Workers in the Iowa City, IA Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $28.82 in May 2023, compared to the nationwide average of $31.48, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Jason Palmer noted that higher paying major occupational groups included management ($51.48), healthcare practitioners and technical ($41.87), and computer and mathematical ($41.75). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($14.73), personal care and service ($16.67), and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($17.89). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Iowa City area included office and administrative support (11.7 percent), healthcare practitioners and technical (10.3 percent), and food preparation and serving related (9.9 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.4 percent); architecture and engineering (1.0 percent); and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (1.3 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. Iowa City had 10,630 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 11.7 percent of local area employment, compared to the 12.2-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $22.09, compared to the national wage of $23.05.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included office clerks, general (1,360), customer service representatives (1,330), and medical secretaries and administrative assistants (1,290). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were production, planning, and expediting clerks and postal service mail carriers, with mean hourly wages of $28.79 and $28.71, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($14.23) and receptionists and information clerks ($15.87). (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_26980.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 Iowa City area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, medical secretaries and administrative assistants were employed at 2.9 times the national rate in Iowa City, and executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants, at 2.3 times the U.S. average. Tellers had a location quotient of 1.0 in Iowa City, 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, Iowa Workforce Development.

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 Iowa City, IA Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,141 establishments with a response rate of 64 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 Iowa City, IA Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Johnson County and Washington 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, Iowa City metropolitan area, May 2023

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages ($)
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	10,630	1.0	22.09	45,940
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	640	0.7	28.68	59,660
Billing and posting clerks	530	2.1	23.58	49,040
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	710	0.8	23.07	47,980
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	50	0.5	23.92	49,750
Procurement clerks	130	3.6	21.73	45,190
Tellers	210	1.0	17.96	37,350
Court, municipal, and license clerks	50	0.5	25.94	53,960
Customer service representatives	1,330	0.8	18.92	39,350
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	50	0.6	22.57	46,940
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	210	1.4	14.23	29,610
Library assistants, clerical	120	2.4	16.87	35,080
Loan interviewers and clerks	160	1.3	23.29	48,430
New accounts clerks	80	3.1	19.49	40,540
Receptionists and information clerks	300	0.5	15.87	33,000
Information and record clerks, all other	50	0.5	23.29	48,430
Couriers and messengers	60	1.5	17.78	36,970
Public safety telecommunicators	50	0.8	22.90	47,640
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	70	0.6	25.63	53,300
Postal service clerks	30	0.7	28.51	59,290
Postal service mail carriers	160	0.8	28.71	59,720
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	140	0.6	28.79	59,880
Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks	340	0.7	21.48	44,670
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	660	2.3	27.11	56,380
Legal secretaries and administrative assistants	40	0.4	(5)	(5)
Medical secretaries and administrative assistants	1,290	2.9	21.33	44,370
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	730	0.7	22.07	45,910
Data entry keyers	50	0.5	16.04	33,370
Word processors and typists	40	1.6	20.08	41,760
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks	(5)	(5)	23.80	49,510
Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service	50	1.2	18.26	37,980
Office clerks, general	1,360	0.9	20.71	43,080
Office and administrative support workers, all other	490	4.8	25.23	52,480
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Iowa City, IA Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_26980.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.