Workers in the Jefferson City, MO Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $22.52 in May 2020, about 17 percent below the nationwide average of $27.07, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Michael Hirniak noted that, after testing for statistical significance, no wages in the local area were higher than their respective national averages in 22 major occupational groups. Nineteen groups had significantly lower wages than their respective national averages, including management, legal, and computer and mathematical.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Jefferson City area employment was more highly concentrated in 7 of the 22 occupational groups, including office and administrative support, business and financial operations, and protective service. Seven groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including transportation and material moving, sales and related, and food preparation and serving related. (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. Jefferson City had 12,400 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 17.1 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 13.3-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $17.93, significantly below the national wage of $20.38.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included general office clerks (2,210), secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (1,820), and customer service representatives (1,810). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers and postal service mail carriers, with mean hourly wages of $26.38 and $26.08, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($11.21) and data entry keyers ($12.80). (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_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 area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, court, municipal, and license clerks were employed at 5.4 times the national rate in Jefferson City, and mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service, at 4.4 times the U.S. average. Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks had a location quotient of 1.1 in Jefferson City, indicating that this particular occupation’s local and national employment shares were similar.

These statistics are from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, a federal-state cooperative program between BLS and State Workforce Agencies, in this case, the Missouri Department of Higher Education and 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. OEWS data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm.

The OEWS survey is a cooperative effort between BLS and the State Workforce Agencies (SWAs). BLS funds the survey and provides the procedures and technical support, while the State Workforce Agencies collect most of the data. OEWS estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.1 million establishments. Each year, two semiannual panels of approximately 180,000 to 185,000 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 2020 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2020, November 2019, May 2019, November 2018, May 2018, and November 2017. The unweighted sample employment of 83 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 56 percent of total national employment. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 69 percent based on establishments and 66 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Jefferson City, MO Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,006 establishments with a response rate of 50 percent. For more information about OEWS concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_tec.htm.

A value that is statistically different from another does not necessarily mean that the difference has economic or practical significance. Statistical significance is concerned with the ability to make confident statements about a universe based on a sample. It is entirely possible that a large difference between two values is not significantly different statistically, while a small difference is, since both the size and heterogeneity of the sample affect the relative error of the data being tested.

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.

For more information

Answers to frequently asked questions about the OEWS data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_ques.htm. Detailed information about the OEWS program is available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_doc.htm.

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

Table 1. Employment and wage data for office and administrative support occupations, Jefferson City metropolitan area, May 2020

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	12,400	1.3	$17.93	$37,290
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	630	0.9	26.38	54,870
Bill and account collectors	(5)	(5)	19.29	40,130
Billing and posting clerks	150	0.6	17.02	35,390
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	660	0.9	18.17	37,780
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	50	0.8	20.63	42,920
Procurement clerks	40	1.2	22.64	47,090
Tellers	290	1.3	14.15	29,440
Court, municipal, and license clerks	440	5.4	(5)	(5)
Customer service representatives	1,810	1.2	16.71	34,750
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	190	2.6	16.86	35,060
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	160	1.4	11.21	23,320
Loan interviewers and clerks	290	2.7	17.19	35,760
New accounts clerks	50	2.3	17.68	36,780
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	90	1.6	19.43	40,410
Receptionists and information clerks	300	0.6	13.47	28,010
Information and record clerks, all other	40	0.6	19.93	41,450
Public safety telecommunicators	140	2.9	(5)	(5)
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	60	0.6	20.12	41,850
Meter readers, utilities	(5)	(5)	15.16	31,530
Postal service clerks	50	1.1	23.59	49,080
Postal service mail carriers	160	0.9	26.08	54,250
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	160	0.9	24.24	50,420
Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks	400	1.1	16.03	33,330
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	670	2.6	22.00	45,750
Legal secretaries and administrative assistants	110	1.3	21.31	44,330
Medical secretaries and administrative assistants	240	0.8	17.88	37,190
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	1,820	1.9	16.62	34,580
Data entry keyers	150	1.9	12.80	26,620
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks	90	0.7	17.40	36,190
Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service	180	4.4	15.79	32,850
Office clerks, general	2,210	1.5	16.72	34,790
Office and administrative support workers, all other	(5)	(5)	21.08	43,850
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Jefferson City, MO Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_27620.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.