Workers in the Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $25.16 in May 2019, about 2 percent below the nationwide average of $25.72, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Assistant Commissioner for Regional Operations Richard Holden noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were higher than their respective national averages in 2 of the 22 major occupational groups: healthcare practitioners and technical, and food preparation and serving related. Twelve groups had significantly lower wages than their respective national averages, including life, physical, and social science; legal; and management.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Phoenix area employment was more highly concentrated in 7 of the 22 occupational groups, including office and administrative support, business and financial operations, and computer and mathematical. Conversely, eight groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including production; educational instruction and library; and life, physical, and social science. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

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 329,460 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 15.5 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 13.3-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $19.59, compared to the national wage of $19.73.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included customer service representatives (84,310), general office clerks (37,430), and secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (30,640). 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 $29.13 and $27.81, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($12.98) and switchboard operators, including answering service ($14.57). (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, bill and account collectors were employed at 2.3 times the national rate in Phoenix, and loan interviewers and clerks, at 2.2 times the U.S. average. Eligibility interviewers for government programs 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 Statistics (OES) survey, a federal-state cooperative program between BLS and State Workforce Agencies, in this case, the Arizona Department of Administration.

Technical Note

The Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey is a semiannual 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 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. OES data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm.

The OES 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. OES estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.1 million establishments. Each year, two semiannual panels of approximately 180,000 to 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 2019 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2019, November 2018, May 2018, November 2017, May 2017, and November 2016. The unweighted sample employment of 83 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 71 percent based on establishments and 68 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ Metropolitan Statistical Area included 7,286 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.

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.

The May 2019 OES estimates are the first set of OES estimates to be based in part on survey data collected using the 2018 SOC. These estimates use a hybrid of the 2010 and 2018 SOC systems. More information on the hybrid classification system is available at www.bls.gov/oes/soc_2018.htm.

The May 2019 OES estimates are based on the 2017 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). More information about the 2017 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 Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Maricopa and Pinal Counties.

For more information

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

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 for office and administrative support occupations, Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2019

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	329,460	1.2	$19.59	$40,740
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	26,920	1.3	27.81	57,850
Switchboard operators, including answering service	600	0.6	14.57	30,320
Communications equipment operators, all other	(5)	(5)	17.67	36,740
Bill and account collectors	7,680	2.3	17.44	36,260
Billing and posting clerks	7,410	1.1	19.23	40,000
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	19,010	0.9	21.00	43,670
Gambling cage workers	310	1.5	(5)	(5)
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	2,480	1.2	21.91	45,560
Procurement clerks	1,520	1.6	21.40	44,510
Tellers	5,060	0.8	16.38	34,060
Financial clerks, all other	350	0.8	22.51	46,820
Brokerage clerks	920	1.3	23.61	49,110
Correspondence clerks	100	1.1	21.39	44,490
Court, municipal, and license clerks	1,440	0.7	18.97	39,450
Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks	700	1.8	20.90	43,480
Customer service representatives	84,310	2.0	17.53	36,460
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	2,000	1.0	18.22	37,900
File clerks	1,890	1.3	16.76	34,860
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	2,740	0.7	12.98	26,990
Interviewers, except eligibility and loan	1,510	0.6	15.59	32,420
Library assistants, clerical	810	0.7	14.91	31,000
Loan interviewers and clerks	6,490	2.2	20.39	42,420
New accounts clerks	210	0.3	(5)	(5)
Order clerks	1,510	0.8	15.84	32,950
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	1,730	1.0	20.59	42,820
Receptionists and information clerks	15,620	1.0	15.17	31,560
Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks	3,800	2.1	22.66	47,130
Information and record clerks, all other	2,810	1.3	19.77	41,130
Cargo and freight agents	1,210	0.9	20.64	42,920
Couriers and messengers	790	0.7	15.14	31,490
Public safety telecommunicators	1,520	1.1	21.08	43,850
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	2,670	0.9	19.09	39,700
Meter readers, utilities	620	1.4	25.23	52,470
Postal service clerks	550	0.5	26.11	54,300
Postal service mail carriers	3,880	0.8	25.41	52,840
Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators	1,340	0.9	24.04	50,010
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	6,350	1.2	22.69	47,200
Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks	8,070	0.8	16.68	34,690
Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping	440	0.5	17.30	35,990
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	6,480	0.8	29.13	60,580
Legal secretaries and administrative assistants	2,450	1.0	26.69	55,520
Medical secretaries and administrative assistants	10,450	1.2	18.31	38,080
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	30,640	1.0	18.25	37,960
Data entry keyers	(5)	(5)	16.43	34,180
Word processors and typists	170	0.3	20.27	42,170
Desktop publishers	80	0.6	17.76	36,950
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks	6,380	1.7	21.44	44,590
Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service	690	0.6	14.66	30,500
Office clerks, general	37,430	0.9	19.31	40,170
Office machine operators, except computer	710	1.1	16.67	34,680
Proofreaders and copy markers	280	2.5	18.28	38,010
Statistical assistants	100	0.7	22.67	47,150
Office and administrative support workers, all other	2,790	1.0	20.13	41,870
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.