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News Release Information

17-794-KAN
Friday, June 30, 2017

Contacts Technical information: Media contact:
  • (816) 285-7000

Occupational Employment and Wages in Salt Lake City — May 2016

Workers in the Salt Lake City Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $23.49 in May 2016, similar to the nationwide average of $23.86, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Assistant Commissioner for Regional Operations Stanley W. Suchman noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were lower than their respective national averages in 12 of the 22 major occupational groups, including legal; management; and life, physical, and social science. Two groups had significantly higher wages than their respective national averages: sales and related; and installation, maintenance, and repair.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 8 of the 22 occupational groups, including office and administrative support; management; and computer and mathematical. Conversely, 11 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including food preparation and serving related; education, training, and library; and healthcare support. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Salt Lake City Metropolitan Statistical Area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2016
Major occupational groupPercent of total employmentMean hourly wage
United StatesSalt Lake CityUnited StatesSalt Lake CityPercent difference (1)

Total, all occupations

100.0100.0$23.86$23.49-2

Management

5.16.5*56.7448.92*-14

Business and financial operations

5.25.9*36.0932.06*-11

Computer and mathematical

3.03.9*42.2538.23*-10

Architecture and engineering

1.82.0*40.5336.82*-9

Life, physical, and social science

0.80.935.0630.79*-12

Community and social service

1.41.1*22.6922.33-2

Legal

0.80.9*50.9541.57*-18

Education, training, and library

6.24.9*26.2126.541

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.41.7*28.0724.10*-14

Healthcare practitioners and technical

5.95.2*38.0637.940

Healthcare support

2.92.1*14.6514.29*-2

Protective service

2.41.7*22.0319.39*-12

Food preparation and serving related

9.27.1*11.4711.26-2

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

3.22.8*13.4711.84*-12

Personal care and service

3.22.5*12.7412.43-2

Sales and related

10.410.319.5020.76*6

Office and administrative support

15.719.5*17.9117.00*-5

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.30.1*13.3713.884

Construction and extraction

4.04.6*23.5121.21*-10

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.93.722.4522.98*2

Production

6.56.0*17.8817.54-2

Transportation and material moving

6.96.6*17.3417.883

Footnotes:
(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in the Salt Lake City Metropolitan Statistical Area is above the national mean wage, while a negative difference reflects a lower wage.
* The percent share of employment or mean hourly wage for this area 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. Salt Lake City had 132,680 jobs in office and administrative support occupations, accounting for 19.5 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 15.7-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $17.00, significantly below the national wage of $17.91.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included customer service representatives (26,260), general office clerks (13,410), and secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (13,150). Among the higher paying jobs were first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers and brokerage clerks, with mean hourly wages of $26.70 and $25.77, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($10.28) and couriers and messengers ($12.92). (Detailed occupational data for office and administrative support are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/2016/may/oes_41620.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 Salt Lake City Metropolitan Statistical Area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in several of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, bill and account collectors were employed at 2.8 times the national rate in Salt Lake City, and data entry keyers at 2.9 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, receptionists and information clerks had a location quotient of 1.0 in Salt Lake City, indicating that this particular occupation’s local and national employment shares were similar.

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

Note

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.


Technical Note

The Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey is a semiannual mail survey measuring occupational employment and wage rates for wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments in the United States. The OES data available from BLS include cross-industry occupational employment and wage estimates for the nation; over 650 areas, including states and the District of Columbia, metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), metropolitan divisions, nonmetropolitan areas, and territories; national industry-specific estimates at the NAICS sector, 3-, 4-, and selected 5- and 6-digit industry levels, and national estimates by ownership across all industries and for schools and hospitals. OES data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm.

OES estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.2 million establishments. Each year, two semiannual panels of approximately 200,000 sampled establishments are contacted, one panel in May and the other in November. Responses are obtained by mail, Internet or other electronic means, email, telephone, or personal visit. The May 2016 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2016, November 2015, May 2015, November 2014, May 2014, and November 2013. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 73 percent based on establishments and 69 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The unweighted employment of sampled establishments across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 58 percent of total national employment. The sample in the Salt Lake City Metropolitan Statistical Area included 4,527 establishments with a response rate of 72 percent. For more information about OES concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_tec.htm.

The May 2016 OES estimates are based on the 2010 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system and the 2012 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). Information about the 2010 SOC is available on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/soc and information about the 2012 NAICS is available at www.bls.gov/bls/naics.htm.

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 Salt Lake City, Utah Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Salt Lake and Tooele Counties.

Additional information

OES data are available on our regional web page at www.bls.gov/regions/mountain-plains. Answers to frequently asked questions about the OES data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_ques.htm. Detailed technical information about the OES survey is available in our Survey Methods and Reliability Statement on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/oes/current/methods_statement.pdf.

Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request . Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; Federal Relay Service: (800) 877-8339.

Table 1. Employment and wage data from the Occupational Employment Statistics survey, by occupation, Salt Lake City Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2016
Occupation (1)EmploymentMean wages
Level (2)Location quotient (3)HourlyAnnual (4)

Office and administrative support occupations

132,6801.2$17.00$35,360

First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers

8,8901.326.7055,540

Switchboard operators, including answering service

3400.812.8226,660

Telephone operators

(5)(5)17.8437,110

Bill and account collectors

4,0302.815.3431,910

Billing and posting clerks

2,4501.017.3636,110

Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks

6,6400.918.5238,520

Payroll and timekeeping clerks

7401.020.8143,280

Procurement clerks

5101.519.5940,750

Tellers

2,5201.112.8526,720

Financial clerks, all other

(5)(5)20.0941,780

Brokerage clerks

4501.625.7753,600

Court, municipal, and license clerks

4100.717.1735,710

Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks

3201.818.2838,020

Customer service representatives

26,2602.016.4434,190

File clerks

7101.114.2129,550

Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks

9600.810.2821,390

Interviewers, except eligibility and loan

9401.016.1033,490

Library assistants, clerical

(5)(5)12.6726,360

Loan interviewers and clerks

2,1702.016.4934,290

New accounts clerks

1901.018.8039,110

Order clerks

9301.116.4634,250

Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping

4000.618.2637,990

Receptionists and information clerks

4,8901.013.4527,970

Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks

6,1508.715.7332,720

Information and record clerks, all other

3500.419.8841,340

Cargo and freight agents

4101.020.1941,990

Couriers and messengers

3400.912.9226,880

Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance

8600.918.7338,960

Meter readers, utilities

1701.120.3742,360

Postal service clerks

2000.523.2548,360

Postal service mail carriers

9800.624.7951,570

Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators

6001.122.7747,360

Production, planning, and expediting clerks

1,6801.121.9845,720

Shipping, receiving, and traffic clerks

4,9301.514.8430,860

Stock clerks and order fillers

8,3700.912.7026,420

Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping

4001.114.8630,910

Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants

3,3201.123.3448,550

Legal secretaries

8901.020.9843,640

Medical secretaries

1,7100.616.2133,720

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

13,1501.216.5234,360

Computer operators

2000.921.0243,720

Data entry keyers

2,7702.916.2733,850

Word processors and typists

5701.716.9835,310

Insurance claims and policy processing clerks

1,0300.819.2740,070

Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service

8602.015.0031,200

Office clerks, general

13,4100.914.5730,300

Office machine operators, except computer

2500.914.1729,470

Proofreaders and copy markers

(5)(5)20.4342,500

Statistical assistants

801.622.5446,890

Office and administrative support workers, all other

1,6901.618.2237,890

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Salt Lake City Metropolitan Statistical Area see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_41620.htm.
(2) Estimates for detailed occupations do not sum to the totals because the totals include occupations 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: Friday, June 30, 2017