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News Release Information

23-1047-SAN
Thursday, June 01, 2023

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

Occupational Employment and Wages in Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale — May 2022

Workers in the Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $28.86 in May 2022, 3 percent below the nationwide average of $29.76, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Chris Rosenlund noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were lower than their respective national averages in 15 of the 22 major occupational groups, including arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media; legal; and management. Three groups had significantly higher wages than their respective national averages: food preparation and serving related, personal care and service, and healthcare support.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Phoenix area employment was more highly concentrated in 6 of the 22 occupational groups, including office and administrative support, business and financial operations, and computer and mathematical. Ten groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including production; educational instruction and library, and life, physical, and social science. (See table A.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Phoenix metropolitan area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2022
Major occupational group Percent of total employment Mean hourly wage
United States Phoenix United States Phoenix Percent difference (1)

Total, all occupations

100.0 100.0 $29.76 $28.86* -3

Management

6.7 7.1* 63.08 57.78* -8

Business and financial operations

6.5 7.3* 41.39 37.74* -9

Computer and mathematical

3.4 4.0* 51.99 47.72* -8

Architecture and engineering

1.7 1.7 45.52 44.26* -3

Life, physical, and social science

0.9 0.5* 40.21 36.66* -9

Community and social service

1.6 1.3* 26.81 25.22* -6

Legal

0.8 0.8* 59.87 52.31* -13

Educational instruction and library

5.7 4.5* 30.41 26.44* -13

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.4 1.1* 36.78 28.89* -21

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.1 6.0 46.52 45.28* -3

Healthcare support

4.6 4.3* 17.10 17.69* 3

Protective service

2.3 2.3 25.97 23.95* -8

Food preparation and serving related

8.5 8.8* 15.45 18.29* 18

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.9 2.7* 17.26 17.04* -1

Personal care and service

1.9 1.8* 17.41 18.56* 7

Sales and related

8.9 8.9 24.22 24.01 -1

Office and administrative support

12.6 14.6* 21.90 21.58* -1

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.3 0.2* 18.21 18.34 1

Construction and extraction

4.1 4.7* 28.08 25.85* -8

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.9 3.9 26.77 26.18* -2

Production

5.9 4.2* 21.81 21.92 1

Transportation and material moving

9.2 9.3 21.12 21.34 1

Footnotes:
(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in the Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ Metropolitan Statistical Area is above the national mean wage, while a negative difference reflects a lower wage.
* The mean hourly wage or percent share of employment is significantly different from the national average of all areas at the 90-percent confidence level.

One occupational group—office and administrative support—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Phoenix had 324,770 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 14.6 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 12.6-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $21.58, significantly below the national wage of $21.90.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included customer service representatives (84,730), general office clerks (31,790), and secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (24,640). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants and first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers, with mean hourly wages of $32.77 and $30.64, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($15.21) and mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service ($16.37). (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_38060.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 Phoenix area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, loan interviewers and clerks were employed at 2.4 times the national rate in Phoenix, and bill and account collectors, at 2.1 times the U.S. average. First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers had a location quotient of 1.0 in Phoenix, indicating that this particular occupation’s local and national employment shares were similar.

These statistics are from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, a federal-state cooperative program between BLS and State Workforce Agencies, in this case, the Arizona Department of Administration.

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

The May 2022 OEWS estimates use the model-based (MB3) estimation method implemented with the May 2021 estimates release. Additional updates were made to the MB3 wage processing methodology for May 2022. For more information, see the May 2022 Survey Methods and Reliability Statement.

The May 2022 estimates are the first OEWS estimates to be produced using the 2022 NAICS, which replaces the 2017 NAICS used for the May 2017-May 2021 estimates. See North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) at BLS for details.


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. OEWS data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm.

The OEWS survey is a cooperative effort between BLS and the State Workforce Agencies (SWAs). BLS funds the survey and provides the procedures and technical support, while the State Workforce Agencies collect most of the data. OEWS estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.1 million establishments. Each year, two semiannual panels of approximately 179,000 to 187,000 sampled establishments are contacted, one panel in May and the other in November. Responses are obtained by Internet or other electronic means, mail, email, telephone, or personal visit. The May 2022 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2022, November 2021, May 2021, November 2020, May 2020, and November 2019. The unweighted sampled employment of 80 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 57 percent of total national employment. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 65.4 percent based on establishments and 62.5 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ Metropolitan Statistical Area included 7,718 establishments with a response rate of 68 percent. For more information about OEWS concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_tec.htm.

A value that is statistically different from another does not necessarily mean that the difference has economic or practical significance. Statistical significance is concerned with the ability to make confident statements about a universe based on a sample. It is entirely possible that a large difference between two values is not significantly different statistically, while a small difference is, since both the size and heterogeneity of the sample affect the relative error of the data being tested.

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 Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Maricopa County and Pinal County.

For more information

Answers to frequently asked questions about the OEWS data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_ques.htm. Detailed information about the OEWS program is available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_doc.htm.

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, Phoenix metropolitan area, May 2022
Occupation (1) Employment Mean wages
Level (2) Location quotient (3) Hourly Annual (4)

Office and administrative support occupations

324,770 1.2 $21.58 $44,890

First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers

23,400 1.0 30.64 63,730

Switchboard operators, including answering service

170 0.2 (5) (5)

Bill and account collectors

6,320 2.1 20.86 43,400

Billing and posting clerks

7,610 1.2 21.63 44,980

Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks

20,260 0.9 23.11 48,070

Payroll and timekeeping clerks

2,940 1.2 23.90 49,710

Procurement clerks

870 0.9 23.60 49,090

Tellers

4,130 0.8 19.00 39,520

Financial clerks, all other

480 0.8 26.19 54,470

Brokerage clerks

490 0.8 27.77 57,760

Correspondence clerks

(5) (5) 24.56 51,070

Court, municipal, and license clerks

1,490 0.6 22.86 47,540

Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks

510 2.1 22.89 47,620

Customer service representatives

84,730 2.0 19.49 40,540

Eligibility interviewers, government programs

2,420 1.1 20.25 42,110

File clerks

1,700 1.3 19.84 41,270

Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks

2,850 0.8 15.21 31,640

Interviewers, except eligibility and loan

1,750 0.7 18.60 38,690

Library assistants, clerical

780 0.7 17.36 36,120

Loan interviewers and clerks

8,780 2.4 23.58 49,050

New accounts clerks

100 0.2 25.90 53,860

Order clerks

810 0.5 19.52 40,600

Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping

1,740 1.1 21.78 45,300

Receptionists and information clerks

19,660 1.3 17.21 35,790

Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks

2,330 1.3 20.58 42,810

Information and record clerks, all other

3,050 1.4 24.05 50,020

Cargo and freight agents

2,270 1.6 19.83 41,240

Couriers and messengers

820 0.7 18.42 38,310

Public safety telecommunicators

1,020 0.7 25.67 53,400

Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance

3,600 1.2 21.30 44,300

Meter readers, utilities

310 1.0 29.93 62,240

Postal service clerks

560 0.5 28.69 59,680

Postal service mail carriers

3,600 0.7 27.93 58,090

Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators

1,710 1.0 25.05 52,090

Production, planning, and expediting clerks

8,290 1.4 25.76 53,580

Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks

17,010 1.3 18.91 39,330

Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping

470 0.6 20.09 41,790

Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants

4,190 0.6 32.77 68,170

Legal secretaries and administrative assistants

2,590 1.1 23.69 49,280

Medical secretaries and administrative assistants

11,260 1.1 19.90 41,390

Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive

24,640 0.9 21.31 44,320

Data entry keyers

3,040 1.3 19.19 39,920

Word processors and typists

120 0.2 22.85 47,530

Insurance claims and policy processing clerks

4,270 1.3 20.39 42,400

Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service

1,360 1.3 16.37 34,050

Office clerks, general

31,790 0.8 21.73 45,200

Office machine operators, except computer

630 1.4 17.02 35,400

Office and administrative support workers, all other

1,470 0.6 23.15 48,150

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_38060.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.
(5) Estimate not released.

 

Last Modified Date: Thursday, June 01, 2023