Workers in the Sierra Vista-Douglas, AZ Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $29.46 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 legal ($52.83), management ($51.99), and computer and mathematical ($48.94). Lower paying occupations included building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($16.78), personal care and service ($17.03), and food preparation and serving related ($17.43). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Sierra Vista area included office and administrative support (11.6 percent), sales and related (9.1 percent), and food preparation and serving related (8.8 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.4 percent); arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (1.1 percent); and life, physical, and social science (1.3 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. Sierra Vista had 3,950 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 11.6 percent of local area employment, compared to the 11.8-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $21.19, 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 (580), customer service representatives (530), and secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (390). Among the higher paying jobs in this group were production, planning, and expediting clerks ($30.21) and postal service clerks ($29.27). At the lower end of the wage scale were clerical library assistants ($15.35) and hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($15.51). (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/0043420.)

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 Sierra Vista area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks were employed at 1.98 times the national rate in Sierra Vista, and postal service mail carriers, at 1.60 times the U.S. average. Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive had a location quotient of 1.01 in Sierra Vista, 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 Arizona Office of Economic Opportunity.

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 Sierra Vista-Douglas, AZ Metropolitan Statistical Area included 647 establishments with a response rate of 63 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 Sierra Vista-Douglas, AZ Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Cochise 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, Sierra Vista metropolitan area, May 2024

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages ($)
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	3,950	0.98	21.19	44,070
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	280	0.84	27.30	56,790
Billing and posting clerks	110	1.17	20.72	43,100
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	230	0.71	22.65	47,110
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	40	1.26	23.34	48,550
Tellers	70	0.93	18.89	39,280
Court, municipal, and license clerks	80	2.11	20.41	42,450
Customer service representatives	530	0.88	18.93	39,380
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	40	1.04	20.66	42,970
File clerks	30	1.73	19.65	40,880
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	110	1.98	15.51	32,250
Interviewers, except eligibility and loan	80	2.26	17.45	36,300
Library assistants, clerical	30	1.79	15.35	31,920
Receptionists and information clerks	240	1.14	17.15	35,680
Information and record clerks, all other	130	4.11	22.76	47,340
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	60	1.22	21.00	43,670
Postal service clerks	50	2.72	29.27	60,890
Postal service mail carriers	120	1.60	26.50	55,120
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	80	0.92	30.21	62,830
Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks	130	0.66	18.58	38,650
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	60	0.59	27.48	57,160
Legal secretaries and administrative assistants	30	0.91	20.76	43,170
Medical secretaries and administrative assistants	170	0.91	19.38	40,310
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	390	1.01	20.22	42,060
Data entry keyers	70	2.41	20.63	42,920
Office clerks, general	580	1.04	21.19	44,070
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Sierra Vista-Douglas, AZ Metropolitan Statistical Area, see https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0043420. (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.