Occupational Employment and Wages in Olympia-Tumwater — May 2023

Workers in the Olympia-Tumwater, WA Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $33.12 in May 2023, compared to the nationwide average of $31.48, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Chris Rosenlund noted that higher paying major occupational groups included management ($61.65), healthcare practitioners and technical ($54.03), and computer and mathematical ($49.60). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($20.44), building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($20.89), and healthcare support ($21.64). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Olympia area included office and administrative support (12.8 percent), business and financial operations (10.5 percent), and sales and related (8.2 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (1.1 percent); arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (1.4 percent); and architecture and engineering (1.6 percent). (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. Olympia had 15,740 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 12.8 percent of local area employment, compared to the 12.2-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $24.80, compared to the national wage of $23.05.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included general office clerks (2,130), secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (1,970), and customer service representatives (1,760). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were public safety telecommunicators and executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants, with mean hourly wages of $36.95 and $35.98, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($17.55) and mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service ($19.10). (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_36500.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 Olympia area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, government programs eligibility interviewers were employed at 6.5 times the national rate in Olympia, and insurance claims and policy processing clerks, at 3.4 times the U.S. average. First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers had a location quotient of 1.0 in Olympia, indicating that this particular occupation's local and national employment shares were similar.

The statistics in this release are from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, a cooperative effort between BLS and the State Workforce Agencies (SWAs). BLS funds the survey and provides the procedures and technical support. State Workforce Agencies collect most of the data: in this case, 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. Full OEWS data tables are available online.

Additional information about the OEWS estimates and methodology are available in the national Technical Notes. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 65.8 percent based on establishments and 64.3 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Olympia-Tumwater, WA Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,411 establishments with a response rate of 66 percent.

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 Olympia-Tumwater, WA Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Thurston County.

For more information

Answers to frequently asked questions about the OEWS data, as well as general program documentation, are available on the OEWS website.

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, Olympia metropolitan area, May 2023

Occupation (1)	Employment	Mean wages ($)
Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	15,740	1.1	24.80	51,580
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	1,210	1.0	35.36	73,560
Bill and account collectors	150	1.0	22.94	47,710
Billing and posting clerks	370	1.1	23.79	49,480
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	1,120	0.9	25.99	54,060
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	120	0.9	30.27	62,960
Procurement clerks	80	1.7	23.06	47,970
Tellers	400	1.4	22.62	47,040
Court, municipal, and license clerks	180	1.4	27.84	57,900
Customer service representatives	1,760	0.8	21.81	45,360
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	790	6.5	23.65	49,190
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	160	0.8	17.55	36,500
Interviewers, except eligibility and loan	110	0.9	22.09	45,940
Library assistants, clerical	120	1.8	20.67	42,990
Loan interviewers and clerks	160	1.0	27.82	57,870
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	100	1.2	25.19	52,390
Receptionists and information clerks	1,080	1.3	19.29	40,120
Information and record clerks, all other	210	1.7	21.09	43,860
Public safety telecommunicators	90	1.1	36.95	76,850
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	130	0.8	26.19	54,470
Postal service clerks	40	0.7	29.26	60,870
Postal service mail carriers	240	0.9	28.24	58,740
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	170	0.5	25.94	53,940
Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks	510	0.7	21.37	44,440
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	540	1.4	35.98	74,840
Legal secretaries and administrative assistants	200	1.6	23.61	49,100
Medical secretaries and administrative assistants	270	0.5	25.24	52,510
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	1,970	1.4	24.44	50,840
Data entry keyers	160	1.3	22.67	47,150
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks	670	3.4	26.34	54,780
Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service	60	1.1	19.10	39,740
Office clerks, general	2,130	1.1	22.68	47,170
Office and administrative support workers, all other	90	0.7	21.74	45,210
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Olympia-Tumwater, WA Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_36500.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.

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