Occupational Employment and Wages in Seattle Tacoma Bellevue — May 2023

Workers in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $41.60 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 ($83.87), computer and mathematical ($69.49), and healthcare practitioners and technical ($59.96). Lower paying occupations included building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($22.72), food preparation and serving related ($22.83), and healthcare support ($23.73). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Seattle area included office and administrative support (10.8 percent), business and financial operations (9.5 percent), and sales and related (9.1 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.8 percent); life, physical, and social science (1.2 percent); and community and social service (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. Seattle had 225,240 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 10.8 percent of local area employment, compared to the 12.2-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $28.32, compared to the national wage of $23.05.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included customer service representatives (33,220), general office clerks (26,990), and first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers (18,550). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers and executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants, with mean hourly wages of $40.75 and $39.48, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($19.80) and office machine operators, except computer ($20.38). (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_42660.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 Seattle area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks were employed at 2.0 times the national rate in Seattle, and production, planning, and expediting clerks, at 1.8 times the U.S. average. Payroll and timekeeping clerks had a location quotient of 1.0 in Seattle, 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 Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA Metropolitan Statistical Area included 7,221 establishments with a response rate of 70 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 Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA Metropolitan Statistical Area includes King County, Pierce County, and Snohomish 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, Seattle metropolitan area, May 2023

Occupation (1)	Employment	Mean wages ($)
Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	225,240	0.9	28.32	58,910
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	18,550	0.9	40.75	84,760
Switchboard operators, including answering service	180	0.3	22.04	45,840
Bill and account collectors	1,600	0.6	24.12	50,180
Billing and posting clerks	7,990	1.4	27.61	57,420
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	16,870	0.8	28.11	58,470
Gambling cage workers	250	1.5	21.31	44,330
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	2,140	1.0	32.56	67,720
Procurement clerks	840	1.0	23.78	49,460
Tellers	4,120	0.9	24.52	51,000
Financial clerks, all other	480	0.8	27.03	56,220
Brokerage clerks	320	0.5	28.82	59,940
Court, municipal, and license clerks	1,160	0.5	31.49	65,500
Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks	120	0.6	(5)	(5)
Customer service representatives	33,220	0.9	26.87	55,900
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	1,570	0.8	28.74	59,780
File clerks	500	0.4	22.93	47,690
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	2,380	0.7	19.80	41,180
Interviewers, except eligibility and loan	1,340	0.6	23.95	49,820
Library assistants, clerical	1,230	1.1	22.64	47,090
Loan interviewers and clerks	2,240	0.8	31.76	66,060
New accounts clerks	240	0.4	23.77	49,430
Order clerks	1,120	0.9	24.06	50,030
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	1,870	1.3	27.07	56,310
Receptionists and information clerks	14,160	1.0	21.06	43,800
Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks	3,270	2.0	24.97	51,940
Information and record clerks, all other	2,940	1.4	25.79	53,630
Cargo and freight agents	1,800	1.3	26.93	56,020
Couriers and messengers	670	0.7	22.52	46,830
Public safety telecommunicators	1,060	0.8	36.86	76,660
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	2,910	1.0	29.78	61,950
Meter readers, utilities	170	0.6	38.15	79,350
Postal service clerks	600	0.6	29.21	60,750
Postal service mail carriers	3,290	0.7	29.67	61,720
Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators	1,650	1.0	27.97	58,170
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	9,540	1.8	30.89	64,250
Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks	12,360	1.1	26.44	55,000
Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping	350	0.5	24.76	51,490
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	8,500	1.3	39.48	82,120
Legal secretaries and administrative assistants	2,530	1.2	30.71	63,870
Medical secretaries and administrative assistants	5,780	0.6	27.01	56,180
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	18,010	0.7	27.41	57,000
Data entry keyers	1,870	0.9	21.80	45,340
Word processors and typists	300	0.6	23.37	48,610
Desktop publishers	50	0.7	37.54	78,090
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks	1,660	0.5	29.93	62,260
Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service	1,030	1.1	21.87	45,490
Office clerks, general	26,990	0.8	26.12	54,330
Office machine operators, except computer	290	0.8	20.38	42,380
Proofreaders and copy markers	50	0.6	28.26	58,770
Office and administrative support workers, all other	2,750	1.2	24.03	49,970
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_42660.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.

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