Workers in the Kansas City, MO-KS Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $26.53 in May 2021, 5 percent below the nationwide average of $28.01, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Michael Hirniak noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were lower than their respective national averages in 17 of the 22 major occupational groups, including arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media; educational instruction and library; and computer and mathematical. Three groups had significantly higher wages than their respective national averages: construction and extraction and also production.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Kansas City area employment was more highly concentrated in 8 of the 22 occupational groups, including office and administrative support, business and financial operations, and healthcare practitioners and technical. Eleven groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including educational instruction and library, healthcare support, and management. (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. Kansas City had 142,960 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 14.1 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 13.0-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $20.48, significantly below the national wage of $20.88.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included customer service representatives (23,300); secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (18,370); and bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks (11,470). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers and executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants, with mean hourly wages of $30.78 and $27.75, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($12.66) and clerical library assistants ($14.53). (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_28140.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 Kansas City area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, new accounts clerks were employed at 4.6 times the national rate in Kansas City, and mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service at 3.0 times the U.S. average. First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers had a location quotient of 1.0 in Kansas 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 Economic Development, and the Kansas Department of Labor.

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 179,000 to 187,000 sampled establishments are contacted, one panel in May and the other in November. Responses are obtained by Internet or other electronic means, mail, email, telephone, or personal visit. The May 2021 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2021, November 2020, May 2020, November 2019, May 2019, and November 2018. The unweighted sampled employment of 82 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 62 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 67.2 percent based on establishments and 64.5 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Kansas City, MO-KS Metropolitan Statistical Area included 6,949 establishments with a response rate of 60 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 Kansas City, MO-KS Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Johnson County, KS; Leavenworth County, KS; Linn County, KS; Miami County, KS; Wyandotte County, KS; Bates County, MO; Caldwell County, MO; Cass County, MO; Clay County, MO; Clinton County, MO; Jackson County, MO; Lafayette County, MO; Platte County, MO; and Ray County, MO.

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; Telecommunications Relay Service: 7-1-1.

Table 1. Employment and wage data for office and administrative support occupations, Kansas City metropolitan area, May 2021

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	142,960	1.1	$20.48	$42,600
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	10,390	1.0	30.78	64,020
Switchboard operators, including answering service	380	1.1	15.98	33,240
Telephone operators	80	2.8	17.14	35,640
Bill and account collectors	2,050	1.3	19.42	40,380
Billing and posting clerks	2,650	0.9	20.60	42,840
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	11,470	1.1	21.31	44,330
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	960	0.9	24.49	50,940
Procurement clerks	300	0.7	21.30	44,300
Tellers	2,820	1.1	16.27	33,840
Financial clerks, all other	340	1.6	18.49	38,470
Brokerage clerks	530	1.8	24.22	50,370
Court, municipal, and license clerks	1,000	0.9	18.30	38,060
Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks	50	0.5	23.99	49,890
Customer service representatives	23,300	1.2	18.56	38,610
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	1,630	1.5	23.09	48,020
File clerks	630	1.0	17.81	37,050
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	1,560	1.0	12.66	26,330
Interviewers, except eligibility and loan	2,410	2.0	18.52	38,520
Library assistants, clerical	510	0.9	14.53	30,210
Loan interviewers and clerks	3,570	2.1	22.37	46,520
New accounts clerks	1,340	4.6	21.01	43,690
Order clerks	530	0.5	18.93	39,360
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	510	0.7	21.19	44,070
Receptionists and information clerks	6,900	1.0	15.04	31,280
Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks	200	0.3	24.43	50,810
Information and record clerks, all other	1,360	1.2	19.69	40,960
Cargo and freight agents	1,120	1.8	23.05	47,940
Couriers and messengers	430	0.9	15.06	31,330
Public safety telecommunicators	630	0.9	21.60	44,920
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	1,360	1.0	24.26	50,470
Meter readers, utilities	280	1.6	24.65	51,270
Postal service clerks	560	1.0	25.42	52,870
Postal service mail carriers	2,400	1.0	26.16	54,410
Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators	1,490	1.9	24.41	50,770
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	2,150	0.8	23.34	48,550
Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks	7,280	1.3	17.34	36,070
Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping	300	0.8	19.43	40,420
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	5,860	1.7	27.75	57,720
Legal secretaries and administrative assistants	1,140	1.0	23.76	49,410
Medical secretaries and administrative assistants	4,310	0.9	18.62	38,730
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	18,370	1.4	18.48	38,450
Data entry keyers	1,750	1.7	16.38	34,080
Word processors and typists	90	0.3	22.36	46,500
Desktop publishers	60	1.1	21.56	44,840
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks	1,830	1.2	23.28	48,420
Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service	1,480	3.0	16.39	34,090
Office clerks, general	11,450	0.6	19.17	39,880
Office machine operators, except computer	450	1.9	16.95	35,260
Proofreaders and copy markers	60	1.6	19.05	39,610
Statistical assistants	80	1.9	24.96	51,920
Office and administrative support workers, all other	400	0.4	19.47	40,490
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Kansas City, MO-KS Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_28140.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.