Workers in the Topeka, KS Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $23.56 in May 2021, 16 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 21 of the 22 major occupational groups, including legal; arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media; and architecture and engineering.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Topeka area employment was more highly concentrated in 11 of the 22 occupational groups, including office and administrative support, healthcare support, and healthcare practitioners and technical. Eight groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including sales and related, management, and architecture and engineering. (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. Topeka had 15,340 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 14.4 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 13.0-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $18.48, 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 (2,500), secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (2,460), and first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers (1,190). 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 $26.25 and $25.84, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service ($12.71) and receptionists and information clerks ($13.99). (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_45820.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 Topeka area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, mail clerks and mail machine operators except postal service were employed at 6.8 times the national rate in Topeka, and government programs eligibility interviewers, at 6.2 times the U.S. average. Medical secretaries and administrative assistants had a location quotient of 1.0 in Topeka, 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 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 Topeka, KS Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,324 establishments with a response rate of 69 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 Topeka, KS Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Jackson County, Jefferson County, Osage County, Shawnee County, and Wabaunsee County.

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, Topeka metropolitan area, May 2021

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	15,340	1.1	$18.48	$38,440
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	1,190	1.1	26.25	54,610
Switchboard operators, including answering service	50	1.3	14.92	31,040
Bill and account collectors	120	0.7	16.76	34,870
Billing and posting clerks	170	0.5	19.70	40,980
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	1,100	1.0	19.05	39,620
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	160	1.4	23.29	48,430
Procurement clerks	60	1.3	18.87	39,250
Tellers	370	1.3	14.85	30,880
Court, municipal, and license clerks	90	0.8	18.71	38,930
Customer service representatives	2,500	1.2	17.05	35,460
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	710	6.2	20.72	43,090
File clerks	90	1.4	16.34	33,990
Interviewers, except eligibility and loan	460	3.6	16.68	34,690
Library assistants, clerical	100	1.7	14.36	29,870
Loan interviewers and clerks	250	1.4	20.83	43,320
New accounts clerks	80	2.7	18.64	38,760
Order clerks	40	0.4	13.78	28,670
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	130	1.7	20.34	42,300
Receptionists and information clerks	540	0.7	13.99	29,100
Information and record clerks, all other	80	0.7	21.57	44,860
Couriers and messengers	40	0.8	13.44	27,960
Public safety telecommunicators	80	1.1	16.21	33,710
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	90	0.6	20.04	41,680
Postal service clerks	80	1.3	23.55	48,980
Postal service mail carriers	280	1.1	25.84	53,760
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	210	0.8	24.52	50,990
Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks	530	0.9	16.99	35,340
Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping	30	0.8	18.02	37,470
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	1,050	3.0	22.03	45,810
Legal secretaries and administrative assistants	190	1.6	18.23	37,920
Medical secretaries and administrative assistants	490	1.0	17.14	35,640
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	2,460	1.8	16.80	34,950
Data entry keyers	150	1.3	13.80	28,700
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks	80	0.5	22.69	47,190
Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service	360	6.8	12.71	26,440
Office clerks, general	550	0.3	14.15	29,440
Office machine operators, except computer	50	2.1	15.89	33,050
Office and administrative support workers, all other	40	0.4	22.09	45,940
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Topeka, KS Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_45820.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.