Workers in the Salem, OR Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $30.08 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 healthcare practitioners and technical ($55.48), management ($54.53), and legal ($52.78). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($17.12), personal care and service ($19.12), and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($19.41). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Salem area included office and administrative support (13.1 percent), transportation and material moving (8.4 percent), and food preparation and serving related (8 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included life, physical, and social science (0.9 percent); architecture and engineering (0.9 percent); and legal (0.9 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. Salem had 23,840 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 13.1 percent of local area employment, compared to the 12.2-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $23.53, compared to the national wage of $23.05.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included general office clerks (3,390), secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (3,200), and customer service representatives (2,960). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were public safety telecommunicators and first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers, with mean hourly wages of $34.03 and $33.69, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($17.12) and clerical library assistants ($17.92). (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_41420.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 Salem area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, file clerks were employed at 2.3 times the national rate in Salem, and government programs eligibility interviewers, at 1.6 times the U.S. average. Billing and posting clerks had a location quotient of 1.0 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 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 Salem, OR Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,847 establishments with a response rate of 64 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 2023

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages ($)
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	23,840	1.1	23.53	48,940
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	1,450	0.8	33.69	70,060
Switchboard operators, including answering service	40	0.7	23.60	49,080
Bill and account collectors	50	0.2	22.22	46,210
Billing and posting clerks	500	1.0	24.40	50,740
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	2,370	1.3	24.71	51,400
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	270	1.4	27.90	58,030
Procurement clerks	80	1.1	25.09	52,180
Tellers	290	0.7	19.43	40,410
Court, municipal, and license clerks	170	0.9	26.72	55,570
Customer service representatives	2,960	0.9	21.39	44,490
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	280	1.6	23.39	48,640
File clerks	220	2.3	20.12	41,850
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	190	0.6	17.12	35,600
Interviewers, except eligibility and loan	170	0.9	22.58	46,960
Library assistants, clerical	50	0.5	17.92	37,270
Loan interviewers and clerks	90	0.4	24.12	50,160
New accounts clerks	70	1.3	22.43	46,650
Order clerks	110	1.0	21.08	43,850
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	130	1.1	23.83	49,570
Receptionists and information clerks	1,580	1.3	18.54	38,550
Information and record clerks, all other	520	2.9	19.60	40,760
Cargo and freight agents	40	0.3	25.77	53,610
Couriers and messengers	100	1.1	20.26	42,130
Public safety telecommunicators	130	1.1	34.03	70,770
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	290	1.2	23.68	49,260
Postal service clerks	80	0.9	29.65	61,670
Postal service mail carriers	340	0.9	27.41	57,020
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	170	0.4	27.25	56,680
Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks	930	0.9	21.96	45,680
Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping	60	1.0	19.73	41,030
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	880	1.5	30.92	64,310
Legal secretaries and administrative assistants	190	1.0	25.60	53,250
Medical secretaries and administrative assistants	1,180	1.3	22.83	47,480
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	3,200	1.5	23.90	49,720
Data entry keyers	190	1.0	20.27	42,160
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks	380	1.3	23.73	49,370
Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service	70	0.9	20.07	41,750
Office clerks, general	3,390	1.1	21.28	44,260
Office machine operators, except computer	50	1.5	21.42	44,550
Office and administrative support workers, all other	430	2.1	21.81	45,360
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Salem, OR Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_41420.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.