Workers in the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $30.93 in May 2021, about 10 percent above the nationwide average of $28.01, 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 16 of the 22 major occupational groups, including healthcare practitioners and technical, educational instruction and library, and construction and extraction. Only one group had significantly lower wages than their respective national averages: legal.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Portland area employment was more highly concentrated in 9 of the 22 occupational groups, including architecture and engineering, management, and computer and mathematical. Nine groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including healthcare support, educational instruction and library, and healthcare practitioners and technical. (See table A.)

One occupational group—architecture and engineering—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Portland had 34,370 jobs in architecture and engineering, accounting for 3.1 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 1.7-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $46.99, significantly above the national wage of $44.10.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the architecture and engineering group included computer hardware engineers (7,430), civil engineers (3,410), and industrial engineers (3,400). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were computer hardware engineers and health and safety engineers, except mining safety engineers and inspectors, with mean hourly wages of $65.77 and $54.38, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were electro-mechanical and mechatronics technologists and technicians ($23.30) and surveying and mapping technicians ($27.73). (Detailed data for the architecture and engineering occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_38900.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 Portland area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the architecture and engineering group. For instance, computer hardware engineers were employed at 12.6 times the national rate in Portland, and industrial engineering technologists and technicians, at 4.2 times the U.S. average. Surveying and mapping technicians had a location quotient of 1.0 in Portland, 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 Oregon Employment Department, and the Washington Employment Security Department.

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 2021 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2021, November 2020, May 2020, November 2019, May 2019, and November 2018. The unweighted sampled employment of 82 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 62 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 67.2 percent based on establishments and 64.5 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA Metropolitan Statistical Area included 7,159 establishments with a response rate of 73 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 Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Clackamas County, OR; Columbia County, OR; Multnomah County, OR; Washington County, OR; Yamhill County, OR; Clark County, WA; and Skamania County, WA.

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 architecture and engineering occupations, Portland metropolitan area, May 2021

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Architecture and engineering occupations	34,370	1.8	$46.99	$97,730
Architects, except landscape and naval	1,500	1.9	40.00	83,190
Landscape architects	190	1.4	36.54	75,990
Cartographers and photogrammetrists	310	3.1	37.83	78,690
Surveyors	520	1.4	32.57	67,740
Aerospace engineers	60	0.1	49.22	102,380
Bioengineers and biomedical engineers	50	0.4	40.63	84,520
Chemical engineers	170	0.9	45.82	95,300
Civil engineers	3,410	1.4	45.68	95,020
Computer hardware engineers	7,430	12.6	65.77	136,800
Electrical engineers	2,300	1.6	50.79	105,640
Electronics engineers, except computer	1,000	1.2	46.09	95,880
Environmental engineers	360	1.0	46.01	95,710
Health and safety engineers, except mining safety engineers and inspectors	100	0.5	54.38	113,120
Industrial engineers	3,400	1.5	49.74	103,470
Materials engineers	300	1.8	53.54	111,370
Mechanical engineers	2,630	1.2	47.22	98,220
Mining and geological engineers, including mining safety engineers	(5)	(5)	49.30	102,550
Engineers, all other	2,280	1.9	48.40	100,670
Architectural and civil drafters	860	1.1	29.38	61,110
Electrical and electronics drafters	270	1.7	29.15	60,640
Mechanical drafters	300	0.8	30.12	62,650
Drafters, all other	380	3.1	28.70	59,700
Civil engineering technologists and technicians	580	1.1	35.02	72,830
Electrical and electronic engineering technologists and technicians	2,070	2.6	31.91	66,370
Electro-mechanical and mechatronics technologists and technicians	70	0.8	23.30	48,460
Environmental engineering technologists and technicians	40	0.4	31.08	64,640
Industrial engineering technologists and technicians	2,080	4.2	29.03	60,380
Mechanical engineering technologists and technicians	310	1.0	30.98	64,440
Calibration technologists and technicians	60	0.9	33.63	69,950
Engineering technologists and technicians, except drafters, all other	810	1.4	32.89	68,410
Surveying and mapping technicians	450	1.0	27.73	57,680
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_38900.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.