Workers in the Salem, OR Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $31.52 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 ($59.11), healthcare practitioners and technical ($58.57), and legal ($56.34). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($18.48), personal care and service ($19.17), and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($20.42). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Salem area included office and administrative support (12.0 percent), transportation and material moving (8.7 percent), and food preparation and serving related (8.2 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.9 percent); arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (1.0 percent); and life, physical, and social science (1.0 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. Salem had 22,450 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 12.0 percent of local area employment, compared to the 11.8-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $25.22, 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 (3,420), secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (3,090), and customer service representatives (2,240). Among the higher paying jobs in this group were public safety telecommunicators ($35.72) and executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants ($34.94). At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($18.15) and clerical library assistants ($18.29). (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/0041420.)

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 Salem area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants were employed at 1.69 times the national rate in Salem, and payroll and timekeeping clerks, at 1.50 times the U.S. average. Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks had a location quotient of 1.00 in Salem, 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.

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 Salem, OR Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,878 establishments with a response rate of 62 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 Salem, OR Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Marion County and Polk 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, Salem metropolitan area, May 2024

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages ($)
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	22,450	1.02	25.22	52,450
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	1,390	0.77	34.43	71,610
Switchboard operators, including answering service	30	0.69	21.73	45,200
Bill and account collectors	40	0.19	26.90	55,950
Billing and posting clerks	570	1.14	25.58	53,200
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	2,230	1.27	26.35	54,810
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	290	1.50	28.42	59,110
Procurement clerks	70	1.01	26.31	54,720
Tellers	270	0.66	20.35	42,340
Court, municipal, and license clerks	210	1.01	28.29	58,850
Customer service representatives	2,240	0.68	22.72	47,250
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	210	1.12	23.99	49,890
File clerks	160	1.63	22.31	46,410
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	180	0.57	18.15	37,740
Interviewers, except eligibility and loan	200	1.05	24.55	51,060
Library assistants, clerical	40	0.42	18.29	38,040
Loan interviewers and clerks	100	0.47	26.06	54,210
New accounts clerks	80	1.70	24.55	51,060
Order clerks	80	0.78	22.66	47,130
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	120	1.05	23.37	48,610
Receptionists and information clerks	1,300	1.12	19.29	40,130
Information and record clerks, all other	560	3.21	21.69	45,120
Cargo and freight agents	50	0.42	25.15	52,320
Couriers and messengers	60	0.70	20.19	41,980
Public safety telecommunicators	150	1.21	35.72	74,300
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	280	1.08	25.23	52,470
Postal service clerks	80	0.83	30.61	63,670
Postal service mail carriers	320	0.78	28.32	58,910
Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators	30	0.23	30.09	62,600
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	190	0.41	27.57	57,340
Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks	1,030	1.00	22.83	47,480
Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping	50	0.75	20.77	43,200
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	960	1.69	34.94	72,680
Legal secretaries and administrative assistants	210	1.14	26.59	55,310
Medical secretaries and administrative assistants	1,270	1.26	24.35	50,650
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	3,090	1.47	25.45	52,940
Data entry keyers	120	0.74	22.04	45,830
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks	180	0.67	25.63	53,310
Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service	80	1.02	21.28	44,260
Office clerks, general	3,420	1.13	23.22	48,300
Office machine operators, except computer	40	1.34	22.43	46,650
Office and administrative support workers, all other	350	1.48	24.74	51,460
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Salem, OR Metropolitan Statistical Area, see https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0041420. (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.