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News Release Information

24-1019-CHI
Monday, July 15, 2024

Contacts Technical information: Media contact:
  • (312) 353-1138

Occupational Employment and Wages in Cedar Rapids — May 2023

Workers in the Cedar Rapids, IA Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $27.71 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 ($53.65), legal ($44.38), and computer and mathematical ($43.45). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($14.98), personal care and service ($15.63), and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($17.56). (See table A.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Cedar Rapids metropolitan area, May 2023
Major occupational groupPercent of total employmentMean hourly wage ($)
United StatesCedar RapidsUnited StatesCedar Rapids

Total, all occupations

100.0100.031.4827.71

Management

6.96.466.2353.65

Business and financial operations

6.65.843.5537.06

Computer and mathematical

3.43.454.3943.45

Architecture and engineering

1.71.747.6441.99

Life, physical, and social science

0.90.842.2436.34

Community and social service

1.61.628.3625.55

Legal

0.80.564.3444.38

Educational instruction and library

5.86.331.9225.43

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.41.536.3128.75

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.15.249.0743.15

Healthcare support

4.73.718.3719.09

Protective service

2.31.727.7425.91

Food preparation and serving related

8.78.116.5814.98

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.92.418.4317.56

Personal care and service

2.01.818.4815.63

Sales and related

8.88.225.6223.20

Office and administrative support

12.211.823.0522.05

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.30.119.2223.01

Construction and extraction

4.14.829.5729.00

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.94.328.1328.23

Production

5.89.722.9023.02

Transportation and material moving

9.110.222.4522.54

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Cedar Rapids area included office and administrative support (11.8 percent), transportation and material moving (10.2 percent), and production (9.7 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.5 percent); life, physical, and social science (0.8 percent); and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (1.5 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. Cedar Rapids had 16,490 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 11.8 percent of local area employment, compared to the 12.2-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $22.05, 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 (3,480), office clerks, general (2,240), and bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks (1,400). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers and production, planning, and expediting clerks, with mean hourly wages of $31.17 and $29.89, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were library assistants, clerical ($13.15) and hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($13.91). (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_16300.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 Cedar Rapids area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, tellers were employed at 1.5 times the national rate in Cedar Rapids, and insurance claims and policy processing clerks, at 1.4 times the U.S. average. Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks had a location quotient of 1.0 in Cedar Rapids, 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 Cedar Rapids, IA Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,755 establishments with a response rate of 69 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 Cedar Rapids, IA Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Benton County, Jones County, and Linn 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, Cedar Rapids metropolitan area, May 2023
Occupation (1)EmploymentMean wages ($)
Level (2)Location quotient (3)HourlyAnnual (4)

Office and administrative support occupations

16,4901.022.0545,850

First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers

1,0100.731.1764,830

Switchboard operators, including answering service

501.415.8132,880

Bill and account collectors

600.320.7343,110

Billing and posting clerks

2800.721.3944,500

Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks

1,4001.023.5949,070

Payroll and timekeeping clerks

700.525.6953,440

Procurement clerks

400.822.4346,660

Tellers

4601.517.8037,020

Court, municipal, and license clerks

1300.924.5951,140

Customer service representatives

3,4801.321.0643,790

Eligibility interviewers, government programs

800.626.2654,630

File clerks

1201.618.7038,890

Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks

2200.913.9128,940

Interviewers, except eligibility and loan

1200.818.0137,450

Library assistants, clerical

500.713.1527,340

Loan interviewers and clerks

2401.323.3448,540

New accounts clerks

1102.820.4242,480

Order clerks

600.721.1443,970

Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping

600.721.6344,980

Receptionists and information clerks

4900.516.4634,240

Information and record clerks, all other

300.222.1446,040

Cargo and freight agents

1101.124.8351,640

Couriers and messengers

1001.516.5834,490

Public safety telecommunicators

800.924.2350,400

Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance

1700.929.3861,110

Postal service clerks

801.228.7659,830

Postal service mail carriers

3301.128.4259,110

Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators

1401.326.7255,570

Production, planning, and expediting clerks

3701.029.8962,160

Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks

7901.021.4244,550

Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping

400.819.6440,860

Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants

3500.828.9960,290

Legal secretaries and administrative assistants

800.622.5246,830

Medical secretaries and administrative assistants

8701.318.7338,960

Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive

1,3900.820.6142,860

Data entry keyers

1200.918.2037,860

Word processors and typists

401.121.1443,970

Insurance claims and policy processing clerks

3101.421.6144,950

Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service

601.017.8337,090

Office clerks, general

2,2401.020.4342,500

Office machine operators, except computer

501.815.6932,640

Office and administrative support workers, all other

1100.719.5240,610

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Cedar Rapids, IA Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_16300.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.

 

Last Modified Date: Monday, July 15, 2024