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News Release Information

24-1022-CHI
Monday, July 15, 2024

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

Occupational Employment and Wages in Iowa City — May 2023

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.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Iowa City metropolitan area, May 2023
Major occupational groupPercent of total employmentMean hourly wage ($)
United StatesIowa CityUnited StatesIowa City

Total, all occupations

100.0100.031.4828.82

Management

6.96.366.2351.48

Business and financial operations

6.65.343.5534.77

Computer and mathematical

3.42.754.3941.75

Architecture and engineering

1.71.047.6439.90

Life, physical, and social science

0.92.942.2434.68

Community and social service

1.61.928.3626.11

Legal

0.80.464.3440.65

Educational instruction and library

5.89.831.9240.07

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.41.336.3131.64

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.110.349.0741.87

Healthcare support

4.74.518.3718.46

Protective service

2.31.327.7425.80

Food preparation and serving related

8.79.916.5814.73

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.92.918.4317.89

Personal care and service

2.02.118.4816.67

Sales and related

8.87.525.6220.43

Office and administrative support

12.211.723.0522.09

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.30.119.2219.00

Construction and extraction

4.13.329.5726.75

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.93.028.1326.57

Production

5.84.422.9022.36

Transportation and material moving

9.17.422.4521.74

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)EmploymentMean wages ($)
Level (2)Location quotient (3)HourlyAnnual (4)

Office and administrative support occupations

10,6301.022.0945,940

First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers

6400.728.6859,660

Billing and posting clerks

5302.123.5849,040

Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks

7100.823.0747,980

Payroll and timekeeping clerks

500.523.9249,750

Procurement clerks

1303.621.7345,190

Tellers

2101.017.9637,350

Court, municipal, and license clerks

500.525.9453,960

Customer service representatives

1,3300.818.9239,350

Eligibility interviewers, government programs

500.622.5746,940

Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks

2101.414.2329,610

Library assistants, clerical

1202.416.8735,080

Loan interviewers and clerks

1601.323.2948,430

New accounts clerks

803.119.4940,540

Receptionists and information clerks

3000.515.8733,000

Information and record clerks, all other

500.523.2948,430

Couriers and messengers

601.517.7836,970

Public safety telecommunicators

500.822.9047,640

Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance

700.625.6353,300

Postal service clerks

300.728.5159,290

Postal service mail carriers

1600.828.7159,720

Production, planning, and expediting clerks

1400.628.7959,880

Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks

3400.721.4844,670

Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants

6602.327.1156,380

Legal secretaries and administrative assistants

400.4(5)(5)

Medical secretaries and administrative assistants

1,2902.921.3344,370

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

7300.722.0745,910

Data entry keyers

500.516.0433,370

Word processors and typists

401.620.0841,760

Insurance claims and policy processing clerks

(5)(5)23.8049,510

Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service

501.218.2637,980

Office clerks, general

1,3600.920.7143,080

Office and administrative support workers, all other

4904.825.2352,480

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.

 

Last Modified Date: Monday, July 15, 2024