Workers in the Jefferson City Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $19.33 in May 2016, about 19 percent below the nationwide average of $23.86, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Assistant Commissioner for Regional Operations Stanley W. Suchman noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were significantly lower than their respective national averages in 17 of the 22 major occupational groups, including legal; management; and computer and mathematical.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 9 of the 22 occupational groups, including office and administrative support; protective service; and business and financial operations. Conversely, eight groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including sales and related; education, training, and library; and food preparation and serving related. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

One occupational group—office and administrative support—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Jefferson City had 13,600 jobs in office and administrative support occupations, accounting for 18.9 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 15.7-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $15.55, significantly below the national wage of $17.91.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included general office clerks (2,570), secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (2,500), and customer service representatives (1,400). Among the higher paying jobs were postal service mail carriers and first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers, with mean hourly wages of $23.68 and $23.02, respectively. Occupations at the lower end of the wage scale included stock clerks and order fillers ($12.02) and tellers ($12.09). (Detailed occupational data for office and administrative support are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/2016/may/oes_27620.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 Jefferson City Metropolitan Statistical Area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in several of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, court, municipal, and license clerks were employed at 4.4 times the national rate in Jefferson City, and secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive, at 2.1 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks had a location quotient of 1.0 in Jefferson City, indicating that this particular occupation’s local and national employment shares were similar.

These statistics are from the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey, a federal-state cooperative program between BLS and State Workforce Agencies, in this case, the Missouri Department of Economic Development.

Technical Note

The Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey is a semiannual mail survey measuring occupational employment and wage rates for wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments in the United States. The OES data available from BLS include cross-industry occupational employment and wage estimates for the nation; over 650 areas, including states and the District of Columbia, metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), metropolitan divisions, nonmetropolitan areas, and territories; national industry-specific estimates at the NAICS sector, 3-, 4-, and selected 5- and 6-digit industry levels, and national estimates by ownership across all industries and for schools and hospitals. OES data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm.

OES estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.2 million establishments. Each year, two semiannual panels of approximately 200,000 sampled establishments are contacted, one panel in May and the other in November. Responses are obtained by mail, Internet or other electronic means, email, telephone, or personal visit. The May 2016 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2016, November 2015, May 2015, November 2014, May 2014, and November 2013. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 73 percent based on establishments and 69 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The unweighted employment of sampled establishments across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 58 percent of total national employment. The sample in the Jefferson City Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,017 establishments with a response rate of 65 percent. For more information about OES concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_tec.htm.

The May 2016 OES estimates are based on the 2010 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system and the 2012 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). Information about the 2010 SOC is available on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/soc and information about the 2012 NAICS is available at www.bls.gov/bls/naics.htm.

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 Jefferson City, Mo. Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Callaway, Cole, Moniteau and Osage Counties.

Additional information

OES data are available on our regional web page at www.bls.gov/regions/mountain-plains. Answers to frequently asked questions about the OES data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_ques.htm. Detailed technical information about the OES survey is available in our Survey Methods and Reliability Statement on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/oes/current/methods_statement.pdf.

Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request . Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; Federal Relay Service: (800) 877-8339.

Table 1. Employment and wage data from the Occupational Employment Statistics survey, by occupation, Jefferson City Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2016

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	13,600	1.2	$15.55	$32,340
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	590	0.8	23.02	47,890
Bill and account collectors	110	0.8	15.14	31,480
Billing and posting clerks	160	0.6	16.61	34,540
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	810	1.0	15.33	31,890
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	60	0.7	19.66	40,890
Procurement clerks	50	1.4	18.28	38,030
Tellers	290	1.1	12.09	25,140
Court, municipal, and license clerks	290	4.4	14.16	29,450
Customer service representatives	1,400	1.0	15.11	31,420
File clerks	110	1.7	(5)	(5)
Interviewers, except eligibility and loan	(5)	(5)	12.46	25,920
Library assistants, clerical	(5)	(5)	10.72	22,290
Loan interviewers and clerks	230	2.0	14.87	30,940
New accounts clerks	70	3.3	13.80	28,700
Order clerks	40	0.5	16.12	33,530
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	140	2.0	17.78	36,990
Receptionists and information clerks	380	0.8	12.49	25,990
Information and record clerks, all other	(5)	(5)	16.11	33,510
Couriers and messengers	60	1.5	12.22	25,420
Police, fire, and ambulance dispatchers	110	2.2	15.40	32,030
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	50	0.5	20.89	43,450
Postal service clerks	50	1.2	21.75	45,250
Postal service mail carriers	160	1.0	23.68	49,250
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	90	0.5	22.70	47,210
Shipping, receiving, and traffic clerks	250	0.7	(5)	(5)
Stock clerks and order fillers	780	0.8	12.02	25,010
Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping	(5)	(5)	12.82	26,670
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	550	1.7	21.42	44,560
Legal secretaries	130	1.3	19.80	41,180
Medical secretaries	200	0.7	16.10	33,490
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	2,500	2.1	15.41	32,050
Computer operators	60	2.7	11.41	23,740
Data entry keyers	70	0.7	13.71	28,510
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks	110	0.8	15.00	31,190
Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service	90	2.0	13.29	27,640
Office clerks, general	2,570	1.7	14.22	29,580
Office machine operators, except computer	(5)	(5)	15.25	31,720
Office and administrative support workers, all other	100	0.9	17.70	36,810
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Jefferson City Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_27620.htm. (2) Estimates for detailed occupations do not sum to the totals because the totals include occupations 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.