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News Release Information

25-533-CHI
Thursday, April 24, 2025

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

Occupational Employment and Wages in Iowa City — May 2024

Workers in the Iowa City, IA Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $30.17 in May 2024, compared to the nationwide average of $32.66, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Acting Regional Commissioner Julie Wilson noted that higher paying major occupational groups included management ($53.20), computer and mathematical ($44.59), and legal ($44.41). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($15.36), personal care and service ($17.71), and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($18.52). (See table A.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Iowa City metropolitan area, May 2024
Major occupational group Percent of total employment Mean hourly wage ($)
United States Iowa City United States Iowa City

Total, all occupations

100.0 100.0 32.66 30.17

Management

7.1 6.1 68.15 53.20

Business and financial operations

6.7 5.4 45.04 36.75

Computer and mathematical

3.4 2.6 56.16 44.59

Architecture and engineering

1.7 1.1 49.99 41.73

Life, physical, and social science

0.9 2.7 43.12 34.47

Community and social service

1.7 2.0 30.31 28.66

Legal

0.8 0.4 66.19 44.41

Educational instruction and library

5.8 9.8 31.69 40.23

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.4 1.2 37.04 33.83

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.2 10.4 50.59 44.36

Healthcare support

4.8 4.7 19.06 19.31

Protective service

2.4 1.3 29.33 28.64

Food preparation and serving related

8.8 10.2 17.32 15.36

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.9 3.0 19.01 18.52

Personal care and service

2.0 2.1 18.95 17.71

Sales and related

8.7 7.6 26.00 20.50

Office and administrative support

11.8 10.8 24.12 23.55

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.3 0.1 20.06 20.35

Construction and extraction

4.1 3.4 30.73 27.61

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.9 2.9 29.63 27.73

Production

5.7 4.2 24.08 23.02

Transportation and material moving

8.9 7.8 23.44 25.94

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Iowa City area included office and administrative support (10.8 percent), healthcare practitioners and technical (10.4 percent), and food preparation and serving related (10.2 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.4 percent); architecture and engineering (1.1 percent); and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (1.2 percent).

One occupational group—healthcare practitioners and technical—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Iowa City had 9,590 jobs in healthcare practitioners and technical, accounting for 10.4 percent of local area employment, compared to the 6.2-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $44.36, compared to the national wage of $50.59.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the healthcare practitioners and technical group included registered nurses (4,050), pharmacy technicians (460), and pharmacists (410). Among the higher paying jobs in this group were family medicine physicians and dentists, general, with mean hourly wages of $123.33 and $91.42, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were psychiatric technicians ($21.04) and pharmacy technicians ($21.71). (Detailed data for the healthcare practitioners and technical occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0026980.)

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 2.00 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 many of the occupations within the healthcare practitioners and technical group. For instance, physician assistants were employed at 3.61 times the national rate in Iowa City, and medical records specialists, at 2.93 times the U.S. average. Dental hygienists had a location quotient of 1.03 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.

Changes to the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) Data

Effective with the May 2024 OEWS news release, the OEWS program has implemented new metropolitan area definitions based on the 2020 decennial census and delineated by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Bulletin 23-01. This news release does not include data for Colorado and its areas because of quality concerns with Colorado’s Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) data. See the national OEWS news release for more information.


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 530 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 is 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 65.7 percent based on establishments and 65.9 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Iowa City, IA Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,129 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 healthcare practitioners and technical occupations, Iowa City metropolitan area, May 2024
Occupation (1) Employment Mean wages ($)
Level (2) Location quotient (3) Hourly Annual (4)

Healthcare practitioners and technical occupations

9,590 1.67 44.36 92,270

Chiropractors

40 1.97 39.01 81,140

Dentists, general

40 0.63 91.42 190,150

Dietitians and nutritionists

80 1.70 33.53 69,740

Pharmacists

410 2.06 62.43 129,850

Physician assistants

340 3.61 63.57 132,230

Occupational therapists

80 0.87 41.59 86,520

Physical therapists

190 1.25 43.81 91,110

Recreational therapists

40 4.37 28.31 58,870

Respiratory therapists

150 1.90 35.63 74,110

Speech-language pathologists

80 0.77 41.14 85,570

Veterinarians

50 1.04 58.04 120,730

Registered nurses

4,050 2.06 39.54 82,240

Nurse practitioners

290 1.59 61.40 127,720

Family medicine physicians

50 0.80 123.33 256,530

General internal medicine physicians

110 2.69 42.62 88,640

Physicians, all other

310 1.62 138.05 287,140

Surgeons, all other

30 2.24 (5) (5)

Dental hygienists

140 1.03 41.01 85,300

Healthcare diagnosing or treating practitioners, all other

210 11.17 42.17 87,720

Clinical laboratory technologists and technicians

360 1.77 26.60 55,330

Diagnostic medical sonographers

90 1.69 40.79 84,850

Radiologic technologists and technicians

230 1.70 34.75 72,270

Emergency medical technicians

70 0.64 24.40 50,750

Paramedics

140 2.30 31.02 64,530

Pharmacy technicians

460 1.57 21.71 45,150

Psychiatric technicians

60 0.78 21.04 43,770

Surgical technologists

90 1.29 26.00 54,070

Veterinary technologists and technicians

40 0.51 21.78 45,300

Ophthalmic medical technicians

30 0.67 23.06 47,960

Licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses

240 0.62 29.61 61,590

Medical records specialists

330 2.93 29.52 61,410

Opticians, dispensing

50 1.15 22.85 47,520

Health technologists and technicians, all other

150 1.47 28.56 59,390

Health information technologists and medical registrars

30 1.34 38.79 80,690

Athletic trainers

40 2.40 (6) 60,510

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Iowa City, IA Metropolitan Statistical Area, see https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0026980.
(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.
(6) Wages for some occupations that do not generally work year-round, full time, are reported either as hourly wages or annual salaries depending on how they are typically paid.

 

Last Modified Date: Thursday, April 24, 2025