Workers in the Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $26.38 in May 2020, 3 percent below the nationwide average of $27.07, 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 higher than their respective national averages in 2 of the 22 major occupational groups: food preparation and serving related, and personal care and service. Twelve groups had significantly lower wages than their respective national averages, including legal; life, physical, and social science; and educational instruction and library.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Phoenix area employment was more highly concentrated in 5 of the 22 occupational groups, including office and administrative support, business and financial operations, and construction and extraction. 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.)

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 322,150 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 15.3 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 13.3-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $20.25, compared to the national wage of $20.38.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included customer service representatives (84,900), general office clerks (33,140), and secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (28,550). 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 $30.02 and $29.32, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($13.48) and mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service ($14.94). (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 2.4 times the national rate in Phoenix, and loan interviewers and clerks, at 2.0 times the U.S. average. Receptionists and information clerks 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 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 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 180,000 to 185,000 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 2020 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2020, November 2019, May 2019, November 2018, May 2018, and November 2017. The unweighted sample employment of 83 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 56 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 69 percent based on establishments and 66 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ Metropolitan Statistical Area included 7,306 establishments with a response rate of 74 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 and Pinal Counties.

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; Federal Relay Service: (800) 877-8339.

 Table 1. Employment and wage data for office and administrative support occupations, Phoenix metropolitan area, May 2020

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	322,150	1.2	$20.25	$42,120
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	25,030	1.2	29.32	60,980
Switchboard operators, including answering service	230	0.3	15.32	31,870
Telephone operators	40	0.6	16.14	33,560
Communications equipment operators, all other	(5)	(5)	19.49	40,550
Bill and account collectors	8,130	2.4	18.71	38,920
Billing and posting clerks	8,920	1.3	19.37	40,290
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	20,510	0.9	21.58	44,880
Gambling cage workers	440	2.8	(5)	(5)
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	2,600	1.3	22.54	46,880
Procurement clerks	1,460	1.6	22.47	46,730
Tellers	4,710	0.7	17.51	36,420
Financial clerks, all other	380	0.8	22.40	46,590
Correspondence clerks	80	0.9	22.54	46,890
Court, municipal, and license clerks	1,340	0.6	20.11	41,830
Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks	720	1.9	23.14	48,140
Customer service representatives	84,900	2.0	18.18	37,810
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	2,000	1.0	18.45	38,370
File clerks	1,650	1.2	17.35	36,090
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	2,700	0.8	13.48	28,040
Interviewers, except eligibility and loan	1,420	0.5	17.51	36,410
Library assistants, clerical	810	0.6	15.39	32,020
Loan interviewers and clerks	6,200	2.0	21.45	44,610
Order clerks	1,250	0.7	16.44	34,190
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	1,870	1.1	21.10	43,880
Receptionists and information clerks	14,490	1.0	16.05	33,380
Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks	3,120	1.9	22.27	46,330
Information and record clerks, all other	2,610	1.2	20.43	42,500
Cargo and freight agents	1,400	1.0	20.26	42,140
Couriers and messengers	620	0.6	15.33	31,880
Public safety telecommunicators	1,430	1.0	22.20	46,180
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	3,030	1.1	18.91	39,340
Meter readers, utilities	540	1.4	26.25	54,600
Postal service clerks	600	0.5	26.14	54,380
Postal service mail carriers	3,700	0.7	26.14	54,380
Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators	1,320	0.8	24.77	51,520
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	6,380	1.2	23.97	49,860
Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks	9,180	0.8	17.73	36,870
Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping	380	0.4	18.27	38,000
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	5,270	0.7	30.02	62,450
Legal secretaries and administrative assistants	2,830	1.2	25.69	53,440
Medical secretaries and administrative assistants	12,490	1.4	18.49	38,450
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	28,550	1.0	18.93	39,380
Data entry keyers	3,700	1.6	17.42	36,230
Word processors and typists	200	0.3	20.99	43,670
Desktop publishers	50	0.5	(5)	(5)
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks	5,580	1.5	21.28	44,270
Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service	760	0.6	14.94	31,080
Office clerks, general	33,140	0.8	20.25	42,130
Office machine operators, except computer	660	1.1	16.71	34,760
Proofreaders and copy markers	(5)	(5)	17.53	36,460
Statistical assistants	360	2.6	18.70	38,890
Office and administrative support workers, all other	1,380	0.5	21.29	44,270
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.