Is Administrative & Office Support a Good Job Market in Salt Lake City-Murray, UT?

Executive Verdict

Market rating: balanced | Confidence: Medium

Salt Lake City is a usable but selective market for Administrative & Office Support right now. The metro unemployment rate was 3.6% in April 2026, and office and administrative support remains one of the area's biggest occupational groups at 119,160 jobs, or 14.6% of local employment in the latest metro occupation release.[1][2] Recent opportunity is real—more than 300 postings across more than 175 companies were observed over the last 90 days—but Utah-wide Administrative & Office Support employment was essentially flat and postings were down 1.5% year over year in May 2026, which looks more like steady replacement hiring than a hiring boom.[3][4][5]

Best positioned: Candidates with recent on-site admin experience, strong customer service and data-entry habits, and examples of supporting multiple managers or coordinating office workflows have the best odds right now.[6][7][8]

Main caution: The biggest mistake is assuming these are easy remote jobs: about 90% of local postings are on-site, pay centers on about $45k to $58k, and long-run national employment for this occupation is projected to shrink 3.5%.[9][10][11]

What Changed Recently

• Utah Administrative & Office Support postings were down 1.5% year over year in May 2026, while Utah postings across all occupations were down 4.1%, so this category is softer than last year but holding up better than the broader state market.[5]: Expect openings to exist, but employers can be pickier because this looks like a replacement market, not an expansion wave.
• National job openings rose to 7.618 million and the openings rate reached 4.6% in April 2026, but the hires rate was 3.2% and down 5.8824% year over year.[12][13][14]: For local applicants, that usually means more visible requisitions than fast offers; interview cycles can stretch even when jobs are posted.
• Salt Lake metro unemployment was 3.6% in April 2026, below the national 4.3% rate.[1][15]: The local market is still relatively tight, so employers who truly need reliable front-desk and coordinator support are still hiring, especially for on-site roles.
• The University of Utah disclosed layoffs published on May 31, 2026 affecting 32 employees, and its athletics department began a separate layoff process published on May 29 with changes effective June 30, 2026.[16][17]: If you target education or public institutions, check the hiring department's budget and not just the umbrella employer name.

What This Means for You

Entry-Level Candidates

Difficulty: Moderate to high. Most local postings skew entry-level, but that also means you compete with a large pool for roles that often ask for customer service, communication, and on-site availability.[25][6][9]

Best target: Front desk, receptionist, general office, and admin coordinator jobs in healthcare, hospitality, and education where employers value reliability and customer handling more than a degree.[26][23][6]

Biggest mistake: Applying as if the job is purely clerical; local employers often want customer-facing work, time management, and data entry, not just generic office familiarity.[6]

Next step: Rewrite your resume around phone coverage, scheduling, data-entry accuracy, and service metrics, then prioritize recent on-site openings because the typical live posting stays up around 32 days.[6][27]

Mid-Career Candidates

Difficulty: Moderate. The best openings are fewer, but candidates who can support multiple leaders, coordinate workflows, and take on project-style work stand out.[7][8][20]

Best target: Executive-support, office manager, program support, and coordinator roles inside universities, hospitals, financial services, and government offices.[8][7][28]

Biggest mistake: Presenting yourself as a task taker instead of a problem solver who can run calendars, track data, and unblock teams.

Next step: Build a portfolio-style resume with quantified examples of multi-manager support, meeting logistics, vendor coordination, reporting, or process cleanup.

Career Switchers

Difficulty: Moderate if you already have retail, hospitality, banking, or dispatch-style customer contact; harder if you are targeting remote-only office work.[26][9][18]

Best target: Customer-facing admin roles that blend reception, scheduling, order support, and record upkeep, especially in healthcare and hospitality.[26][6]

Biggest mistake: Switching without translating service work into office language such as appointment volume, response time, data accuracy, and conflict resolution.

Next step: Take a short spreadsheet or CRM refresher, then recast your past work into admin verbs: schedule, coordinate, document, follow up, and update records.[19]

Salary Reality

moderate pay broad access

The cleanest observed local benchmark is BLS: office and administrative support averaged $23.53 per hour in Salt Lake City-Murray in May 2024.[2] Newer proxy signals are close but not identical: local posted ranges center on about $45k to $58k a year or about $18 to $24 an hour, and Revelio Public Labor Statistics puts Utah's mean offered salary on new openings at about $47,990 in May 2026 (n=793).[10][36][37]

This is a middle-income path, not a premium one. Local office-support pay sits well below the metro average across all occupations at $33.38 an hour, and Salt Lake's cost-of-living index was 109.5, or 9.5% above the national baseline.[2][38]

The tradeoff is access versus upside: many roles only ask for a high school diploma or equivalent, but most are on-site and salary ceilings are modest unless the role expands into office management, executive support, or project coordination.[23][9]

Best-paying path: The strongest pay tends to sit in specialized subroles rather than generic administrative assistant work. National guides place office managers around $55,000 to $78,000 with a median around $66,000, and higher-level personal assistant roles around $45,000 to $65,000, but those are narrower tracks than the overall admin market.[35][39]

Caution: Do not overread the top of the range: those figures come from specific subroles and national guides, while the broader Utah mean offered salary for new openings is about $47,990 and the metro-wide local average was $23.53 an hour in the latest government wage release.[37][2]

Where the Opportunities Are Concentrated

Local opportunity is spread across a long tail rather than a single dominant employer. Over the last 90 days, more than 300 postings were observed across more than 175 companies, and hiring in the sample was fragmented rather than concentrated.[3][29] The busiest industry pockets were healthcare and hospitality at about 25% each, followed by food and beverage at about 15%, retail at about 10%, and education at about 10%.[26] That mix matters because it favors candidates comfortable with phones, walk-in traffic, scheduling, and high-volume customer contact more than pure back-office clerical work. The most consistently active named employers in the sample were Domino's Pizza, University of Utah, and R1 RCM Inc., while city and federal postings also show a municipal and government lane for general administrative support.[30][28][8] In practice, the easiest route is not any admin job but sector-specific admin support: front office and scheduling in healthcare or hospitality, program support in government or education, and coordinator roles that support several managers at once.[7][8][26]

• Healthcare and healthcare-adjacent front office (high): About 25% of sampled postings came from healthcare, with visible activity from the University of Utah and R1 RCM Inc.; this is a strong lane for reception, scheduling, and general office support.[26][30]
• Hospitality, food service, and retail operations support (high): Hospitality was about 25% of the sample, food and beverage about 15%, and retail about 10%, which makes this a strong bridge for candidates coming from service-heavy environments.[26]
• Education and public-sector program support (moderate): Education was about 10% of the sample, and city plus federal postings show a smaller but real lane for program and office support roles.[26][28][8]

Where to focus: Focus first on on-site, customer-facing coordinator or front-office roles in healthcare, hospitality, and public institutions where multi-manager support and service skills transfer directly.

Skills and Credentials Worth Pursuing

• Customer service (table stakes): It was the most common named skill in local postings at about 45%, which tells you many of these jobs are really front-office or service-heavy support roles, not quiet back-office clerical work.[6]
• Communication and client-facing phone/email handling (table stakes): Communication showed up in about 25% of local postings, and local banking-related office roles also emphasize customer and client focus plus oral communication.[6][18]
• Time management and multitasking across multiple managers (differentiator): Time management appeared in about 25% of local postings, and University of Utah role descriptions note that administrative staff may support several professionals or managers at once.[6][7]
• Data entry, record upkeep, and CRM-style data management (differentiator): Data entry appears in about 10% of local postings, and broader role signals highlight maintaining account information and data management as increasingly important support work.[6][19]
• Administrative coordination and project-style support (premium): Local federal job descriptions emphasize coordinating administrative and support services, while broader support-function guidance shows experienced admins moving into more autonomous project coordination work.[8][20]
• Digital literacy and comfort with AI-enabled tools (premium): Robert Half highlights digital literacy and adaptability to new technologies as core expectations, and Indeed Hiring Lab estimates that 41% of common work skills studied have high exposure to generative-AI-driven transformation.[21][22]
• High school diploma or equivalent (table stakes): Among local postings that state an education requirement, the most common credential is high school diploma or equivalent, while bachelor's requirements are far less common.[23]

Adjacent Roles to Consider

• Project coordinator (both): Support-function guidance for 2026 explicitly describes experienced administrative professionals moving into project coordinator work as their scope broadens.[20]
• Operations coordinator (both): Operations coordinator is one of the nearby roles cited for administrative professionals whose work expands beyond clerical support into process ownership.[20]
• Program support assistant (bridge): A Salt Lake City federal posting shows program support assistant work centered on coordinating administrative and support services, making it a practical bridge for applicants who want a more structured support track.[8]
• Chief of staff-style support role (pivot): 2026 support-function guidance notes that some experienced administrative professionals move into informal chief of staff-style positions as their business scope broadens.[20]

30 / 60 / 90-Day Plan

First 30 Days

• Build two resume versions: one for front-desk and customer-facing support, and one for coordinator and multi-manager support.
• Create a one-page proof sheet with examples of scheduling volume, data-entry accuracy, records upkeep, cash handling, and conflict resolution.
• Stop spending most of your search time on remote-only listings and prioritize on-site roles first.
• Make a target list of healthcare, hospitality, education, municipal, and federal employers, then apply on employer career pages twice a week.

Days 31-60

• If interviews are light, widen your title set to include program support assistant, project coordinator, operations coordinator, scheduler, and office manager assistant.
• Add one concrete tool signal to your profile such as spreadsheet reporting, CRM updates, calendar management, or AI-assisted documentation.
• Prepare interview stories around supporting multiple managers, fixing a broken office process, and handling impatient walk-in or phone customers.
• Test temp-to-hire and contract-to-perm routes for employers that need quick on-site coverage.

Days 61-90

• Set a compensation floor based on commute and living costs, and do not accept a marginal offer just because the title sounds more senior.
• If you are capped at general admin assistant interviews, pivot toward coordinator tracks with measurable ownership.
• If you want better pay, target office manager or executive-support lanes and build evidence of vendor control, reporting, and project ownership.
• If flexibility matters, treat hybrid as a stepping stone because fully remote supply is thin in this market.

Methodology and Confidence

This May 2026 report was generated on June 10, 2026. Latest direct national data: May 2026. Latest direct Salt Lake City-Murray, UT data: June 2026.

Confidence: Overall confidence: Medium. The local picture is supported by direct government data plus current job-posting and employer signals, but some conclusions still rely on category-level inference.

Limitations

• The best metro-wide benchmark for occupation size and wages is still the BLS Salt Lake City-Murray release for May 2024, so exact local pay and employment levels lag this May 2026 decision window.[2]
• For current direction of hiring in Administrative & Office Support, this report uses Utah statewide occupation data as a proxy because comparable metro-by-occupation monthly measures are not published here; Salt Lake City-Murray can be stronger or weaker than the state average in a given month.[4][5]
• The April 2026 Utah unemployment, employment, and labor-force changes are preliminary and may be revised, so short-term turning points should be read cautiously.[32][33][34]
• This category spans very different jobs—from receptionist and front desk work to office manager and higher-touch executive support—so average pay and competition can hide large differences by title and employer.[2][35]
• The Callings.ai job database is a partial, deduplicated sample of online postings, so leading employer names, skill patterns, and on-site versus remote mix are more reliable than exact posting counts or precise market shares for Salt Lake City-Murray.[3][30][9][6]

References

1. Federal Reserve Economic Data. Unemployment Rate in Salt Lake City, UT (MSA) · 2026-06 · fred.stlouisfed.org
2. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Occupational Employment and Wages in Salt Lake City-Murray — May 2024 · 2025-07 · bls.gov
3. Callings.ai. Callings.ai job-market aggregation · 2026-05 · callings.ai
4. Reveliolabs. Employment - Revelio Public Labor Statistics (RPLS) · 2026-05 · reveliolabs.com
5. Reveliolabs. Job Openings - Revelio Public Labor Statistics (RPLS) · 2026-05 · reveliolabs.com
6. Callings.ai. Callings.ai job-market aggregation · 2026-05 · callings.ai
7. Employment. Employment - top_employer · 2024-11 · employment.utah.edu
8. Usajobs. Program Support Assistant · 2024-10 · usajobs.gov
9. Callings.ai. Callings.ai job-market aggregation · 2026-05 · callings.ai
10. Callings.ai. Callings.ai job-market aggregation · 2026-05 · callings.ai
11. Dew. U.S. Employment Projections, 2023-2033 | SC Department of Employment and Workforce · 2024-12 · dew.sc.gov
12. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bureau of Labor Statistics Data · 2026-04 · data.bls.gov
13. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bureau of Labor Statistics Data · 2026-04 · data.bls.gov
14. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bureau of Labor Statistics Data · 2026-04 · data.bls.gov
15. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bureau of Labor Statistics Data · 2026-04 · data.bls.gov
16. Sltrib. The University of Utah laid off a group of employees, then rehired them. Now they will lose their jobs again. · 2026-05 · sltrib.com
17. Sltrib. University of Utah athletic department begins ‘unsettling’ layoff process as part of private equity deal · 2026-05 · sltrib.com
18. Careers. Job ID:26016518 - Relationship Banker - Multiple Locations · 2024-08 · careers.bankofamerica.com
19. Heart. Heart - top_skill · 2024-10 · heart.jobs
20. Lhh. Lhh - top_skill · 2025-09 · lhh.com
21. Robert Half. 2026 Salary Guide: Trends for Administrative and Customer Service Jobs in Canada · 2025-10 · roberthalf.com
22. Indeed Hiring Lab. AI at Work Report 2025: How GenAI is Rewiring the DNA of Jobs - Indeed Hiring Lab · 2025-09 · hiringlab.org
23. Callings.ai. Callings.ai job-market aggregation · 2026-05 · callings.ai
24. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bureau of Labor Statistics Data · 2026-05 · data.bls.gov
25. Callings.ai. Callings.ai job-market aggregation · 2026-05 · callings.ai
26. Callings.ai. Callings.ai job-market aggregation · 2026-05 · callings.ai
27. Callings.ai. Callings.ai job-market aggregation · 2026-05 · callings.ai
28. Sslc. Employment | South Salt Lake, UT · 2024-10 · sslc.gov
29. Callings.ai. Callings.ai job-market aggregation · 2026-05 · callings.ai
30. Callings.ai. Callings.ai job-market aggregation · 2026-05 · callings.ai
31. Reveliolabs. Mass-layoff Notices - Revelio Public Labor Statistics (RPLS) · 2026-04 · reveliolabs.com
32. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bureau of Labor Statistics Data · 2026-04 · data.bls.gov
33. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bureau of Labor Statistics Data · 2026-04 · data.bls.gov
34. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bureau of Labor Statistics Data · 2026-04 · data.bls.gov
35. Bluesignal. 2026 Compensation Trends and Salary Guide - Blue Signal Search · 2025-11 · bluesignal.com
36. Callings.ai. Callings.ai job-market aggregation · 2026-05 · callings.ai
37. Reveliolabs. Salaries - Revelio Public Labor Statistics (RPLS) · 2026-05 · reveliolabs.com
38. Edcutah. Research Minute: A Breakdown of Cost of Living in Utah · 2024-09 · edcutah.org
39. Lighthouse-careers. Personal Assistant Salary Guide 2026: £35k-£65k/year · 2025-01 · lighthouse-careers.com