6 19.01 21.45

Personal care and service

2.0 2.7 18.95 21.13

Sales and related

8.7 7.8 26.00 28.18

Office and administrative support

11.8 11.1 24.12 26.33

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.3 0.3 20.06 22.28

Construction and extraction

4.1 4.9 30.73 38.08

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.9 3.6 29.63 33.14

Production

5.7 5.9 24.08 26.91

Transportation and material moving

8.9 8.6 23.44 25.70

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.

Changes to the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) Data

Effective with the May 2024 OEWS news release, the OEWS program has implemented new metropolitan area definitions based on the 2020 decennial census and delineated by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Bulletin 23-01. This news release does not include data for Colorado and its areas because of quality concerns with Colorado’s Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) data. See the national OEWS news release for more information.


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.

 

Last Modified Date: Thursday, May 15, 2025