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News Release Information

23-1981-KAN
Thursday, September 28, 2023

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

Occupational Employment and Wages in Kansas City — May 2022

Workers in the Kansas City, MO-KS Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $28.01 in May 2022, 6 percent below the nationwide average of $29.76, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Assistant Commissioner for Regional Operations Michael Hirniak noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were lower than their respective national averages in 16 of the 22 major occupational groups, including computer and mathematical; arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media; and legal. Three groups had significantly higher wages than their respective national averages, including construction and extraction as well as 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. Ten groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including management, educational instruction and library, and healthcare support. (See table A.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Kansas City metropolitan area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2022
Major occupational groupPercent of total employmentMean hourly wage ($)
United StatesKansas CityUnited StatesKansas CityPercent difference (1)

Total, all occupations

100.0100.029.7628.01*-6

Management

6.75.8*63.0857.58*-9

Business and financial operations

6.57.2*41.3937.74*-9

Computer and mathematical

3.44.0*51.9944.35*-15

Architecture and engineering

1.71.8*45.5241.87*-8

Life, physical, and social science

0.90.7*40.2136.97*-8

Community and social service

1.61.2*26.8124.22*-10

Legal

0.80.9*59.8753.44*-11

Educational instruction and library

5.75.1*30.4126.18*-14

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.41.3*36.7829.84*-19

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.16.8*46.5241.35*-11

Healthcare support

4.64.0*17.1016.57*-3

Protective service

2.32.0*25.9725.15*-3

Food preparation and serving related

8.58.515.4514.94*-3

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.92.6*17.2616.83*-2

Personal care and service

1.92.1*17.4115.78*-9

Sales and related

8.98.924.2224.822

Office and administrative support

12.613.4*21.9021.34*-3

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.30.1*18.2119.48*7

Construction and extraction

4.13.9*28.0828.89*3

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.93.926.7726.55-1

Production

5.96.021.8122.31*2

Transportation and material moving

9.29.7*21.1221.050

(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in the Kansas City, MO-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. Kansas City had 140,850 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 13.4 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 12.6-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $21.34, significantly below the national wage of $21.90.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included customer service representatives (22,550), general office clerks (11,450), and bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks (10,990). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers and statistical assistants, with mean hourly wages of $31.26 and $31.09, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were gambling cage workers ($13.85) and hotel, motel, and resort desk 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_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, cargo and freight agents were employed at 1.8 times the national rate in Kansas City, and loan interviewers and clerks, at 1.7 times the U.S. average. Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks 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.

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

The May 2022 OEWS estimates use the model-based (MB3) estimation method implemented with the May 2021 estimates release. Additional updates were made to the MB3 wage processing methodology for May 2022. For more information, see the May 2022 Survey Methods and Reliability Statement.

The May 2022 estimates are the first OEWS estimates to be produced using the 2022 NAICS, which replaces the 2017 NAICS used for the May 2017-May 2021 estimates. See North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) at BLS for details.


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 2022 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2022, November 2021, May 2021, November 2020, May 2020, and November 2019. The unweighted sampled employment of 80 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 57 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 65.4 percent based on establishments and 62.5 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Kansas City, MO-KS Metropolitan Statistical Area included 7,041 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, Leavenworth County,  Linn County, Miami County, and Wyandotte County in Kansas; Bates County, Caldwell County, Cass County, Clay County, Clinton County,  Jackson County, Lafayette County, Platte County, and Ray County in Missouri.

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 2022
Occupation (1)EmploymentMean wages ($)
Level (2)Location quotient (3)HourlyAnnual (4)

Office and administrative support occupations

140,8501.121.3444,380

First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers

10,2901.031.2665,020

Switchboard operators, including answering service

2700.817.2835,940

Telephone operators

702.318.0837,600

Bill and account collectors

1,8501.320.7443,130

Billing and posting clerks

2,7500.921.0443,770

Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks

10,9901.022.3246,430

Gambling cage workers

1101.313.8528,810

Payroll and timekeeping clerks

1,1101.025.5353,100

Procurement clerks

3500.824.0950,110

Tellers

2,8901.216.6634,650

Financial clerks, all other

1400.519.3340,210

Brokerage clerks

3401.124.6651,290

Court, municipal, and license clerks

9700.920.4342,480

Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks

400.325.2352,480

Customer service representatives

22,5501.119.3340,210

Eligibility interviewers, government programs

1,5801.523.7449,390

File clerks

4800.818.8339,170

Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks

1,5700.913.9929,100

Interviewers, except eligibility and loan

2,5502.119.2239,980

Library assistants, clerical

4400.814.6730,520

Loan interviewers and clerks

2,8901.723.3948,650

New accounts clerks

1,2203.820.6342,910

Order clerks

5800.719.6640,900

Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping

4600.621.8845,510

Receptionists and information clerks

6,5600.915.8332,930

Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks

2600.322.7647,340

Information and record clerks, all other

2,1302.019.6640,890

Cargo and freight agents

1,2101.824.5851,120

Couriers and messengers

5601.015.0631,330

Public safety telecommunicators

6501.022.7147,240

Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance

1,3400.923.9349,780

Meter readers, utilities

2501.727.8757,960

Postal service clerks

5501.026.7155,550

Postal service mail carriers

2,2201.027.6357,470

Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators

1,5501.825.5253,080

Production, planning, and expediting clerks

2,4900.923.2548,350

Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks

7,4201.218.5838,650

Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping

4901.322.4646,720

Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants

5,2501.629.7761,910

Legal secretaries and administrative assistants

1,0600.924.3250,590

Medical secretaries and administrative assistants

5,2001.119.5740,700

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

18,6501.419.2139,970

Data entry keyers

1,3001.217.1635,690

Word processors and typists

400.122.0445,850

Insurance claims and policy processing clerks

1,8201.123.5849,040

Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service

1,0502.216.8134,960

Office clerks, general

11,4500.620.4842,610

Office machine operators, except computer

3701.716.9535,250

Proofreaders and copy markers

501.419.6740,920

Statistical assistants

400.831.0964,660

Office and administrative support workers, all other

3800.321.9345,620

(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.

 

Last Modified Date: Thursday, September 28, 2023