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News Release Information

22-1051-KAN
Wednesday, July 20, 2022

Contacts Technical information: Media contact:
  • (816) 285-7000

Occupational Employment and Wages in Topeka — May 2021

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.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Topeka metropolitan area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2021
Major occupational groupPercent of total employmentMean hourly wage
United StatesTopekaUnited StatesTopekaPercent difference (1)

Total, all occupations

100.0100.0$28.01$23.56*-16

Management

6.35.2*59.3146.78*-21

Business and financial operations

6.46.8*39.7231.89*-20

Computer and mathematical

3.32.9*48.0138.21*-20

Architecture and engineering

1.71.2*44.1034.03*-23

Life, physical, and social science

0.91.1*38.8130.60*-21

Community and social service

1.61.8*25.9423.01*-11

Legal

0.81.0*54.3837.99*-30

Educational instruction and library

5.85.829.8824.39*-18

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.31.1*31.7822.59*-29

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.27.2*43.8039.07*-11

Healthcare support

4.75.9*16.0213.95*-13

Protective service

2.42.6*25.6823.43*-9

Food preparation and serving related

8.07.5*14.1611.95*-16

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.93.3*16.2314.17*-13

Personal care and service

1.81.716.1714.10*-13

Sales and related

9.47.2*22.1518.95*-14

Office and administrative support

13.014.4*20.8818.48*-11

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.30.2*16.7017.183

Construction and extraction

4.24.4*26.8723.74*-12

Installation, maintenance, and repair

4.04.2*25.6624.32*-5

Production

6.05.920.7119.62*-5

Transportation and material moving

9.08.5*19.8817.47*-12

(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in the Topeka, KS Metropolitan Statistical Area is above the national mean wage, while a negative difference reflects a lower wage.
* The mean hourly wage or percent share of employment is significantly different from the national average of all areas at the 90-percent confidence level.

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.

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

With the May 2021 estimates release, the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program has implemented a new model-based (MB3) estimation method. For more information, see the May 2021 Survey Methods and Reliability Statement at www.bls.gov/oes/methods_21.pdf and the Monthly Labor Review article at www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2019/article/model-based-estimates-for-the-occupational-employment-statistics-program.htm. OEWS estimates for the years 2015-19 were recalculated using the new estimation method and are available as research estimates at www.bls.gov/oes/oes-mb3-methods.htm.

The May 2021 OEWS estimates are also the first estimates based entirely on survey data collected using the 2018 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system. To improve data quality, the OEWS program aggregates some occupations to the SOC broad occupation level or as OEWS-specific combinations of 2018 SOC detailed occupations.


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)EmploymentMean wages
Level (2)Location quotient (3)HourlyAnnual (4)

Office and administrative support occupations

15,3401.1$18.48$38,440

First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers

1,1901.126.2554,610

Switchboard operators, including answering service

501.314.9231,040

Bill and account collectors

1200.716.7634,870

Billing and posting clerks

1700.519.7040,980

Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks

1,1001.019.0539,620

Payroll and timekeeping clerks

1601.423.2948,430

Procurement clerks

601.318.8739,250

Tellers

3701.314.8530,880

Court, municipal, and license clerks

900.818.7138,930

Customer service representatives

2,5001.217.0535,460

Eligibility interviewers, government programs

7106.220.7243,090

File clerks

901.416.3433,990

Interviewers, except eligibility and loan

4603.616.6834,690

Library assistants, clerical

1001.714.3629,870

Loan interviewers and clerks

2501.420.8343,320

New accounts clerks

802.718.6438,760

Order clerks

400.413.7828,670

Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping

1301.720.3442,300

Receptionists and information clerks

5400.713.9929,100

Information and record clerks, all other

800.721.5744,860

Couriers and messengers

400.813.4427,960

Public safety telecommunicators

801.116.2133,710

Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance

900.620.0441,680

Postal service clerks

801.323.5548,980

Postal service mail carriers

2801.125.8453,760

Production, planning, and expediting clerks

2100.824.5250,990

Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks

5300.916.9935,340

Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping

300.818.0237,470

Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants

1,0503.022.0345,810

Legal secretaries and administrative assistants

1901.618.2337,920

Medical secretaries and administrative assistants

4901.017.1435,640

Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive

2,4601.816.8034,950

Data entry keyers

1501.313.8028,700

Insurance claims and policy processing clerks

800.522.6947,190

Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service

3606.812.7126,440

Office clerks, general

5500.314.1529,440

Office machine operators, except computer

502.115.8933,050

Office and administrative support workers, all other

400.422.0945,940

(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.

 

Last Modified Date: Wednesday, July 20, 2022