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News Release Information

24-1526-SAN
Thursday, July 25, 2024

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

Occupational Employment and Wages in Salem — May 2023

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.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Salem metropolitan area, May 2023
Major occupational group Percent of total employment Mean hourly wage ($)
United States Salem United States Salem

Total, all occupations

100.0 100.0 31.48 30.08

Management

6.9 6.4 66.23 54.53

Business and financial operations

6.6 7.8 43.55 39.68

Computer and mathematical

3.4 2.4 54.39 46.68

Architecture and engineering

1.7 0.9 47.64 44.71

Life, physical, and social science

0.9 0.9 42.24 40.04

Community and social service

1.6 2.8 28.36 29.15

Legal

0.8 0.9 64.34 52.78

Educational instruction and library

5.8 5.9 31.92 33.21

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.4 1.0 36.31 30.93

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.1 6.1 49.07 55.48

Healthcare support

4.7 5.3 18.37 21.73

Protective service

2.3 2.2 27.74 30.88

Food preparation and serving related

8.7 8.0 16.58 17.12

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.9 2.8 18.43 19.41

Personal care and service

2.0 2.7 18.48 19.12

Sales and related

8.8 7.3 25.62 22.64

Office and administrative support

12.2 13.1 23.05 23.53

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.3 2.2 19.22 17.73

Construction and extraction

4.1 5.2 29.57 29.97

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.9 3.4 28.13 28.08

Production

5.8 4.3 22.90 21.73

Transportation and material moving

9.1 8.4 22.45 21.86

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.

 

Last Modified Date: Thursday, July 25, 2024